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Rừng Sác · The only coastal district of Ho Chi Minh City, and Vietnam's first UNESCO biosphere reserve

Cần Giờ

By the early 1970s, defoliants and bombing had killed more than 80 percent of this mangrove forest, leaving what soldiers at the time called a dead land. Everything green here today — nearly 38,000 hectares of it — was planted back by hand, starting in 1978.

History

Cần Giờ's history is really the history of a forest — its rise, its near-total destruction, and an unusually deliberate act of collective replanting.

1929

The area is designated the Quảng Xuyên–Cần Giờ forest reserve, protecting what was then still largely untouched primary mangrove forest and its wildlife.

1964–1972

Herbicides are sprayed repeatedly across the forest over roughly a decade, and more than 80 percent of its mature mangrove trees — many of them decades or centuries old — die; large stumps from that era remain buried in the mud to this day.

1978

Cần Giờ, previously part of Đồng Nai province, is transferred to Ho Chi Minh City.

25 August 1978

City authorities launch a mass replanting campaign: within just over a month, 19,475 volunteer labor-days are logged and 3,161 hectares of new mangrove are planted — the beginning of a restoration effort that will continue for more than two decades; see Anecdotes, below.

1991

The Vietnamese government formally recognizes Cần Giờ's mangroves as a protective forest, cementing its ecological rather than commercial purpose.

21 January 2000

UNESCO designates the Cần Giờ mangrove forest Vietnam's first biosphere reserve, describing the restored forest as among the most beautiful in Southeast Asia — a recognition of what amounts to one of the largest deliberate mangrove-replanting efforts in the world.

2020s

Cần Giờ, still Ho Chi Minh City's only coastal district, begins developing eco-tourism infrastructure — bridges, walkways and roads through the forest — while officials debate how to balance access with conservation.

One district, three ecological zones

The biosphere reserve isn't a single uniform forest — UNESCO's designation recognizes three concentric zones, each with a different purpose.

Core zone — 4,721 hectares

Strict protection

The most tightly protected area, reserved for conservation and scientific research, with the least human intervention of the three zones.

Buffer zone — 41,139 hectares

Managed forest

A far larger surrounding area where controlled forestry, aquaculture and limited tourism activity are permitted, cushioning the core zone from more intensive land use further out.

Transition zone — 29,880 hectares

Where people live

The outermost ring, where most of Cần Giờ's residents actually live and work — fishing, aquaculture and, increasingly, tourism-related businesses.

A forest as living memorial

Unlike most of the other districts on this site, Cần Giờ's most significant "structure" isn't a building at all — it's the forest itself. Nearly 38,000 hectares of mangrove, almost entirely destroyed by defoliants and now restored by hand over more than four decades, functions today as flood barrier, carbon sink, nursery for coastal fisheries and, in UNESCO's own words, one of the most beautiful mangrove landscapes in Southeast Asia. Walking paths and elevated boardwalks built through sections of the buffer zone let visitors move through dense stands of đước (Rhizophora apiculata), bần (Sonneratia alba) and mắm (Avicennia alba) trees — species chosen deliberately during the replanting campaigns for how well they anchor and rebuild mudflat soil.

Places to discover

Đảo Khỉ, Monkey Island

Long Hòa commune

A section of forest and shoreline populated by hundreds of long-tailed macaques, who have grown accustomed enough to visitors to approach directly — a reminder to keep food and loose belongings well out of reach. Boardwalks and boat routes wind through the surrounding mangrove, with the monkeys themselves the main draw for most day-trippers.

Vàm Sát ecological tourism site

Lý Nhơn commune

A quieter, more spread-out ecological park within the buffer zone, with a bird sanctuary, crocodile-viewing areas and a tall observation tower giving a wide view across the mangrove canopy — one of the better places in the district to appreciate the scale of the restored forest from above.

One story the guidebooks skim past

Nineteen thousand labor-days, in just over a month

By the time the war ended, most of Cần Giờ's mangrove forest had been reduced to bare mudflat and standing dead wood — soldiers who served here at the time called it simply "the dead land." When city authorities launched a replanting campaign on 25 August 1978, the scale of the task was enormous: an ecosystem doesn't regrow on command, and mangrove seedlings need exactly the right tidal conditions, spacing and species mix to survive the mudflats they're planted in. Volunteers mobilized from across the newly expanded Ho Chi Minh City logged 19,475 labor-days in barely five weeks, planting 3,161 hectares by hand — the opening phase of a restoration effort that would continue in stages for more than two decades before UNESCO recognition arrived in 2000. Large tree stumps killed by herbicide in the 1960s still lie buried in the mud beneath much of today's restored forest, a literal foundation for the replanted canopy above them.

Four addresses, all built around seafood

Grilled and steamed oysters

~80,000–150,000 VND

Roadside stalls along the coastal road toward Cần Giờ town

Cần Giờ is one of the region's main oyster-farming areas, and roadside stalls sell them grilled with scallion oil or steamed simply, straight from the surrounding tidal flats.

Bánh khọt hải sản

~40,000–70,000 VND

Cần Thạnh town center

Small savory rice-flour cakes topped with shrimp or other seafood, cooked in dimpled pans over charcoal — a common lunch stop for visitors heading to or from the beach.

Ghẹ and cua biển (sea crab)

~150,000–400,000 VND per kg

Seafood markets and restaurants in Cần Thạnh town

Fresh crab, sold by weight and prepared simply — steamed, tamarind-fried, or in a spicy stir-fry — is one of the district's signature draws, with prices fluctuating by season and catch.

Khô cá dứa (dried snakehead fish)

~250,000–400,000 VND/kg

Local markets, Cần Thạnh

Sun-dried and salted fish, a specialty of the district's brackish-water fisheries, sold in markets as a take-home souvenir as much as a meal ingredient.

Getting there

Cần Giờ sits roughly 50 kilometers southeast of central Saigon, reached via the Nhà Bè road and the Bình Khánh car ferry across the Sài Gòn river branch, typically a 90-minute to two-hour trip by car or motorbike including the crossing.

Đảo Khỉ and Vàm Sát are both roughly another 20-30 minutes further from Cần Thạnh town, the district's main population center.

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