Ho Chi Minh City has proposed converting 4.57 hectares of Can Gio’s protected forest for the Ben Thanh–Can Gio metro line, according to documents submitted to the city’s People’s Council on September 21. The area affected includes 1.4 hectares of natural mangrove forest and 3.16 hectares of planted mangroves.
Can Gio’s protected forest covers more than 34,809 hectares, including over 32,482 hectares of forested land and 2,327 hectares of land without forest cover. In November 2025, a month before construction began on the Ben Thanh–Can Gio metro line, Ho Chi Minh City said it would preserve the entire 35,000-hectare area.
Convert Green Spaces Into Green Transportation Project
According to the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Committee, the Ben Thanh–Can Gio railway is intended to provide a high-capacity, high-speed link between the city centre and Can Gio. It would help ease congestion, shorten travel times and improve access to the planned Can Gio urban area.
The line will be about 54 kilometres long, pass through Ben Thanh, Khanh Hoi, Xom Chieu, Tan Thuan and Tan My wards, as well as Nha Be, Binh Khanh, An Thoi Dong and Can Gio communes.
The project’s environmental impact assessment (EIA) says Rung Sac Road is currently the only road connecting Can Gio with the rest of Ho Chi Minh City. The road cuts through the Can Gio Biosphere Reserve. Traffic remains light, but it is expected to rise as the Can Gio coastal urban area and international transshipment port are completed. The EIA warns that continued reliance on roads could significantly affect the local ecosystem and further divide the reserve’s core area.
Therefore, the metro line is promoted as a greener form of transport that can meet Can Gio’s development needs while limiting environmental damage.
According to the city’s proposal, the project would require converting more than 1.4 hectares of natural mangrove forest and 3.16 hectares of planted mangroves. The approved route passes through the Can Gio Biosphere Reserve’s buffer zone, but does not enter its core area.
Environmental Concern
Although the proposed conversion covers about 4.6 hectares of Can Gio’s roughly 35,000 hectares of protected forest, and the metro route would pass through the biosphere reserve’s buffer zone rather than its core area, environmentalists and experts remain concerned about the potential impact on the city’s ecosystem.
Can Gio’s mangroves are more than a UNESCO biosphere reserve. They form part of Ho Chi Minh City’s natural defences against coastal erosion, saltwater intrusion and rising seas. According to Huynh Duc Hoan, head of the Can Gio Protected Forest Management Board, the forest can reduce wave energy by up to 50%, helping protect coastal communities and infrastructure.
The mangroves also absorb carbon dioxide, filter pollutants from water flowing towards the sea, and trap sediment and solid waste. Their capacity to store carbon makes forest loss a climate concern as well as a local environmental one.
The scale of the proposed conversion is small relative to the forest as a whole, but its effects warrant careful assessment. Parts of low-lying Ho Chi Minh City already flood during heavy rain and exceptionally high tides, making the health of its coastal ecosystems especially important.
The proposal includes a commitment from VinSpeed, the project’s investor, to plant replacement forest.
The city says the conversion meets the criteria for urgent projects under Decree 156/2018, as amended by Decree 42/2026, and falls within its remaining protected-forest land allocation under the national land-use plan.
The proposal was submitted to the Ho Chi Minh City People’s Council for a decision.
