A Feasibility Study for the Establishment of Xuan Lien Nature ...

Section 1 - Introduction
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(b) Watershed Protection Forests. These forested areas can be allocated to forestry agencies,
people’s committees, or to the people directly, with the main purposes of watershed
protection, soil erosion control and foreshore protection with special provisions as per
Articles 35-37; and
(c) Special-use Forests. These are forested lands allocated for environment conservation, tourism,
educational purposes, national defence, and other special uses. These lands can be allocated
to organisations and agencies in the state forestry sector which are expected to generate
revenues outside of the strict preservation areas and follow management procedures as per
Articles 39-41. Special-use Forests are further subdivided into:
(i) Cultural and Historical Sites to preserve and maintain areas of national and cultural
interest and importance;
(ii) Nature Reserves intended to preserve all representative forest types and to conserve
biodiversity; and
(iii) National Parks to protect and conserve all major types of wildlife and habitat types
found within of Vietnam.
Vietnam currently has proposals for 105 protected areas, comprising 976,000 ha or 3% of the total
land area. Under Special-use Forest classification there are 10 national parks, 61 nature reserves, and 34
cultural of historical sites (Dang Huy Huynh 1998). Vietnam is actively gazetting new sites as part of its
treaty obligations under the Convention on Biological Diversity. Under this treaty, Vietnam has agreed
to increase its protected area system to 2,000,000 ha by the year 2000, thereby doubling its network of
Special-use Forests.
Vietnam supports approximately 275 mammal species, 826 bird species, 260 reptile species, 82 amphibian
species, 500 freshwater fish species, 2,000 marine fish species and 12,000 plant species (Dang Huy
Huynh 1998, MacKinnon 1996).
1.3 Forest in Thanh Hoa Province
The natural vegetation of Thanh Hoa province is semi-evergreen rainforest in the lowlands in the east
and centre of the province, with sub-montane dry evergreen forest in the mountains in the west
(MacKinnon 1996). A thin belt of limestone forest runs across the north of the province, along the
borders with Ninh Binh and Hoa Binh provinces.
In Thanh Hoa province, forest cover originally stretched from the coastal plains to the border with
Laos. However, the coastal plains were almost entirely deforested prior to 1945 to make way for wet rice
cultivation. Since then, there has been a gradual erosion of forest in the foothills and mountains in the
centre and west of the province, as a result of shifting cultivation, commercial logging activities and
resettlement of people from the lowlands. Between 1983 and 1995, 95,000 ha of forest was lost, at a
rate of 8,000 ha per year (unpublished data from the Forest Inventory and Planning Institute (FIPI)).
In the foothills, remaining forest areas are fragmented. However, large areas of continuous forest cover
remain in the mountains close to the border with Laos.
The current and proposed system of Special-use Forests in Thanh Hoa province includes Ben En National
Park, in the south-east of the province, which covers 16,634 ha. Three proposed nature reserves in the
west of the province, Pu Luong, Pu Hu and Xuan Lien, cover a further 56,857 ha. Additionally, limestone