German development bank KfW has asked Quang Binh Province to refund aid money worth US$257,400 after local authorities failed to comply with agreements on preserving the Phong Nha Ke Bang National Park.
KfW had approved aid worth $18.5 million to the central province in 2008 and last year transferred $257,400 for planting and protecting forests.
But the Phong Nha Ke Bang authorities failed to protect the 2,000-square-kilometer park, named as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 2003, from destruction to make way for farms, the bank said in a letter to the province People’s Committee.
The province has done virtually nothing to plant trees on 4,250 ha in the buffer zone as agreed, it said, or make a survey of the park’s bio-diversity.
Nguyen Huu Hoai, chairman of the Quang Binh People’s Committee, admitted lapses in the KfW-funded preservation project.
But the project will be placed directly under the management of the People’s Committee as agreed with the bank, he said.
The Phong Nha Ke Bang national park, around 500km south of Hanoi, includes one of the world’s largest limestone regions with 300 caves and primary forests.
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