Wednesday, October 31, 2012
Saturday, October 27, 2012
Cat Ba National Park
Geographically, Cat Ba National Park is located in Cat Hai district, Hai Phong city.
Belonging to Cat Ba island, the national park incorporates some of the
small islands and marine water and covers 26,300ha, in which 17,300ha is
on the main island and 9,000ha is of the adjacent inshore waters.
A pleasant feeling from physical features…
The landscape of Cat Ba National Park
is dominated by karst limestone areas on the main island where there
are numerous waterfalls, caves and grottoes. The rugged topography is
marked by steep outcrops and bare rock areas with many seasonal streams
such as Thung Luong, Treo Com, Hoi Trung Trang and Viet Hai.
Most of the rain water flows into
caves and grottoes and follows underground streams to the sea. There are
several small lakes and ponds in the hills; the largest is Ech Lake- a
permanent water body with an area of 3ha and a depth of about 50m.
Ninety percent of the main island is between 50m and 200m above sea
level, for example Cao Vong (331m) and Hien Hoa (302m), while only 10%
of the island is below 50m in elevation.
…to climate
Featured
by tropical monsoon with pronounced wet and dry seasons, the park
receives the annual rainfall from 1,700mm to 1,800mm. The annual
temperature at sea level is 25oC to 28oC
associated with the moderate annual relative humidity is 85%. The ideal
time is April and October as you may encounter the rain, even typhoons
and tropical storms if you come to the park from May to September as
well as some drizzle during January, February and March.
Biodiversity values
Due to the abundance of suitable moist niches within the limestone forest, Cat Ba National Park
has a rich and plentiful snail fauna. It supports a diversity of
natural habitats, including forested hills, small freshwater lakes,
freshwater swamp forest, mangroves, sandy beaches and coral reefs. In
detailed, among 839 vascular plant species have been recorded at the
national park, there are 25 species listed in the Red Data Book of Vietnam.
Due to the isolated nature of the island and high levels of hunting, the diversity and abundance of mammals in Cat Ba are low in comparison with other national parks in Vietnam.
Among the fauna of the park, the most popular are ungulate and primate,
in which monkey is between 104 and 135 individuals, including only 50
to 75 adults. Also, the limestone habitat at Cat Ba National Park is an idea environment for a number of invertebrate species.
Satisfy your knowledge with human history clues.
Not
only those typical characteristics, Cat Ba National park has been
considered as a cradle of culture with many traces of ancient humans.
Stone tools and bones found at the sites indicate that primitive man was
living in the caves and grottoes on the island between 6,000 and 7,000
years ago. The example is Cai Beo Cave which is about 1.5km south-east
of Cat Ba Town, has been studied intensively.
What about conservation management?
Come
to the park and take actions with the local government in conservation
matters! Do you know that the forests on the island are particularly
valued for maintaining the water regime as well as containing important
genetic resources and support ing the food chain of economically
important aquatic animals such as fish, shrimp, bivalves and arthropods?
That the reason why, local government as well as local people have
tried their best to appeal the awareness and help from people come here
to protect this vulnerable chain for further biodiversity development.
Not only stop at a certain matter, as regard the whole national park,
the main purpose are to preserve natural ecosystems and genetic
resources, restore the native flora and fauna through replanting,
re-introduction and habitat improvement as well as promote outdoor
recreation and environmental education for the general public in
collaboration with the tourist industry.
Amazing, exciting, surprising…
Each year, Cat Ba Island
receives large numbers of domestic and overseas tourists. A significant
proportion of these tourists visit the national park, either on foot,
along one of the hiking trails, or by boat through the marine component.
The national park can, therefore, be considered to be making an
important contribution to the island's economy.
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