Nakai-Nam Theun
National Park
Park Type
National Park
Year Established
1993
Total Area
427,770 ha
Provinces
Khammouane
Map
Things to See & Do
Important Visitor Information
Access
The park is accessed by boat, with boats arranged from Thalang or Oudomsouk villages, located on Route 1E east of Thakek, by local guesthouses or tour operators. Most tours into the park require at least 2 days due to the roundtrip boat travel.
Tours
You must book your tours to the park with an authorized guesthouse or tour operator. Guesthouses in Thalang and Oudomsouk can typically book tours into the park.
Fees
All tours into the park require hiring local guides from guardian villages and paying park entrance fees. Such fees are included in the tour package price that you pay to the tour operator or guesthouse who you book with.
Biodiversity
In total, recent surveys have found approximately 430 bird species in Nakai Nam Theun National Protected Area. This is the highest diversity of any site yet surveyed in Lao PDR, and amongst the highest recorded in protected areas across Southeast Asia. In terms of key species of conservation concern, 56 have been found in the NPA (43 residents/breeders). If it is accepted that birds provide an appropriate basis for evaluating the importance of an area to wildlife conservation (due to ease of specific identification, availability of detailed distributional data and globally standardised categories of threat), these totals establish the Nakai Nam Theun National Protected Area as the most important site yet surveyed in the Lao PDR-Cambodia-Vietnam region. The Nakai Plateau supports many threatened birds.
Large-antlered muntjac
Muntiacus vuquangensis
This species of deer was discovered by science in 1994. It is endemic to the Annamite range and found in Central Laos and Vietnam. Nakai Nam Theun is thought to have the largest population.
Status:
Critically Endangered
Owston’s civet
Chrotogale owstoni
This civet species is mainly found in the Annamite range in Laos and Vietnam and is found in lowland evergreen forests and is representative of healthy forests in Nakai Nam Theun.
Status:
Endangered
Asian elephant
Elephas maximus
Asian elephants are found in South and Southeast Asia, but their numbers in wild are very few. Nakai Nam Theun has one of the largest viable wild elephant populations in Laos, which was once called the Land of a Million Elephants.
Status:
Endangered
Chinese swamp cypress
Glyptostrobus pensilis
The range of this tall tree species is from South-eastern China to Central Laos, with only a few stands left in the world. Nakai Nam Theun is one of the last places where it is protected in the wild.
Status:
Critically Endangered
Topography, Climate & Forests
Topography: The Sai Phou Louang (Annamite) Mountains within the National Protected Area (divided within the protected area into the Northern, Central and Southern Mountains areas) running NW-SE dissected by NE-SW oriented river valleys form the bulk of the protected area. As these rivers emerge through gorges in the Dividing Hills onto the Nakai Plateau, the five main rivers (Nam Sot, Nam Mon, Nam Theun, Nam Noy and Nam One) widen and meander, creating rich riverine forest habitat.
Climate: For the park, the Southwest Monsoon begins in May, reaches its maximum strength in August and disappears about mid‑October. The climate then cycles through a transition period to mid‑November when the Northeast Monsoon appears. Rainfall becomes very infrequent and light, the air is cool, and the humidity lower. The Northeast Monsoon lasts until the end of February when the hot and dry transition period begins.
Forests: There is a complex range of habitats in Nakai Nam Theun National Protected Area which reflect pronounced gradients in soils, altitudes and microclimates. Habitat types usually blend into one another, and there is rarely a sharp divide between them. Component species of habitat floras are poorly known and will remain so until a systematic collecting programme is in place. Evergreen forest has plant families and genera typical for other parts of Southeast Asia. Commonly found were species of Dipterocarpus and Shorea in the Dipterocarpaceae, and species of Myristicaceae, Annonaceae, Rutaceae, Sapindaceae, Fabaceae etc. The upper canopy reaches generally around 20 m, with emergent trees reaching to about 30 m. The diameter of larger trees is in the 50-60 cm class, with occasional emergent trees having diameters exceeding 120-cm. Palms, including rattan, are uncommon in the northern portion of the protected area, but frequent in the central and southern areas.
People & Culture
Within the National Protected Area, the entire population of about 6,500 are considered “Lao Theung”, including a variety of Vietic (Mon-Khmer) speakers 31%, Brou (Western Katuic branch of Mon-Khmer) 55%, and Tai-Sek (Tai-Kadai) 14%. There is an increasing Hmong population on the periphery of the protected area in Khamkeut District, Bolikhamxay Province.The 6,500 or so residents of the protected area cultivate rotational swidden on a total of about 3% of the land area of the protected area, this includes fallows. These residents also use a wide variety of NTFPs in their daily life (rattans, foods, Kho leaves, etc.) and some collect a few NTFPs for trade (cardamom, bong bark, etc.). Most of these people also supplement their agriculture with fishing and hunting.
Conservation & Management
Under Decree 122/PM, dated 21st April 2018 the park established a Secretariat, which has since become the National Park office since becoming designated as a national park a couple years later. This body comprises a Director, a Deputy Director and technical staff. The park headquarters and staff accommodation are located in Nakai District Town. Ranger stations are present in Navang cluster, Thaiphaiban cluster and Teung cluster, which fulfill multi-purpose management roles.
📍Address: Protected Area Management Division, Department of Forestry, Ministry of Agriculture and Environment, Khouvieng Road, Vientiane, Lao PDR
📞 +856-021-215000
📩 [email protected]
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