Officers and staff of Ha Long Bay Management Board plant trees in Thien Cung cave area.
Accompanying Heritage
On December 17, 1994, Ha Long Bay was officially recognized by UNESCO as a World Natural Heritage. Besides the great pride, opening up new prospects for Quang Ninh province, the event also raised the urgent issue of having a specialized agency to manage and preserve the heritage, worthy of the title of World Heritage.
Based on that requirement, on December 9, 1995, the People's Committee of Quang Ninh province officially decided to establish the Ha Long Bay Management Board, with the function of being a specialized agency to assist the Provincial People's Committee in state management of the conservation, exploitation and promotion of the value of Ha Long Bay Heritage. The Ha Long Bay Management Board was assigned the responsibility of presiding over and coordinating with departments, branches and localities to implement solutions to protect and preserve outstanding global values associated with sustainable exploitation and promotion of the potential and strengths of the heritage; build a management model that ensures the requirements of the International Convention on the conservation and promotion of heritage values; create the image of a responsible, friendly and professional heritage.
Right from the beginning, the Ha Long Bay Management Board started to build management mechanisms according to international standards despite many uncertainties. Mr. Nguyen Cong Thai, former Deputy Head of the Ha Long Bay Management Board from 1995 to 2016, shared: In the years 1995 to 2000, when the Ha Long Bay Management Board was just established, conditions were still lacking. There were few staff, with only 12 officials and workers, but they had to carry out management tasks on a large scale, with an area of over 1,553 km², scattered management resources; pressure from tourism exploitation at the heritage was still uncontrolled, the legal framework was incomplete... However, with determination and innovative thinking, the collective leadership and staff of the Board laid important foundations for the management, conservation and promotion of modern heritage values as today.
Staff of the Ha Long Bay - Yen Tu World Heritage Management Board coordinated with functional forces to collect garbage in Ha Long Bay.
In order to strictly manage and control socio-economic activities on the Bay, minimizing negative impacts on the heritage, the Ha Long Bay Management Board has proactively advised the Provincial People's Committee to issue many policy mechanisms, promptly improve the effectiveness of management work, advise the Provincial Party Committee and the Provincial People's Council to issue specialized resolutions on management, conservation and promotion of the value of Ha Long Bay. At the same time, promoting an active and proactive role, the Board has taken the lead in coordinating with agencies, departments, and localities of the province and the central government to propose many breakthrough and effective solutions, creating fundamental changes in the management, conservation and promotion of the value of Ha Long Bay Heritage.
Thousands of continuous patrols; dozens of environmental parameters were monitored; dozens of scientific projects were built on biodiversity conservation, coral reef restoration, and habitat encroachment control. From each small action such as collecting garbage on the bay, checking tourist boats, guiding fishermen to large programs, the Board actively coordinated with departments, branches, and localities to advise and organize implementation such as: Relocating fishing households on the Bay to live on shore since 2014, ensuring social security and welfare for people; banning fishing in the absolute protection area of the heritage since 2018; implementing planning for aquaculture sites outside the absolute protection area; ending loading and unloading, transporting bulk cargo of clinker, cement, and wood chips on the Bay; put the forest ecosystem on the limestone mountains of Ha Long Bay with a total area of over 5,000 hectares into the special-use forest system, established a nature reserve to strictly protect the ecosystems on Ha Long Bay. All have created a model heritage area managed, always meeting the high criteria of the World Heritage Committee.
Cruise ship businesses implement the program "Say no to disposable plastic waste in Ha Long Bay".
Not only on the water surface, but also inside the caves, geological conservation work is also focused on. Since 2010, the Ha Long Bay Management Board and the Institute of Geological Sciences and Mineral Resources have conducted and established conservation records in more than 10 typical caves and islands in the heritage area with special scientific value, including Thien Cung, Dau Go, Sung Sot...; discovered 23 new caves in Ha Long Bay, including caves with aesthetic and scientific value such as Dinh Thu Cave, Cong Dam Cave, Huou Cave... Each stalactite and stalagmite in the cave is checked, recorded, numbered and strictly protected. Thanks to that, the beauty of the heritage is still preserved intact.
In addition, the work of protecting the heritage environment is always a top priority with efforts to improve and ensure the environment of Ha Long Bay and create new breakthroughs; attracting many projects on environmental protection of Ha Long Bay. These include the Ha Long Environmental Protection Project sponsored by JICA, the Project "Improving wastewater treatment capacity at Dau Go Island, Ha Long Bay" of the Japanese Government through the Embassy of Japan in Vietnam; controlling pollution from the source; replacing styrofoam buoys with sustainable floating materials at floating structures on the Bay. The collection and treatment of waste and wastewater also receive attention, focusing on human resources and equipment to protect the heritage environment. Especially since 2019, the program "Say no to single-use plastic waste in Ha Long Bay" has contributed to reducing 90% of single-use plastic waste in the Bay.
Tourists visit caves in Ha Long Bay.
With the journey of preserving and promoting the value of heritage in a sustainable way, in 2000, Ha Long Bay continued to be recognized by UNESCO for the second time as a world heritage site with its geological and geomorphological value. In particular, in the period from 2007 to 2011, the Bay Management Board actively carried out many campaigns to promote and honor the heritage, campaigned to vote for Ha Long Bay as one of the 7 new wonders of the world, spreading the image of Ha Long Bay to the world.
Positioning a high-class tourism brand
Looking back 30 years ago, tourism services on Ha Long Bay were simply sightseeing cruises, visiting some caves, swimming, scattered and small-scale activities, with low service quality. Up to now, tourism products and services have been increasingly diversified in types, improving service quality and enhancing visitors' experiences. The Bay Management Board and businesses have focused on expanding tourism space, extending visitors' vacation time, reducing pressure on heritage areas, developing more routes, points and tourism products and services with 8 sightseeing itineraries and 5 clusters and overnight accommodation points; testing discovery cruise activities with 3 separate sightseeing routes. In particular, night cruise products with culinary experiences combined with enjoying music and visiting the coastal beauty at night; Expanding tourism products based on preserving and promoting the historical and cultural values of fishing villages, archaeological culture, and biodiversity in Ha Long Bay always attracts the attention and love of tourists.
International tourists take photos in Ha Long Bay.
In addition, the Board has actively coordinated with relevant departments and branches to advise on the management of tourism service activities on the Bay, the management mechanism of tourist boats on Ha Long Bay and Bai Tu Long Bay in the direction of reducing quantity, increasing quality, safety and increasing exploitation efficiency, and improving criteria to ensure fire and explosion prevention safety for tourist boats.
The Board also focuses investment resources on renovating, restoring and embellishing infrastructure at tourist attractions and overnight accommodations in Ha Long Bay, applying information technology in collecting entrance fees to ensure safety, aesthetics, and bring satisfaction to tourists.
The Board has focused on promoting and disseminating Ha Long Bay in various forms such as: opening a heritage column on local newspapers and radio stations, installing large billboards, setting up a separate website about Ha Long Bay in two languages, creating a fanpage about Ha Long Bay; publishing dozens of publications. At the same time, the Board has strengthened its connection with the World Heritage Club in Vietnam to connect information and promote the values and potential of Ha Long Bay Heritage.
In addition, the Board has advised the province to maintain close ties with international organizations such as the World Heritage Committee, the World Heritage Center, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)... Thereby, many exchange activities with countries in and outside the region on economics and culture, especially in the field of heritage management and conservation have been implemented, many projects and programs have been funded and implemented, gradually integrating Ha Long with international activities on protecting world heritage.
Mr. Pham Dinh Huynh - Deputy Head of the Ha Long Bay - Yen Tu World Heritage Management Board shared: The past three decades have also been the journey of the Management Board to turn Ha Long Bay into a heritage site that is highly appreciated internationally for its management capacity. Many recommendations from UNESCO have been seriously implemented by the Bay Management Board such as: Reducing tourism capacity, strengthening monitoring, protecting biodiversity, restoring coral reefs, managing fishing village communities, etc. International experts from Japan, IUCN, UNDP, UNESCO, etc. continuously surveyed and evaluated Ha Long's heritage management model. This is also a reference destination for many international delegations to study. From international conferences on heritage, sustainable tourism, and climate change, Ha Long Bay and the Bay Management Board are always mentioned as an example of how Vietnam fulfills its responsibility to a global heritage site.
During his visit and work in Quang Ninh at the end of May 2025, Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Center Lazare Eloundou Assomo assessed: We highly appreciate the efforts to address environmental challenges, management and conservation of Ha Long Bay Heritage of Quang Ninh province. It can be seen that since its recognition as a Heritage, Quang Ninh province has made efforts to preserve and promote the unique values of Ha Long Bay. This is extremely valuable, because Ha Long Bay is not only a heritage of Vietnam, but also a heritage of the whole world.
With these efforts, over the past 30 years, the World Natural Heritage Ha Long Bay has become an increasingly attractive destination, attracting domestic and international tourists, opening up great prospects for the socio-economic development of Quang Ninh province. The number of visitors to Ha Long Bay over the past 30 years has reached over 60 million, with entrance fees reaching over VND 9,500 billion. Ha Long Bay has been honored to receive many noble titles such as: World Natural Heritage, special national monument, new natural wonder of the world, international geological heritage Ha Long Bay - Cat Ba Archipelago, Vietnam's leading tourist area, Vietnam's leading tourist destination...
Vice Chairwoman of the Provincial People's Committee Nguyen Thi Hanh shared with Mr. Lazare Eloundou Assomo, Director of the World Heritage Center about solutions to preserve Ha Long Bay Heritage.
2025 is a turning point for the Ha Long Bay Management Board. On November 1, 2025, the Ha Long Bay - Yen Tu World Heritage Management Board was officially established on the basis of merging the Ha Long Bay Management Board, the Bai Tu Long National Park Management Board and the Monuments and Landscapes Management Board under the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism of Quang Ninh. When the two world heritages of Ha Long Bay - Yen Tu are managed in the same agency according to the new model, the conservation mindset, connecting nature - culture - history will be elevated, converging the journey of the two world heritages, from the magical blue bay to the sacred Yen Tu mountain. A unified, modern and professional management model will open up a new development space, in which the focus is still on the conservation and promotion of heritage values.
It can be seen that the past 3 decades have been a long enough journey to affirm the dedication and intelligence of many generations of cadres and employees of the Ha Long Bay Management Board, now the Ha Long Bay - Yen Tu World Heritage Management Board. They are the ones who preserve the beauty of each rocky island, the ones who bring the image of Ha Long Bay to the world with responsibility and enduring love. And that journey is still continuing every day through the trains taking cadres and employees of the board to tourist attractions to perform their duties, to preserve and promote the values; so that Ha Long Bay continues to shine, not only in the hearts of Vietnamese people, but also in the hearts of friends around the world.
Source: https://baoquangninh.vn/hanh-trinh-30-nam-bao-ton-va-phat-huy-gia-tri-di-san-thien-nhien-the-gioi-vinh-ha-long-3387550.html
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