Enhancing bird diversity through improved water management in a Viet Nam wetland national park

U Minh Thuong National Park, one of the two largest remaining peat swamp, melaleuca forests in Viet Nam is a very Important Bird and Conservation Area because of its diverse wetland habitats. A devastating forest fire in 2002 resulted in a new regime of fire control based on an imposed permanent flooding regime over large areas of the Park that led to severe wetland and forest degradation. This in turn negatively impacted on bird species diversity and populations. In 2009, the Government of Viet Nam and the park authority adopted an improved water management practice. A survey four years later recorded two new species in the list of 159 bird species for the park. Of these, 25 threatened species were using the wetland park and adjacent Buffer Zone for living and feeding habitat. Based on the largest count occurring during three continuous days, the water bird population in the bird colony in 2013 increased by 33 per cent compared to the 2009 level. The positive response of avifauna to the changes in U Minh Thuong with respect to the hydrology of seasonally flooded melaleuca wetland forest indicates the need to understand how the ‘normal’ wetland processes operate in support of biodiversity conservation before modifying them for fire management.