Vascular plant resources' contribution to the Vam Ho Bird Sanctuary and surrounding areas' designation as a Natural Heritage Site
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Abstract
The survey of plant diversity and vegetation in the Vam Ho Bird Sanctuary and surrounding areas (Ba Tri and Binh Dai districts, Ben Tre province) was conducted in October 2024. The study aimed to build the plant diversity basics for investing and upgrading Vam Ho to the status of a Natural Heritage site. Using transect surveys and sampling, the study recorded 179 species belonging to 55 families of vascular plants. Among them, Azima sarmentosa, Oryza rufipogon, Psilotum nudum were listed in the Vietnam Red Book (2024), Avicennia marina var. rumphiana, Phoenix paludosa, Sonneratia ovata, Ceriops decandra were on the IUCN Red List (2025). In addition, a total of 158 out of 179 recorded species have had at least one of six main use groups: medicine, food, animal/poultry feed, ornamental plants, timber/charcoal/construction materials, and household items/handicrafts. The vegetation was divided into three types: the natural habitat in Vam Ho Bird Sanctuary, the Casuarina equisetifolia coastal plantation, and the estuarine-coastal mangrove forest. The establishment of the Natural Heritage Site will create positive conditions for the activities of habitat conservation and coastal protection, which help to reduce the pressure of environmental degradation on the Ba Lai estuary in the future.
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© 2026 The authors. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
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