The project has achieved the following results:

Completed activities:

(a) The project has worked together with the community, stakeholders, universities and research institutes to develop a concept for managing the Cam Thanh nypa palm forest ecosystem through communication, education, training of skills, community?s capacity enhancement, study-visits, and seminars on climate change adaptation, ecosystem connection, and sustainable tourism. There were 22 training courses organized for 1,503 trainees including 626 males (42%), 877 females (58%) of six villages and 42 members of the Cam Thanh commune?s Tourism Management Board;

(b) The project has conducted the survey and inventory of local nypa palm forests; mapped out the distribution of resources, and developed models and plans for empowering the community to manage the ecosystem; established a community management board representing nypa palm growers, fishermen, and tourism service providers; and developed a plan for nypa palm forest management and regulations on the conservation of breeding/spawning grounds and nurturing areas;

(c) Capacity for cooperation among communities of Dong Gia and Thanh Dong organic vegetable gardens, Thanh Dong zero waste and Thanh Tam nypa palm basket boat villages, has been improved through the training and practice of guides to local nypa palm forest ecosystem management, the development of nypa palm forest tours, routes, and destinations, the connection of local homestays, nypa palm and bamboo craft villages, visitor receiving hubs, basket boat tourism, aquaculture and breeding ground and nurturing area co-management;

(d) Domestic Waste Project Cooperation ? GAIA has implemented an integrated waste management in the locality by organizing five conferences and workshops on community learning tourism, domestic waste management, and resource conservation;

(e) The project has developed a model of community learning tourism in Cam Thanh through connecting the three nypa palm, rice, and vegetable growing villages; and cooperated with domestic and foreign universities in delivering practical training courses at Thanh Dong and Dong Gia organic vegetable garden communities, Thanh Dong zero-waste hamlet and Thanh Tam nypa palm -basket boat village.

The model has received more than 1.630 visitors (70% are female) who are students of 29 classes and 31 delegations from inside and outside provinces to study the model;

(f) The project has promoted the development of Cam Thanh community learning tourism hubs; and signed MOUs with domestic and foreign universities, tourism operatiors and programs, and community networks on community learning tourism in the Biosphere Reserve;

The project has in collaboration with local stakeholders, delivered 5.000 leaflets to raise public awareness of local nypa palm forest conservation among millions of visitors and local people; put up 20 posters and bulletin boards to disseminate information about, and promote sustainable tourism, resource conservation and exploitation in the three nypa palm, wet-rice and vegetable growing villages in Cam Thanh;

Main Results:

(i) The model has connected local resources mobilized for integrated nypa palm forest ecosystem management in Cam Thanh with benefits and responsibilities shared among local nypa palm growers, fishermen and tourism operators. The community's awareness of, and capacity for local nypa palm forest ecosystem management has been better improved by involving 420 local people, of which 285 are women in green movement activities to conserve local aquatic resources every Saturday and Sunday in the locality;

(ii) 57.64 hectares of local nypa palm (Nypa fruticans Wurmb) forest ecosystem in Thanh Tam have been allocated to the community for management, implementation of approved plans, monitoring and evaluation of sustainable forest management activities and reporting of the results to Cam Thanh Commune People's Committee (CPC) in December every year;

(iii) A model of community learning tourism has been developed with the participation of 45 households, including 10 households each in Thanh Dong and Dong Gia organic vegetable gardens, 15 in nypa palm village community and 10 in Thanh Dong zero waste village.

Since 2018, the model has got 1,718 turns of visitors coming from 36 classes of domestic and international students and 33 delegations of organizations and units inside and outside the province to study. At the same time, the number of visitors to the village community of vegetable gardens, zero-waste, bamboo and nypa palm craft, and basket boat rowing, has increased gradually. In 2018 there were 2,565 visitors, rose by 37% compared to 2017; and 2019 this figure was 3,257, an increase of 27% compared to that of 2018;

(iv) The project has supported the localities to develop a plan for promoting and developing community learning hubs, and a University ? Community Partnership between Da Nang Education University and the community with a view in developing local community learning tourism in Cam Thanh, Hoi An

Long term benefits achieved as below:

Environmental Benefits

? 57.64 hectares of nypa palm forest in Thanh Tam have been allocated to the community for management and the community has strictly conserved 84.00 hectares of breeding grounds and natural nurseries, and 38.02 hectares of sea-grass beds where there are 29 to 43 aquatic species of fauna frequently occurred. It is the breeding ground of fish species such as pink silver snapper (Lutjanidae), red and black groupers (Epinephelus coioides), peacock fish, brown fish and blue crab.

Within the framework of cooperation with the Biosphere Reserve Management Board and the Institute of Oceanography, the project has applied results of the project "Study on the mechanism for the dispersal of seeds and the linkage of populations of aquatic resources to improve the efficiency of the management of marine protected areas (MPAs) along the coast from Quang Tri to Kien Giang provinces?;

? An ecological seascape has been created to connect with Cua Dai (Dai River Mouth) - a breeding ground for pink silver snapper species, the area of Hong Trieu dock - a breeding ground for species of fish such as pink silver snapper and peacock fish, and Mussel Islet - a major breeding ground of mussel species contributing to the abundance of biodiversity resources in the Thu Bon - Hoi An estuary area.

In cooperation with the Bai Huong co-management sub-region (MPA), the Cam Thanh nypa palm forest community management board has conserved and protected the connection of ecosystems from the Thu Bon estuary to the coral reef (Manh Reef) to preserve the young - parent fish connection in seawaters of Cham Island.

Socio-economic Benefits:

? The structure of careers and industries has changed dramatically in Cam Thanh due to the development of local tourism and services. The number of visitors to local nypa palm forests increased constantly and rapidly from tens of thousands of visitors in 2013 to more than 625 thousand and nearly 1 million in 2018 and 2019 respectively. Presently, Cam Thanh receives more than 2,000 visitors every day, and even more than 4,000 tourists on holidays.

? Cam Thanh tourism revenue increased gradually from VND 8,920 million (in 2014) to VND 64,008 and 184,536 million (2015 and 2016 respectively), of which local fishermen received VND 3,800 million from their basket boat rowing, an increase of 137.5% compared to that of 2015. In 2017, revenue from local basket boat tourism in the nypa palm forests reached VND 95.25 billion and in 2018 this figure increased to VND 236.04 billion. The entrance fee revenue to visit the nypa palm forest reached VND 18,575 billion (2018) and nearly VND 30 billion (2019).

? The income of vegetable garden farmers has increasingly improved with entrance fees of VND 30,000/visitor and VND 50,000/visitor for experience tourism (to act as a farmer). Averagely they receive 5,000 visitors every year. Local farmers also receive additional payments from tour guides, homestays, cooking, rowing of basket boats and organic vegetables harvested daily if they are engaged in community learning toursm. In 2018, Thanh Dong Organic Vegetable Garden was honored with a typical eco-tourism destination by the Vietnam Tourism Association.

? The concept of a green economy ? an economy builds on the conservation work through the development of tourism in the sea, nipa palm forests, estuares, organic agriculture, village landscapes, cultures, heritages, and craft villages, has been instilled into local people living within the Biosphere Reserve where a fleet of rowing basket boats in Cam Thanh - its buffer zone along with the MPA - its core zone, increased to more than 2,000 boats in 2019 from a couple of dozen ones in early 2010s. The living standards of local fishermen and farmers have been much improved with an average income of more than VND 42 million per person due to the harmonized development of nypa palm village (aquatic resource conservation), wet-rice growing village (zero waste), and vegetable growing village (organic agriculture), creating a unique product of community learning tourism.

Policy Benefits
? The empowerment of the community to manage nypa palm forest ecosystems is recommended to coastal localities with mangroves, where many of natural, cultural and environmental benefits need to be shared fairly and rationally among members of the local community and between the local community and local natural environment for the purposes of conserving local aquatic resources, seascapes/landscapes and water resources, adapting to climate change and controlling saltwater intrusion. The model can be widely replicated to Cam Kim in Hoi An, and to Tam Hai and Nui Thanh in Quang Nam province.

? The development of community learning tourism should be promoted locally and extended to protected areas. This is an instrument to support local capacity improvement, and encourage the participation of the community in tourism, enabling local people to lively promote local cultural values and knowledge to improve livelihoods associated with tourism development and natural resources conservation towards sustainable development.