Cát Tiên National Park

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Cát Tiên National Park (Vietnamese: Vườn quốc gia Cát Tiên) is a national park located in the south of Vietnam, in Đồng Nai City, and Lâm Đồng Province. It is approximately 150 km north of Ho Chi Minh City. It has an area of about 720 km2 and protects one of the largest areas of lowland tropical forests left in Vietnam. Since 2011, Cát Tiên National Park has been a part of Đồng Nai Biosphere Reserve.

The surrounding area was originally occupied by the Ma people – especially in the area that is now Cat Loc (in the 1960s eastern Nam Cat Tien was described as inhabité ['uninhabited']) – and Stieng people in western Dong Nai Province. After the formation of the park, many of these people were re-settled in Talai village, to the south-west of Nam Cat Tien. Cát Tiên National Park (CTNP) was protected initially in 1978 as two sectors, Nam Cat Tien and Tay Cat Tien. Another sector, Cat Loc, was gazetted as a rhinoceros reserve in 1992 upon the discovery of a population of the Vietnamese Javan rhinoceros, an occasion that brought the park into the world's eye. The three areas were combined to form one park in 1998. Nam Cat Tien is contiguous with Vĩnh Cửu nature reserve thus providing an enlarged area for species to breed. The forest is now protected by the Kiểm lâm (VN Forest Rangers) with responsibilities for managing poaching, fire control, and other issues. Parts of the park area suffered historically during the Vietnam War when it was extensively sprayed with defoliant herbicides. However, substantial further damage was done by logging up until the 1990s. To this day these areas have extensive bamboo and grassland cover and trees have not yet grown back.

The Cát Tiên archaeological site is located just outside the park boundary on the northern bank of the Dong Nai river (between Cat Loc and Nam Cat Tien, facing towards the latter). Excavations carried out between 1994 and 2003 revealed a group of temples, belonging to a previously unknown Shaiva Hindu civilization which probably inhabited the area between the 4th century and 9th centuries AD (possibly later). A large number of gold, bronze, ceramic, coloured stone, and glass artefacts are currently displayed in the Da Lat museum.

Cát Tiên National Park (CTNP) consists of seasonal tropical forests, grasslands and riparian areas, with Park Authorities identifying five major habitat types as follows: 1. Primary evergreen forest areas perhaps comprise only about 2% of the Nam Cat Tien area; can be highly diverse but are dominated by trees in two families (for other Families and Species see below):

Fabaceae: Afzelia xylocarpa (Caesalpinoidea) and rosewoods (Papilionoideae): including the endemic Dalbergia mammosa. Dipterocarpaceae: notably Dipterocarpus alatus, which occurs naturally, but with a good survival rate, it is widely used for replanting; Hopea odorata is also used for replanting. 2. Primary and secondary mixed or deciduous forest (dry season): Where soils are well-drained the following trees are common:

Lagerstroemia calyculata (Lythraceae), Tetrameles nudiflora (Tetramelaceae), of there are spectacularly large specimen trees, Anogeissus acuminata (Combretaceae). The abundance L. calyculata is discussed by Blanc et al. especially as an indicator of secondary forest. "It appears to be a very good competitive species able to regenerate on denuded areas: along roads and on land abandoned after cultivation. Human disturbances have mostly affected Dipterocarpaceae for resin and Fabaceae for their wood." The low canopy and under-story zones contains species such as the endemic Cycas inermis; a number of palms are common, including Caryota mitis, Licuala and Pinanga spp., together with a wide range of fruit species (important food for animals) such as figs (e.g. Ficus racemosa) and wild bananas (Musa acuminata).

Adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Photography via Wikimedia Commons.