ASEAN Protected Areas

Virachey National Park

ASEAN Heritage Park, Cambodia

Location

The national park, established in 1993, occupies 320,000 ha in the extreme northeast corner of Cambodia adjacent to the borders of Lao P.D.R. and Vietnam. The park falls within Taveng and Voeun Sai districts of Ratanakiri Province and Siem Pang district of Stung Treng Province.

Habitats

The park has diverse habitat and biological communities of international importance, also transboundary potential. The area contains a large area of both lowland and hill evergreen forests. Dominant trees include some dipterocarps together with tall Sindora, Lagerstroemia, Pterocarpus, Dalbergia, Diosperos and Sterculia trees. Notable species include Burretiodendron hsienmu and malva nuts. Mixed forests with large clumps of tall bamboos and drier dipterocarp forests are also present. Dense evergreen forests grow along the rivers and streams and some marshy areas are found in the southern parts of the park. Areas of secondary scrub and grassland occur where previously cleared for agriculture.

Wildlife

The park obviously has a rich flora and fauna representative of the border regions between Cambodia, Lao P.D.R. and Vietnam as a result of its large size, relative lack of disturbance and wide range of habitats.

Detailed inventory is still not complete but a preliminary review of local wildlife reports two kinds of leopard, wild cat, wild dogs, sambar and barking deer, sun bears, civets and wild pig. Primates include slow loris, pig-tailed and long-tailed macaques, Douc Langur and yellow-cheeked crested gibbon. Wild cattle, including originally the rare kouprey, tigers and elephants have been reported from the area but efforts to confirm their presence using camera traps has so far failed.

Birds in the park include the typical hornbills, pigeons, eagles, broadbills, magpies, woodpeckers, sunbirds and flowerpeckers. Elegant Siamese pheasants and shy pittas and jungle fowl feed on the forest floor.

Reptiles include rare river turtles, monitors, many snakes and lizards, including flying lizards (Draco sp.) The small streams form breeding areas for some fish that migrate down further into the Mekong. Huge catfish are caught by lucky fishermen.

Other interests

Part of the rationale of establishing Virachey was to create part of a tri-nation peace park. The site is adjacent to Chu Mom Ray in Vietnam and Dong Amphang in Lao P.D.R.

Visiting

The area remains a closed security area and is not yet open or safe for casual visitors.

Conservation Programmes

Virachey forms the object of protection and information gathering of a GEF funded project - Biodiversity and Protected Areas Management Project - and has also been the subject of surveys by IUCN and camera trapping programmes of WCS and WWF. The estimated total cost of the GEF project is US$ 4.90 million. The objectives are to develop a pilot management system that can be followed in other sites in Cambodia.

With WWF’s support, the government has set up a series of ranger stations there, and has equipped and trained 35 park guards. Virachey forms part of a proposed transfrontier reserve (with Chu Mon Ray National Park in Vietnam and Dong Amphan in Laos). Initiatives of UNDP and ARCBC have been working for some years to strengthen collaboration and linkages between these three sites.

Threats

The area is threatened by a variety of pressures including illegal logging and illegal poaching. The absence of evidence of tigers, elephants and gaur in recent surveys suggests hunting is a major problem and local villagers are known to rig leftover land mines as traps to kill tigers and other large animals. Clearing of forest for shifting cultivation is a minor problem as population density is still very low. Forest fires along the southern borders and in land clearing for agriculture spread into neighbouring forests, degrading evergreen and mixed forest habitat. Being a border area also adds the threat of cross border poaching and smuggling of forest products.