Topography and hydrology
Located in the coastal region of south-central Vietnam’s Ninh Hai district is Nui Chua National Park. Between the ports of Cam Ranh and Phan Rang, the national park is located on a broad, hilly cape that stretches into the East Sea. The national park’s geography is rugged, with heights ranging from sea level to 1,040 meters at Nui Chua’s summit. Short streams that drain steep hills make up the hydrological systems in the national park. Since the national park is located in a region that receives the least amount of rainfall in south-central Vietnam—only 650 mm on average annually—the majority of the streams dry up during the dry season.
Biodiversity values
Nui Chua National Park’s initial vegetation was a blend of deciduous, semi-evergreen, and evergreen forests. Unfortunately, over-exploitation of the forest at the site resulted in the destruction of the majority of the natural forest by the beginning of the 1990s. At elevations over 800 meters, the lower montane evergreen forest found in the northern region of the national park is currently the sole largely intact primary forest. There exist vast stretches of secondary and degraded forest at lower altitudes. At elevations between 150 and 800 meters, the southern regions of the national park are home to scrub that is primarily made up of prickly trees. Only hot, dry locations support this sort of habitat, which is underrepresented in Vietnam’s network of protected areas.
In 1994, Xuan Mai Forestry College conducted a survey on the fauna of Nui Chua National Park. Pham Nat (1994) reports that during this survey, several bird and mammal species of global conservation concern were identified, including Pygmy Loris Nycticebus pygmaeus, Black-shanked Douc Pygathrix nigripes, Asian Black Bear Ursus thibetanus, Sun Bear U. malayanus, Large-antlered Muntjac Muntiacus vuquangensis, and Siamese Fireback Lophura diardi. The present state of these species at the site is unclear, though, because of the large number of people that live there as well as the possible high levels of hunting.
The WWF Indochina Program has conducted several surveys in Nui Chua in recent years. These surveys have shown that the national park is crucial for the preservation of marine biodiversity in addition to the preservation of land biodiversity. For example, a few of the national park’s beaches serve as small-scale marine turtle nesting sites. Furthermore, with 307 species documented, the bordering coral reefs are exceptionally abundant and typically in fair to excellent condition (WWF 2003). According to WWF (2003), 46 species were found in the most recent survey to have new distribution records for Vietnam and to have a very different coral community structure than other reefs in the country.
Conservation issues
Nui Chua National Park is home to 28,863 people in total, with an additional 24,546 living in the buffer zone. These individuals are mostly from the ethnic groups of Kinh, Cham, and Ra-glai. Many of these individuals have extremely poor socioeconomic status; this is particularly true of the national park’s residents, who face food shortages for an average of six months out of the year.
Over 600 ha of wet rice field, over 2,500 ha of shifting cultivation, and over 750 ha of industrial crop land are located inside the national park boundaries, making forest clearing for agriculture a unique challenge at the park (Ninh Thuan Provincial FPD in litt. 2000). A further issue noted by the Ninh Thuan Provincial Forest and Forest Protection Department (in litt. 2000) is the severe weather that leaves the forest vulnerable to fire. The WWF Indochina Program has assisted local communities in monitoring beaches where sea turtles lay their eggs since 2001.
