PHÚ QUỐC ISLAND, Vietnam — Rạch Tràm fishing village stretches along the northern coast of Vietnam’s Phú Quốc Island. Surrounded on three sides by the forests of Phú Quốc National Park and facing the Gulf of Thailand on the other, with Cambodia visible across the water, the village has until recently been part of a pristine river-forest-sea ecosystem. For generations, Rạch Tràm was accessible only by water or by a narrow dirt path running through Phú Quốc National Park. However, during a visit in late April 2025, the village was in a state of disarray, with homes dismantled and land dug up for construction. In 2017, the former Kiên Giang Provincial People’s Committee (former Kiên Giang province is now part of the An Giang province), the local governmental body, approved the Rạch Tràm Ecotourism and Residential Project. Then, in 2023, the existing pathway through the forest was widened into a broad asphalt road, with several adjacent forested areas marked for potential future development projects. The Rạch Tràm project, covering 172 hectares (425 acres), is being developed by Cityland Group — one of Vietnam’s leading real estate firms. It will eventually host multiple resorts, luxury villas and high-rise residential developments. To make way for it, 508 households in Rạch Tràm will be forced to relocate and 57.7 hectares (142.5 acres) of special-use forest within Phú Quốc National Park will be cleared. This forest is dense with large melaleuca trees. According to people in the village, the forest was home to deer,…This article was originally published on Mongabay