Vietnam Nature

Nature
Vietnam is dedicated to preserving its vast natural resources, boasting well over 80 national parks and protected areas throughout the country. The most famous is Halong Bay in the north with thousands of oddly-shaped limestone island outcrops filled with caves.
Just south of Hanoi is Cuc Phuong National Park, home to over 97 mammal species, including the endangered langur, and 300 species of birds.

Vietnam’s largest national park, Yokdon, covers 1,155 sq km of relatively flat land, and was founded in 1991 to protect a rare patch of lowland dipterocarp forest with 464 species of flora and scores of mammal, reptile, bird, and fish species including 17 listed as endangered. Among Vietnam’s critically endangered
mammals are the Cat Ba Island goldenheaded langur, Javan rhinoceros, Sumatran rhinoceros and the white-rumped black lemur. Endangered Asian elephants, tigers, otter civets and parti-coloured flying squirrels have
also been spotted.
Vietnam possesses a diversity of wetland habitats including large estuarine and delta systems with extensive mangrove swamps and tidal mudflats. This habitat and others in Vietnam are home to approximately 870 bird species, which make up 10% of the world’s species. The Dalat Plateau is one of the five endemic bird areas (EBAs) in Vietnam identified by BirdLife International. This mixture of coniferous, mountain evergreen
and secondary forest is the exclusive habitat of collared laughing thrushes, grey-crowned crocias and Vietnamese green finches. Visitors to Cat Tien National Park can spot wide-spread birds such as red breasted parakeets, vernal hanging parrots, spotted and red-collared doves, drongo cuckoos and Oriental pied hornbills.

Government Tourism Policy
The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism is the government agency responsible for the country’s tourism development, planning, public relations, personnel training, research and the implementation of policies and other regulations. Assisting VNAT are provincial tourism bureaus.
The country is currently embarking on a sustainable tourism growth path to protect its environment, help alleviate poverty and maintain the cultures and traditions of its 53 ethnic minorities. Much of the current focus is on ensuring safety and security for tourists developing the nation’s tourism infrastructure especially at the provincial level, increasing the capabilities of its human resources, creating convenient travel conditions within the country and the region and providing tourism information. Vietnam encourages investment in the tourism
sector, especially hotels and aviation. It recently liberalized its skies to attract more airlines, and
continues to upgrade its airports as well as rail, road and marine transport. The country also cooperates with its neighbors to promote tourism in the region.