According to the administration board of the site, there have been nearly 60 tourist delegations visiting the site since January. The relic is located on the left side of Dong Nai River stretching over 15km from Quang Ngai Commune to Duc Pho Commune of Cat Tien District. It is an archeological complex with many mysteries yet to be unveiled.

There was an accidental discovery in 1985, and it has been through eight excavations since 2006. Vietnamese archeologists have found a complex of temples, tombs and around 1,140 gold, silver, bronze and ceramic artifacts belonging to the Brahmanism religion. Especially, experts so far have found the biggest pair of Linga-Yoni objects of worship in Southeast Asia at the site. These artifacts have helped prove that this is a forbidden area for religious sacrifice. It is estimated that the relic was built from the fourth to ninth century and was influenced by Indian civilization and had close relations to Oc Eo and Champa cultures.

This venue is suitable for cultural/spiritual tours accompanied by an eco-tour to Cat Tien National Park which is on the right side of Dong Nai River. However, its tourist facilities are in poor condition with no attached services so the relic’s administration board has struggled to manage the large number of tourists flocking to the site.

In the previous time, the team has also found a new species of rhocophorus vampyrus or ‘vampire tree frog’ in the same park. This is the 17 th species of rhacophorus vampyrus found so far in Vietnam. Dr. Vu Quang Nam and his Chinese colleague Nian He Xia also recently announced they had discovered a new species of magnolia on Hon Giao Mount in the park. The magnolia grows in evergreen forests at 2,000m above sea level.

Bidoup Nui Ba National Park is one of Vietnam’s 28 national parks that are protected because of their special scientific interest. It is one of 221 endemic bird areas in the world and is one of the country’s four centres of biodiversity. It is also home to 1,470 species of plants, including 62 rare species, and 208 species of animals.

The national park encompasses a range of high mountains in the northern part of the Southern Annamite mountains. The national park is centered on Mount Chu Yang Sin, which, at 2,442 m, being the highest point in the southern Annamites. The topography of the national park is characterized by steep slopes and narrow valleys.

The north of Chu Yang Sin National Park is drained by the Ea K’tour and Ea Krong Kmao springs, which flow north to join the Ea Krong Ana River. Streams in the south of Chu Yang Sin flow into the Krong No River. Both the Ea Krong Ana and Krong No rivers flow west and north before joining the Seropok River, a major tributary of the Mekong River.
At elevations below 800m, the national park supports lowland semi-evergreen forest, characterized by Lagerstroemia calyculata and Terminalia nigrovenulosa, and lowland evergreen forest, dominated by Hopea odorata, Dipterocarpus alatus and D. turbinatus.

Montane evergreen forest is widely distributed above 800m, and dominated by members of the Fagaceae and Lauraceae. Montane evergreen forest at Chu Yang Sin is also characterized by conifers, such as Pinus dalatensis, P. krempfii, P. kesiya var. langbianensis, Podocarpus imbricatus and Fokienia hodginsii. On mountain summits and ridge lines, elfin forest formations are distributed, dominated by Lyonia annamensis, L. ovalifolia and the dwarf bamboo Arundinaria sp. Coniferous forest, dominated by Pinus kesiya, occupies more than 10,600 ha of the national park. This is a secondary vegetation type that is formed in areas subject to periodic burning. A significant proportion of the national park supports bamboo forest, dominated by Oxytenanthera nigrociliata and Bambusa procera. Open secondary growth, scrub and grassland cover less than 1% of the total area of the national park.

Chu Yang Sin National Park is situated within the Da Lat Plateau Endemic Bird Area. Eight restricted-range bird species have been recorded at Chu Yang Sin: Germain’s Peacock Pheasant Polyplectron germaini, Grey-crowned Crocias Crocias langbianis, Black-hooded Laughingthrush Garrulax milleti, Collared Laughingthrush G. yersini, White-cheeked Laughingthrush Garrulax vassali, Short-tailed Scimitar Babbler Jabouilleia danjoui, Grey-faced Tit Babbler Macronous kelleyi and Yellow-billed Nuthatch Sitta solangiae. The most important of these species, from a conservation perspective, is Grey-crowned Crocias, which is endemic to the Da Lat plateau and classified as globally endangered. Chu Yang Sin qualifies as an Important Bird Area.

A total of 46 mammal species have been recorded at Chu Yang Sin. Mammals of particular conservation significance recorded at the site include Black-shanked Douc Pygathrix nigripes and Yellow-cheeked Crested Gibbon Hylobates gabriellae.

Chu Yang Sin National Park has an important role in protecting the watershed of the Srepok River. The national park also has potential for ecotourism development, although this is currently not realized.

U Minh Ha Forest has suffered heavy destruction during the two Viet Nam Wars from 1945 to 1975, but it survived and continued to revive itself, even following forest fires after the wars. The center of U Minh Ha National Park is Vo Doi, where strong protection is provided for rare and valuable species listed in the Vietnam Red Book. Some of them are snakes, pythons, turtles, deer, wild boars and red-legged otters. Local people have developed several tourist attractions. Mr Tran Trung Quoc’s model is very interesting. In early 2001, he started raising fish, eels, snakes, and turtles, all typical of U Minh Ha. Soon, monkeys and storks came to inhabit his land. He opened the place to tourists.

From the beginning, it was only a small tourist site with several mango trees, plum trees and a few tables where tourists could relax and have a cold drink or something to eat. Now it has become a true tourist destination, including a dozen huts, many fruit trees, well furnished rooms and good amenities. Here, tourists can fish, stroll under fruit-laden trees, listen to bird and enjoy the fragrance of cajuput trees. Mr Le Van Qua attracts tourists with a different model. His land is large, covering 110 hectares. Tourists come here to see animals and flowers unique to the area, especially freshwater animals. They can explore the forest on a paved road and enjoy different dishes such as snake, turtle and eel. When they need a rest they can stay in nice small huts.

Being aware of the tourism potential of U Minh Ha National Park, the local authorities are planning to expand tourist facilities while implementing more measures to protect the natural habitat. At the same time, promotion of the park as an ideal destination for tourism has been intensified. It is hoped that U Minh Ha National Park will soon make itself widely known as a unique ecosystem of cajuput trees for tourists.

Accordingly, TCNP has the total circumference of more than 70km, which is the miniature of the primeval Dong Thap Muoi area and the residence of more than 250 kinds of birds, and more than 100 types of fresh fish and 190 types of high level flora.

Especially, TCNP has 32 types of precious birds in the world which has the reserving values such as: white wing swan, brown back barn owl, black eagle, fire magpie, etc. Particularly, the red head crane (flamingo), bald neck is a precious and rare bird which is protected in all over the world. Besides, TCNP also preserves nearly 3,000 ha of cajuput tree and 1,000ha of wild rice, lotus, water lily, etc. This is the perfect condition for the birds and many other animals coming to settle.

Ministry of natural resources and environment called upon the protection and contribution for the TCNP for its undamaging. Therefore, the tourism would be appropriately developed in the long run.

The representative of Ramsar protocol secretary board gave the certificate for the people committee of Dong Thap to acknowledge TCP to be the fourth Ramsar area of Vietnam and 2000^th of the world.

Nguyen Van Hieu, head of the Investigation Agency said that individuals responsible for this act would face criminal prosecution for violating the law and for exploiting forest wealth particularly in a protected national park.

The agency will send a team of officials to examine the scene of the deforestation incident and report back after assessing the situation.

Early in April this year, after learning that lumberjacks had earned hundreds of billions of dong from Sua timber, cut from the Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park, residents by the hundreds from Son Trach, Xuan Trach and Phuc Trach Communes in Bo Trach District made a mad rush into the forest to also grab the rare timber, creating chaos and unruly fights.

The provincial authorities have since been patrolling the area and have seized more than 720 kilograms of Sua timber.
On Wednesday, the Forest Management Division of the Phong Nha – Ke Bang National Park arrested four people for buying Sua timber by pretending to be tourists. Forest rangers were able to catch only these four, while seven others ran away. However, the rangers seized VND82 million, US$9,400 and THB1,000 in cash amounts. The four arrested declared that they had come to the forest to buy Sua timber.

A Sua tree

According to Nguyen Thanh Thieu, head of the Investigation Agency in charge of the Sua tree criminal case, lumberjacks had cut down more than just the three Sua trees in the Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park.

On the same day, Luong Ngoc Bich, secretary of the provincial Party Committee, was present at the park to instruct on some matters related to the case.

He asked the park management committee to strengthen measures, especially gear up the forest ranger force, to be able to hold back lumberjacks from further chopping down Sua trees, and protect the precious resources of the forest. He instructed the park committee to mobilise all resources to protect the national park, monitor those going out of the forest, prevent local residents from entering the forest, and crack down on those exploiting, transporting and trading Sua timber.

Nguyen Van Hien, secretary of the Phuc Trach Commune Party Committee in Bo Trach District, said that 11 suspects connected to the Sua trees case have not returned to their locality, probably to avoid arrest.

Nguyen Duc Tu, Water and Wetlands Coordinator of the International Union for Conservation of Nature in Vietnam, says: “The Secretariat is completing final formalities to announce Tram Chim National Park as a world Ramsar site in the coming days.”

The Ramsar Convention is an international treaty signed in Ramsar, Iran, in 1971, and has continued to provide a national framework for wetland preservation ever since.

The Tram Chim National Park will become Vietnam’s fourth Ramsar site if it is accepted by the Ramsar Convention Bureau, after Xuan Thuy Natural Wetland Reserve in the northern province of Nam Dinh, which was recognized in 1988; the Bau Sau (Crocodile Lake) Wetlands and Seasonal Floodplains in Cat Tien National Park, selected in 2005; and Ba Be National Park in Bac Kan northern province, recognized in 2011.

According to Wikipedia, Cham Trim covers an area of 7,588 hectares, which is home to 130 species of plant, 100 species of vertebrate animals, 40 species of fish, and 147 types of water birds – of which 13 are listed as endangered.

The most distinguished resident bird is the Sarus crane (Grus antigone), which has been recognized as threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red Book.

The wild forest fire started on March 2 and soon spread to Seo My Ty Hamlet of Ta Van Commune, where it was further fueled by a hot low pressure zone from the west and dry conditions in the area, a result of successive cold fronts in the northern region.

The park management board and Sa Pa authorities have mobilised all possible resources including the police, army, civil defence forces and local residents, to help stamp out the fire. However, persistent hot and dry southwesterly winds are continuing to fuel the fiery inferno, and the rough terrain is also impeding fire-fighting operations.

On March 4, senior leaders from Lao Cai Province dispatched more human resources to the site and have also surveyed the area to look at various options to control the fire.

Authorities have yet to determine the cause of the fire.

In February 2010, another big fire had occurred in Seo My Ty Hamlet, which burnt down thousands of hectares of forest area, and took over ten days to quell.

According to the Forest Management Department under the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, prolonged hot, dry and arid weather has put nine provinces in the country susceptible to the dangers of forest fires. Local authorities have hence been instructed to implement measures to prevent them from occurring, by being far more vigilant.

Red-headed (sarus) cranes

The cranes muster in areas of the 7,600 ha park where their favourite food, water chestnuts, can be found.

The sarus crane, with an average weight of 7-15 kilos, is listed in the World Red Book of threatened species. Together with the cranes, Tram Chim Park is now also home to more than 1,000 snail storks and about 700 painted storks, which are also rare birds.

As the natural environment in Tram Chim national park is flourishing after the flood season, more and more sarus cranes and other bird species will return to the park for the dry season. Recently, Tram Chim has hosted up to a million individual birds in total.

The management board of the park has made strong efforts to preserve the natural ecosystem of the park and ensure the development of both botanical and animal species. Feeding grounds of the red-headed cranes are guarded day and night to prevent hunting activity and water levels are regulated.

Source: Vietnamnet