Turning the iron triangle into the green triangle…

Phu An village

At the meeting point of Thi Tinh and Saigon rivers, Phu An had a peaceful countryside landscape of rice fields and rubber trees crops  before the war.

Located in the iron triangle, bombed during the war, the village, left by its inhabitants, was in 1975 devastated. The creator Dr. Diep Thi My Hanh had the idea to transform her native village “the iron triangle” into “the green triangle”.

Dr. Diep Thi My Hanh made researches on bamboo which revealed that this plant has a high number of agro-ecological properties and could play an important role in erosion control.

The Phu An Bamboo Ecomuseum and Botanic Gardens were created in the framework of a four-part cooperation projet. It included the Rhone Alpes Region (France), the Binh Duong Province (Vietnam), the Pilat Natural Park (France) and the University Of Natural Sciences of Ho Chi Minh City (Vietnam). From 2003, many works and settlements were done and Phu An soils, before very poor, started little by little to be better. Local authorities recognized Lang Tre Phu An name (literally Phu An, the bamboo village).

The Ecomuseum and Botanic Gardens’ missions

Today, Ecomuseum’s members, scientists, teachers, students get involved in :

• Preserve the Vietnam bamboo biodiversity and the South East region threaten plants.
• Set research programs on bamboo biological properties (under bamboo soils activity, fertility control and phytoremediation,…).
• Participate in a local sustainable development with inhabitants :
  • Agricultural expansion and training: educating farmers to adopt practises respectful of the environment.
  • Environment education and discovery class in French for young people from the village.
  • Promotion of a form of tourism respectful of Phu An cultural and natural heritage that contributes to the inhabitants’ well-being.

 

Looking towards the future…

Recognizing Phu An village, and creating the Ecomuseum and the Botanic Gardens open a path to sustainable development. To continue this way and to maintain dynamism on the territory, we aim to turn Phu An into an ecological village. This project has different objectives:

• to improve healthy conditions of living of local population (sanitary settlement of houses, used water treatment, waste collection..).
• to avoid rural exodus and untamed industrialisation in maintaining rural areas attractive: enhancing productions and traditional know-how, developing ecotourism.
• to develop a sustainable agriculture using environmentally friendly method.
• to encourage enhancement and diversification of agricultural products (for example producing bamboo objects) to improve farmers’ living standards
• to variegate agricultural productions and specially bamboos to take advantage of research results concerning phytorémédiation.
• to preserve Phu An natural heritage.