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| Grantee | Centre for Marinelife Conservation and Community Development ↗ |
| Grant Amount | $150,000 |
| Duration | One Year |
Oceans 5 supports the Centre for Marinelife Conservation and Community Development (MCD), and national authorities in facilitating Coto, famously known as a home to World Heritage Halong Bay, in becoming an officially recognized marine protected area (MPA). Coto is an archipelago including 40 islands of various sizes, 60 miles away from shoreline of Quang Ninh province. Coto and Dao Tran are the two biggest islands which since 2010, have been in the list of the proposed 16 national MPAs approved by the Vietnam Prime Minister, to be fully operational by 2020.
In Vietnam, there is an urgent need to help the provinces designated with MPA to fulfil their jobs to declare and make their MPA become fully operational, meeting full conditions as required by the national legislation and in alignment with internationally accepted practices. Until recently, in 2016, Quang Ninh province made a decision to accelerate the declaration of Coto as MPA with marine part is 7900 ha out of a total of 12,000 ha. MCD, which has been an active non state actor in contributing to the legal recognition of local community rights in marine resources management, will facilitate Quang Ninh province to help accelerate the processes and works for designating and declaring Coto MPA to its finish line. Presently, important progress has been achieved within the Quang Ninh provinces that includes
● The assessment of socio economic conditions.
● The sources survey.
● The endorsement to make zoning and planning of the MPA that has been submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD).
MCD continues to work with regional authorities and local communities to create meaningful action in accelerate key milestones so that by 2020 the Coto MPA shall be fully operational. The results and impacts gained from this shall contribute not only to the immediate objectives of the Coto MPA in Quang Ninh province, but also to sustaining the overall MPA network in Vietnam.
