Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park reaps many achievements in conservation work

After 20 years of being recognized as a World Natural Heritage, Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park has become one of the famous destinations on the regional and international tourist map.

The beauty of Son Doong, the world's largest natural cave. (Source: VNA)

On July 3, 2003, at the 27th session, the World Heritage Committee (UNESCO) approved Vietnam's application to recognize Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park as a World Natural Heritage with the criteria of outstanding global value in geology and geomorphology. With the efforts of the Vietnamese Government and the support of international organizations, the National Park has been expanded to more than 123,000 hectares to preserve intact the largest ancient limestone mountain range in Southeast Asia. After 20 years of being recognized as a World Natural Heritage, up to now, Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park has achieved many important achievements in the conservation and promotion of the Heritage and has become one of the famous destinations on the regional and international tourism map, contributing to enhancing the position and tourism brand of the province, promoting the socio-economic development of Quang Binh province in particular and Vietnam in general. Phong Nha-Ke Bang is located in a limestone mountain area of ​​about 201,000 hectares. The core area of ​​the national park is 85,754 hectares and a buffer zone of 195,400 hectares. The characteristics of this national park are limestone formations, 300 caves, underground rivers and rare flora and fauna listed in the Vietnam Red Book and the World Red Book. Having undergone many major changes in stratigraphy and geomorphology, the terrain of this area is extremely complex. Phong Nha-Ke Bang displays impressive evidence of the earth's history, helping researchers understand the geological history and topography of the area.

A cave in the National Park. (Photo: Minh Duc/VNA)

Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park shares a border with Hin Nam No National Park in Laos. In line with UNESCO's goal of expanding cooperation in preserving and maintaining heritages with many common characteristics, Vietnam and Laos are working together to build the first Inter-National Heritage dossier in Southeast Asia and the largest continuous Karts area trans-border heritage in the world. This dossier is expected to be submitted to UNESCO in 2024. The National Park Management Board has conducted surveys and published a list of 2,953 plant species belonging to 1,007 genera, 198 families, 63 orders, 12 classes, 06 phyla, and discovered 05 new plant species for science; Investigated and published a list of 1,394 animal species belonging to 835 genera, 289 families, 68 orders, 12 classes, 4 phyla, discovered 38 new animal species for science and published worldwide. This is an important basis for implementing conservation programs, a scientific basis for directing and operating in the management, protection and development of Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park. From 2003 to present, experts from the British Royal Cave Association have surveyed and discovered 425 caves in 7 areas and systems, of which 389 caves have been measured with a total length of 243km.

Most notably, the discovery of Son Doong - the world's largest cave, has important significance in cave exploration research in the region, contributing greatly to promoting the image of Vietnam, Quang Binh and Phong Nha-Ke Bang to the world.

Author

Promoting and advertising heritage values ​​Based on the above advantages, Phong Nha-Ke Bang has been identified as a place to attract tourists to Quang Binh. Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park has gradually diversified its tourism products and proactively implemented many synchronous solutions to bring Phong Nha tourism to significant development. According to the report of Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park Management Board, the total number of visitors to the National Park in the past 20 years has reached over 9.5 million (including over 1.1 million international visitors); revenue from fees and charges has reached over 1,742 billion VND. To achieve that result, the Park Management Board has proactively implemented solutions from self-implementation, joint ventures to leasing forest environmental services, helping to improve exploitation efficiency as well as gradually diversify tourism products. From only one tourist attraction, Phong Nha-Tien Son cave, up to now, Phong Nha-Ke Bang has 17 tourist routes and destinations in operation with many rich and diverse types of tourism such as nature exploration, caves, Camping, Trecking, Zipline... In particular, the tourist route "Conquering Son Doong - the world's largest cave" is considered one of the international-class tours, voted by foreign press as one of the world's most attractive tourist destinations.

Tourists explore games on the Ozo stream at Ozo Treetop Park located in Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park. (Photo: Manh Thanh/VNA)

The Park Management Board also upgraded, managed and operated the smart software system in forest protection patrols and biodiversity monitoring in the National Park; strengthened the investigation and monitoring of biodiversity and rare flora and fauna in the National Park. In addition to building cooperative relationships with domestic and international organizations and scientists, the Park Management Board strengthened communication and promotion, especially on digital platforms, to continuously enhance the position and tourism brand of Phong Nha-Ke Bang in the international market; attracted investment resources for projects and developed new high-quality tourism products of regional and international scope. Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park strives to turn Phong Nha-Ke Bang Wildlife Rescue Area into a Wildlife Rescue Area with the capacity to receive and rescue multiple species to meet the requirements of terrestrial wildlife rescue for the entire Central region; Building the third Heritage profile according to the natural landscape criteria, striving to make Phong Nha-Ke Bang National Park the first Heritage to meet 4/4 criteria for World Natural Heritage, completing the content of the IUCN Green List Profile..../. Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/vqg-phong-nha-ke-bang-gat-hai-nhieu-thanh-tuu-trong-cong-tac-bao-ton-post908369.vnp