Thien Duong Cave

Defining forest protection as a key task, in the past time, the Provincial People's Committee has directed the Management Board of the Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park to strengthen work of law execution, take effective measures to prevent and deal with illegal behaviours such as wood exploitation, wild animal hunting and trapping; control local people to illegally penetrate into the forest; carry out the patrols for forest protection at trouble-spots and establish 18 protective groups in villages and hamlets in buffer zones.

In order to improve the efficiency of forest management and protection, the Management Board of the Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park has attached special importance to forest fire prevention; established 43 groups of forest fire prevention in hamlets and villages; made a full use of all forces to strengthen forest protection and solve cases of violence, especially paid attention to trouble-spots, border areas and expanded area of the Park.

Besides, the Management Board of the Park has paid attention to raising awareness of conservation and improving livelihoods for communal communities in buffer zones through production models, helping to reduce pressure of local people on forest resources; closely coordinated with relevant agencies and local authorities to disseminate law on forest protection for local people, promote environmental education for pupils, mobilize the people to protect forest in hamlets and villages.

In order to preserve the heritage and promote sustainable tourism development on the basis of respecting the global values and minimizing the negative impact on the park's resources, the Provincial People's Committee has approved a master plan on sustainable tourism development in Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park region in the 2010-2020 period and vision to 2025.

Tourism development in the Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park not only helps economic development but also facilities local people to participate in sustainable tourism activities, becoming an effective solution for conservation of heritage values and loss of pressure on resources of the National Park.

Therefore, the Provincial People's Committee has directed the Management Board of the Park to diversify different types of tourism and tourism products, such as adventure tourism, ecotourism, historical and cultural tourism, expedition tourism, Farmstay, Homestay, Trekking, Zipline and so on, bringing Quang Binh tourism to a new height, helping to improve income for local communities.

Besides, in order to attract tourists to Quang Binh, the Provincial People's Committee and the Management Board of the Park have also strengthened popularization and spread the Park's images to domestic and foreign tourists; introduced tourism products on television channels and magazines; installed system of tourism advertising; signed contracts with more than 1,000 travel companies and linked with the websites of large travel companies across the country; have a close collaboration with the Vietnam Television and foreign televisions to shoot films and popularize tourism routes in the Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park.

In recent years, the number of visitors to the Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park has seen a sharp increase. Total number of arrivals from 2011-2014 reached over 2 million visitors and turnovers from selling tickets reached over VND200 billion. In particular, about 4,000 local laborers have been provided with stable jobs, helping to improve income and alleviate poverty for local communities, contributing to loss of pressure to management, conservation and development of the heritage values.

On the other hand, the Management Board of the Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park has paid attention to research, rescue and development of creatures. In 2015, the Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park has conducted some projects to evaluate environmental situation in Son Doong cave and Va cave, carried out an investigation on resources of forest fauna and flora for conservation.

So far, the Park has totalled up 2,935 species of vegetable under 1,002 stains, 198 families, in which 111 species have been recorded in Vietnam Red Book 2007, 39 species recorded in Decree No.32/2006/ND-CP of the government; 464 invertebrate species and 825 vertebrate species, including 153 animal species, 303 species of birds, 151 species of reptiles and amphibians, 212 species of fish under 489 varieties, 151 families and 40 stains. In particular, the Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park has discovered 28 new species for science, surveyed 203 caves with total length of nearly 200km.

From early year to now, the Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park has received and successfully rescued 90% of wild animals, taken care of 387kg of wild orchids, collected 4,746 seeds and seedlings, palnted 682 seedlings, regularly cared of more than 20,000 native trees of 52 different species and so on.

Hopefully, with the focus on heritage conservation, the Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park will uphold the efficiency of magnificent cave system and a diversified and plentiful ecosystem with beautiful natural landscapes, and unique historical and cultural relics; become an attractive tourism destination with many different types of tourism, luring thousands of domestic and foreign tourists to Quang Binh each year.

By Nhu Y
(Source: Quang Binh Portal)