By Vy Nguyen, Seawater Solutions Quality Assurance Manager
The coast is a place where we interact with different ecosystems and living beings, protecting the coast is equivalent to protecting our ocean. Likewise, making sure our coastlines stay green helps prevent beach erosion, creates a protective barrier, and intercepts the movement of sand and wind.
A variety of salt-tolerant vegetation can be planted across the coast to address bank erosion. By selecting and growing the right kinds of native and naturalized plants, much of this erosion can be prevented. Additionally, those native salt-tolerant plants are rich in nutrients and can be edible or used in livestock to create economic value for coastal communities. The value of many of these plants has been forgotten or was never known to Vietnamese culture.
We are lucky to have an opportunity to join a project to study native halophytes in coastal areas, and there is beautiful coastal vegetation growing across the coastal areas of Vietnam.
- Growing ‘Beach Morning Glory’ to stabilise the sandy shore is a traditional measure of local people, applied in most of the coastal areas of Vietnam.
- ‘Sea Purslane’ is used to keep coastal sand and limit sand flying to prevent erosion caused by rain.
- ‘Coastal Jack-bean’ is used to control soil erosion in many parts of the world. The plant readily sets down roots at the nodes as it trails across beaches and dunes, the roots form networks that help stabilise the sand.
Respect beach dunes and beach dunes will reward us all with wonderful plants to enjoy.