Pu Mat National Park spreads over an area of 91,113 ha, comprising a strict protection area of 89,517 ha and a forest rehabilitation area of 1,596 ha. Pu Mat has nearly 2,500 species of plants and nearly 1,000 species of animals, including Sao La (pseudoryxnghetinhensis).
Topography and hydrology
Situated in the northern Annamite mountains is Pu Mat National Park. Ninety percent of the national park is below 1,000 meters in elevation, with elevations ranging from 100 to 1,841 meters. The national park’s highest points are situated in the south, near the mountain crest that divides Vietnam and Laos internationally. Smaller north-south ridges are formed by a series of steep-sided valleys that run perpendicular to this ridge. Most of the national park’s high terrain has made it difficult to destroy vast areas of forest, which has mainly limited illegal logging to the main river basins (Grieser Johns 2000).
Four major rivers—the Khe Thoi, Khe Bu, Khe Choang, and Khe Khang—drain the national park. The Ca river, which flows across a broad valley to the north of the national park and is fed by all four rivers, flows from west to east.
Biodiversity values
A series of baseline biodiversity surveys of Pu Mat National Park were carried out in 1998 and 1999 as part of a project sponsored by the European Commission called Social Forestry and Nature Conservation in Nghe An Province (SFNC) (Grieser Johns 2000). These surveys expanded upon previous research conducted by Frontier-Vietnam (Kemp et al., 1995) and FIPI (Anon. 1993a). Research and a follow-up survey were carried out between 1999 and 2003.
Currently, taxonomic study is being done to confirm that 2,461 plant species—some of which may be new to science—have been confirmed to occur in Pu Mat (Nguyen Nghia Thin in press). The lowland evergreen forest is the most prevalent form of vegetation in the national park. The Dipterocarpaceae (Hopea spp. and Dipterocarpus spp.), Fagaceae (Quercus spp., Lithocarpus spp., and Castanopsis spp.), and Lauraceae (Cinnamomum spp. and Litsea spp.) families are the predominant species in this type of forest (Grieser Johns 2000)..
Lower montane evergreen forest is found at greater elevations. Although some members of the Dipterocarpaceae family are still present, species in the Fagaceae, Lauraceae, and Myrtaceae families predominate in this type of forest below 1,500 meters. The Dipterocarpaceae family of trees is absent above 1,500 m, and the forest is characterized by the presence of Cunninghamia konishii, Fokienia hodginsii, and Decussocarpus wallichianus, three conifers. High ridges in the northwest of the national park are home to untouched patches of this forest kind (Grieser Johns 2000).
Pu Mat is most likely one of Vietnam’s most significant locations for mammal conservation. Five mammal species that are native to Indochina have been identified by SFNC research and surveys: Saola Pseudoryx nghetinhensis, Red-shanked Douc Pygathrix nemaeus, Annamite Muntjac Muntiacus truongsonensis, and Annamite Striped Rabbit Nesolagus timminsi. Two other Indochinese endemics, Heude’s Pig Sus bucculentus and the Large-antlered Muntjac M. vuquangensis, were also reported with unverified data. A number of other globally threatened mammals, such as the Asian Elephant Elephas maximus, Dhole Cuon alpinus, Tiger Panthera tigris, Owston’s Civet Hemigalus owstoni, and Assamese Macaque Macaca assamensis, were also confirmed to continue to occur at Pu Mat by the SFNC studies (Grieser Johns 2000, SFNC 2003a).
Pu Mat is home to at least 295 different bird species, three of which are globally threatened: the Rufous-necked Hornbill (Acero nipalensis), the Beautiful Nuthatch (Sitta formosa), and the Crested Argus (Round 1999, SFNC 2003a). Pu Mat is eligible to be designated as an Important Bird Area because to its global significance for bird conservation (Tordoff 2002).
According to the findings of biodiversity surveys conducted thus far, Pu Mat National Park is internationally significant for conservation since it protects one of the best specimens of the Annamite highlands ecosystem. Contiguous forest areas connect the national park to other protected regions in Vietnam and Laos, and it preserves one of the largest surviving blocks of natural forest in northern Vietnam (Grieser Johns 2000).
Conservation issues
Although the extent of illegal activity has decreased recently, illicit timber exploitation is still occurring along the national park’s key river valleys. In certain regions, this activity has altered the forest’s composition and significantly decreased the numbers of particular tree species, such as the globally vulnerable Fokienia hodginsii and Dipterocarpaceae. Additionally, the national park’s orchid and rattan species are being negatively impacted by widespread collecting (Grieser Johns 2000).
Trapping for the wildlife trade is the biggest danger to the populations of many species in the national park, including bears, primates, snakes, and turtles (SFNC/TRAFFIC 1999, Roberton et al. 2003a). Although the dynamics of the wildlife trade are ever-evolving and the trapping industry is intimately tied to market pressures, it is evident that urgent action is needed to stop the ongoing loss of wildlife (SFNC in press). Specifically, there is an urgent need for experienced hunters from as far away as Quang Binh province to control hunting.
Since many buffer zone villages primarily rely on fish from the national park for their protein needs, fishing in the park by buffer zone communities continues to pose a substantial danger to fish stocks (SFNC 2001). The possibility of co-managing fish stocks in the national park’s periphery is being investigated by the management board.
The clearing of forest for agriculture and gold mining are two more activities that pose a threat to Pu Mat National Park’s biodiversity. The only significant issue with forest clearing for agriculture is in the Khe Khang area of the national park. In 2001, the government started a resettlement scheme for the 894 residents of three villages in the Khe Khang valley inside the national park. This should effectively alleviate the growing amount of forest damage in this section of the national park if it is finished and people are not moved into the park to fill the resulting emptiness.
The national park has a large but not very intensive amount of illegal gold mining. It is especially prevalent around the Khe Thoi river in the northwest and is mostly carried out by individuals from outside the immediate area. Water is slightly eroded and sedimented as a result of the related damage of stream banks (Le Trong Cuc et al. 1998).
Threats to Pu Mat’s biodiversity are being addressed with the help of the SFNC Project by strengthening the implementation of national park management guidelines and creating new revenue streams for the surrounding community. But the SFNC Project ends at the end of 2004, and there’s no proof yet that the ICDP technique works at the site.
Additional values
Four rivers’ catchments are shielded by the forest in Pu Mat National Park, and these rivers provide the majority of the water used by the buffer zone’s settlements for household and agricultural purposes. Furthermore, a portion of the Ca River’s watershed, which is the main river in the southern province of Nghe An, is safeguarded by the Pu Mat forest.
