Being absorbed in Cat Tien, Vietnam's southeastern region's 'green lung'

Enchanted by the nation's largest primeval forest

We went to Cat Tien National Park on a sunny day to see the indigenous plant system of Vietnam's biggest primeval forest. 

Dong Nai river embraces the whole forest, isolating the national park from society. The river also supplies a diverse and plentiful plant system to the park, providing a poetic Cat Tien with pristine environment.

One of the must-see attractions is the Bau Sau region. Located in the middle of the vast Cat Tien National Park, Bau Sau is a wonderful habitat for Siamese crocodiles, aquatic plants and animals, freshwater fishes, and birds, especially many endangered bird species of Vietnam as well as of the world (white-winged geese, blue-winged ibis, ungulates such as gaur, deer, wild boar, etc.) which also often show up in the area to seek for food in the dry season every year. This creates a unique wild habitat rarely to be seen anywhere.

The plant system is dominated by diptercarpaceae, legumes, and lythraceae, and the park is divided into five main forests: evergreen broadleaf forest, semi-evergreen broadleaf forest, mixed wood and bamboo forest, pure bamboo forest, and wetland vegetation. There are rare species of trees named in the Red Book such as red oak, honeysuckle, Ba Ria rosewood, southern rosewood, Vietnamese rosewood, etc. In particular, there are many strange-shaped trees dating back hundreds of years. There are several unusual trees being back hundreds of years. The most renowned is the "Bac Dong Wood" red oak tree, which is more than 700 years old, 30m tall, and has a trunk diameter of approximately 4m in the bottom half.

Tourism promotion for forest preservation

Cat Tien National Park is located in three provinces: Dong Nai, Lam Dong, and Binh Phuoc. Unlike other National Parks like as Cuc Phuong, Bach Ma, and Ngoc Linh, where the terrain is mostly mountain and forest, the natural scenery of Cat Tien is diversified, with hills, riverbanks, wide meadows, and steep currents.

Cat Tien is also home to 1,610 plant and 1,568 animal species. There are 31 plant species and 84 animal species recognized in the Vietnam Red Book, while 50 bird species are prioritized for worldwide conservation and documented in the World Red Book. Cat Tien is the only area in Vietnam where you may witness animals in their native environment. Cat Tien National Park has since been regarded as "delicious bait" for loggers. This is a significant issue for forest management and the protection force.

In order to sustainably preserve and manage the forest and wild animals, one of the solutions the Cat Tien National Park came up with is to secure the livelihoods of communities who are reliant on the forest and live near the Park. While the state budget is limited, Cat Tien National Park has quickly implemented an eco-tourism model associated with forest protection, using "tourism tools" to both solve financial problems or employment problems for indigenous people.

Tran Van Binh, Director of the Center for Ecotourism and Environmental Education at Cat Tien National Park, stated: Responsible tourism to nature has been formed and is growing throughout the world with high levels of biodiversity and attractive landscapes. In Vietnam, responsible tourism to nature began with ecotourism, discovery tourism, and wildlife observation tourism. Cat Tien National Park is no different.

Currently, the unit operates 20 tourist routes, including numerous special tours, for both domestic and foreign visitors. In 2020, the National Park's tourism service industry attracted approximately 44,500 visitors, roughly 40,000 of whom were domestic tourists, with the remainder being foreign visitors, producing service income of nearly 10 billion VND. After two years of being closed due to Covid-19, the park's attendance is more than it was before the outbreak.

Combining multiple values to protect biodiversity

MARD Minister Le Minh Hoan stated during the High-level Conference on Directions and Sustainable Financial Solutions for National Parks and Preserves hosted by Cat Tien National Park in March that for a long time, we only looked at forests as conservation by state resources, but these resources are limited.

Cat Tien National Park is larger than Ho Chi Minh City or a province in the Northern Delta. It is widely recognized that the forest space of Cat Tien National Park has significant national worth. We can witness the significance of forests in terms of forest economics and forest culture via the operations of Cat Tien National Park, and we can convey a message to international organizations that: Vietnam is dedicated to protecting biodiversity in order to contribute to the global conservation of biodiversity.

Decision No.149, dated January 28, 2022, on Approving the National Strategy for Biodiversity until 2030 and Vision to 2050, outlined methods to assure funding sources for biodiversity protection. 

The state budget is balanced and allocated to "implement priority tasks, solutions, schemes, and projects of the Strategy in accordance with the law on the state budget and public investment; prioritize the mobilization of ODA sources to implement the National Biodiversity Strategy; and improve the efficiency of investment capital for biodiversity conservation." 

"We should consider biodiversity not only from the standpoint of scientific and technological conservation but also from the standpoint of the human factor, the residence community living near the forest. We can all design natural-based experience goods, forest culture experience products, and people experience products. 

This will contribute to the forest's sustainability over time. In this manner, we may provide a beautiful vision of the forest's biodiversity, which is not damaged but gets richer, and the ethnic groups that have been associated with the forest for thousands of years, the forest guardians, may have a better existence, both financially and spiritually.

The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development is launching a program to promote the value of multi-use forests on behalf of the government. The Ministry will establish issues and initiatives in the near future to alter institutions to allow for the openness of the forest, allowing for greater multi-value integration in the forest.

To achieve the objectives, one of the first things to do is increase the capacity of forest governance at the national level, of the forestry sector, and of National Parks and Conservation," says Minister Le Minh Hoan.