[Report 28. Full report 0.9 MB. pdf format]

Executive Summary

During June and July 2000, the BirdLife International Vietnam Programme and the Forest Inventory and Planning Institute (FIPI) conducted a field survey in the Khe Net area of Tuyen Hoa district, Quang Binh province. The purpose of this survey was to assess the feasibility of establishing a nature reserve in the area. This document contains the ensuing feasibility study, which, if it is approved by Quang Binh Provincial People's Committee, will act as the basis for preparation of an investment plan to establish Khe Net as a nature reserve within the national Special-use Forests system.

The Khe Net area, which comprises the catchments of the Net and Boi streams, is currently under the management of Tuyen Hoa Forest Enterprise. The land cover of the area is dominated by lowland evergreen forest, at elevations between 150 and 400 m. Together with the contiguous Ke Go Nature Reserve in Ha Tinh province, Khe Net is the only area known to support a population of the globally endangered Vietnamese Pheasant Lophura hatinhensis in the world. Khe Net is situated within the Annamese Lowlands Endemic Bird Area (EBA), and supports a number of other endemic plant and animal taxa.

Including data from previous surveys, a total of 566 plant species, 45 mammal species and 182 bird species have been recorded in the Khe Net area, including four mammals endemic to Indochina: Giant Muntjac Megamuntiacus vuquangensis, White-cheeked Gibbon Hylobates leucogenys, Ha Tinh Langur Semnopithecus francoisi hatinhensis and Red-shanked Douc Langur Pygathrix nemaeus nemaeus. The discovery of a population of Ha Tinh Langur near Kim Lu railway station, in the east of the Khe Net area, is the first confirmed record of this species away from the Phong Nha-Ke Bang limestone area. A total of 10 plant species recorded at Khe Net are listed in the Red Data Book of Vietnam, and 34 species are believed to be endemic to Vietnam.

Based on the results of the field survey, BirdLife and FIPI proposed establishing a 23,524 ha nature reserve in Huong Hoa, Kim Hoa and Thuan Hoa communes, Tuyen Hoa district. The feasibility of establishing such a nature reserve is very high because there is no human settlement within the proposed boundary, and natural forest covers around 99% of the proposed nature reserve. In addition, the proposed nature reserve is contiguous with Ke Go Nature Reserve, which acts as a buffer to human impacts from the north and east.

The proposed buffer zone includes those parts of Huong Hoa, Kim Hoa and Thuan Hoa communes that are not included within the proposed nature reserve, and covers 27,000 ha. The total human population of the buffer zone is 10,675, most of whom belong to the Kinh ethnic group, with a smaller number belonging to the Chuc ethnic group. The principal economic activity of the buffer zone inhabitants is agriculture, and many households are dependent, to one degree or another, on the exploitation of natural resources, particularly forest resources. However, social forestry schemes have been successfully implemented in some areas, with the result that areas of degraded forest have begun to be rehabilitated.

The establishment of Khe Net Nature Reserve will make an important contribution to global biodiversity conservation and protect one of the last remaining areas of lowland evergreen forest in northern Vietnam to still support relatively intact animal and plant communities. In addition, the nature reserve may act as a focus for projects to improve the socio-economic conditions of local communities.

[Report 28. Full report 0.9 MB. pdf format]