A booklet documenting the floristic diversity of Vietnam's southeastern Hon Ba nature reserve has been published on December 3, marking a first for ecology and nature preservation in the region.

The Korea National Arboretum held a ceremony in Nha Trang, a port city in southeastern Vietnam, to celebrate the first-ever publication of the booklet, titled "Floristic Diversity of Hon Ba Nature Reserve." The volume takes a close look at the variety of flora that exists across the nature reserve. During the ceremony, books were handed out to local experts and to government officials, including the president of Vietnam's Institute of Ecology and Biological Resources (IEBR) and to the forest service director of the Nha Trang region.

Since 2011, the Korea National Arboretum has been carrying out studies into the ecological flora that inhabits the region, working jointly with the Korea Research Institute of Bioscience & Biotechnology (KRIBB) and the IEBR. As a result of this research, three new species and two unrecorded species have been discovered.



The Hon Ba nature reserve houses a high level of biodiversity, with high populations of both flora and fauna. In both English and Vietnamese, the recently published booklet introduces plants belonging to a total of 713 different classifications.

"This publication forms the foundation for preserving floristic diversity in the region," said an official from the Korea National Arboretum. “We will continue to conduct a series of research projects into the ecological systems that span Central Asia, as well as Southeast Asia, in countries such as Myanmar.”

By Sohn JiAe
Korea.net Staff Writer
Photos: the Korea National Arboretum
jiae5853@korea.kr

For the full text of "Floristic Diversity of Hon Ba Nature," please click on the PDF file below.