Bài báo khoa học

Lam River basin has an area of 17.900 km2 (Vietnam's territory), including most of the territory of Nghe An province and part of Ha Tinh province. This study focuses on identifying the potential and roles of ecosystem services in the Lam River basin based on community awareness. The sociological survey method was used with a total of 585 people interviewed in seven districts/cities that distributed in upstream, middle, and downstream. The research results discovered that the provisioning services are identified by the people the most (75.5%), followed by cultural services (68.9%), and the supporting services are the lowest (48.7%). The role of eco-service groups is also evaluated differently in the Lam River basin. In the upstream area, the group of provisioning services is considered “very important”, especially natural food and medicinal plants (respectively 63.0% and 72.0%). Meanwhile, in the middle region, disaster mitigation (78.1%) and climate regulation (72.0%) are considered “very important”. In the downstream area, water purification and natural food supply are the most important services (76.0% and 72.0% respectively). Research results provide important information for the decision-making process on policies for sustainable management and exploitation of ecotourism in the Lam River basin.