Kim Hy Proposed Nature Reserve - Frontier-publications.co.uk

2. DESCRIPTION OF KIM HY PROPOSED NATURE RESERVE
2.1 General Description and Survey Details
2.1.1 Site Location and Access
The existing boundaries of the Nature Reserve at Kim Hy as proposed in the 1997
Investment Plan by FIPI’s North-west Subdivision (see section 2.1.3 below) are within
the co-ordinates 22º10.40’’-22º18.20’’N and 105º54.25’’-106º18.40’’E They include an
18,555ha area of land equivalent to 27.7% of Na Ri district, eastern Bac Kan province,
situated in Central far-northern Vietnam (Map 1). These boundaries comprise the total
land area of Kim Hy, An Tinh, Luong Thuong and Lang San communes as defined since
Programme 364 (FIPI, 1997).
The Proposed Nature Reserve is 30km south-east of Ba Be National Park, previously in
Cao Bang province but now situated in Bac Kan, and can be reached from Hanoi on
Highway 3 which leads to Bac Kan town, 60km east on Highway 256 leading to Na Ri
district, and on Highway 279 which leads to Kim Hy commune; the latter has recently
been surfaced on many stretches but nevertheless involves significant river crossings
which can make the area inaccessible by car or jeep at times during the wet summer
months.
2.1.2 Biogeography
Following the bio-geographical classification of Mackinnon and Mackinnon (1986), Kim
Hy lies within the bio-unit 6a (South China) of the Indochinese sub-region. According to
the ‘eco-region’ classification developed by Wikramanayake et al (1997), the area falls
within the Northern Indochina Subtropical Forest Region.
2.1.3 History and Status
The Kim Hy forest and outlying areas were first proposed as a Nature Reserve through an
investment plan drawn up by the North-west FIPI Subdivision in 1997 detailing the
boundaries of the 18,555ha area and the zones contained therein. This document
supported a proposal in 1998 by the provincial FPD for the same area to be included on
the ‘2010 list’ of the government’s protected area programme. The proposal, whilst
having been approved by MARD, is yet to be ratified by a government decision by the
Council of Ministers, and there is therefore no management board in place to specifically
protect the area. Current management of the area falls under the remit of the
central/provincial level Forest Protection Department and Peoples’ Committee.
Frontier Vietnam Forest Research Programme Technical Report No.24. 15