Dak Nong Global Geopark is located in Dak Nong province, in the southwestern part of Vietnam’s Central Highlands at the meridional edge of the Truong Son mountain range (the Annamite Range). Extending over the five districts of Krong No, Cu Jut, Dak Mil, Dak Song, Dak G’Long and Gia Nghia town, the geopark is part of the majestic Mnong plateau with an average elevation of 600-700m above sea level; its highest point, Ta Dung, is 1,982m above sea level. On July 7, 2020, it was recognized by UNESCO as Vietnam’s third global geopark after a lengthy campaign led by Mr Ngoc Bao’s team and the Provincial People’s Committee.

Dak Nong Geopark is distinctive in terms of geological features and geoheritage value. Part of the Gondwana ancient supercontinent 200-165 million years ago, the geopark was submerged in a passive continental margin sea rich in ammonite and bivalve fossils. Around 145-66 million years ago, this continental margin became active due to plate collision, with red-bed sediments, eruptive andesite-dacite-rhyolite, and intrusive gabbro-diorite-granodiorite-granite rocks. In the last 16.5 million years, the territory was once more active with widespread, multi-phase volcanic activities that caused a basalt cover to form over more than 50% of the geopark – creating some of the world’s largest and best quality bauxite deposits and a number of minerals such as sapphires and other semi-precious stones. It also produced fertile soil that has fed generations of locals with industrial and fruit tree crops.

The geopark’s unique topography was shaped by young volcanic activity tens of thousands of years ago (Late Pleistocene-Holocene), resulting in spectacular craters, majestic waterfalls and one of Southeast Asia’s most extensive system of magnificent volcanic caves, which prehistoric people used as shelter around 6,000-10,000 years ago. Recent findings inside the caves included stone tools such as dish-shaped tools, short axes, blade-ground short axes, oval axes and blade-ground oval axes, flake tools, stone flakes, stone slabs, anvils, graters, pestles, hand-fitting sharp quartzite stones, and pieces of loess. Scientists also found pottery of various thicknesses, mostly fired at low temperature, with a crumbly texture made of fine sandy loam with varied patterns such as dot-dash, dotted line, dashed line, and twisted rope.

Dak Nong makes an ideal trip from either Cat Tien National Park or Lak Lak in the former Dac Lac legendary swamps. Discover the volcanic cave system in basalt rock in Dray Sap - Chu R’Luh, which the Japan Volcanic Cave Association recently recorded as the longest in Southeast Asian in terms of scale, length, and uniqueness. Explore the region’s luxuriant atmosphere through soft-adventure or adventure experience modules in Nam Nung Nature Reserve or Ta Dung National Park, ranging from half-day hiking or cycling in the direction of isolated waterfalls to two-day, one-night trips to mountain peaks. Enter intact forests famed for their biodiversity that harbor many rare species listed in Vietnam Red Book and the World’s Red Book: elephants, tigers, bison, primates (notably the Francois’ leaf monkey, or the Black-shanked douc), and elusive birds (such as the Great Hornbill and the Germain’s Peacock Pheasant). Sail along Ta Dung Lake, an enormous body of water dotted with green islands, and get to know the richness of human life in the area that is home to around 416,000 people of 40 ethnic groups, including two recognized by UNESCO as masters of gong culture (the Mnong, and the Cau Maa’ people)


© Illustration credit: Joseph Wraith

 

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The Annamite Cordillera, which forms the natural frontier between Vietnam and Laos, is a biodiversity hotspot with numerous endemic wildlife and one of the highest concentrations of endemic mammal species in the Indochinese peninsula. Remarkably, several of these species were only recently discovered, including mysterious animals that embody timeless myths in the collective memory. One of the most intriguing is the elusive Annamite Striped Rabbit (Nesolagus timminsi), named after the biologist Rob Timmins, who first revealed its existence to the outside world in early 1995 when he stumbled upon strange-looking skins in a Lao bush meat market.

The Annamite Striped Rabbit is a nocturnal and primarily solitary rabbit that is unlike any other in mainland Southeast Asia. With small ears and legs, a short tail, and a buff tan base coat with black-brown dorsal tiger-like stripes racing across the hindquarters, ending in a rust-colored rump, it resembles the Sumatran-striped Rabbit (Nesolagus netscheri), a small forest-dwelling lagomorph only found on Indonesia’s largest island. Based on the little information that biologists have, the Annamite Striped Rabbit is found only in the rugged and remote rainforests of the Annamite mountains on the Laos-Vietnam border. Restricted to wet evergreen forests with little or no dry season, the rabbit has no clear elevational preference and its known range extends from the northern to central Annamite mountains including Pu Mat, Phong Nha-Ke Bang, and Bach Ma National Parks, Hue and Quang Nam Saola Nature Reserves, and Xe Sap National Protected Area.

One of the most understudied of the endemic mammals of the region, Nesolagus timminsi is currently categorized as Data Deficient on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. According to a 2018 paper published by Cambridge University Press in Fauna & Flora International, anthropogenic pressures have resulted in intensive poaching through the use of wire snares, rapid rates of deforestation, and habitat loss that have defaunated much of the region, creating an extinction crisis for several conservation priority species and threatening others with global extinction. In addition, high demand for wildlife products and lax enforcement has reinforced widespread empty-forest syndrome across the entire Indochina region. Thus, the Annamite Striped Rabbit exhibits characteristics of a refugee species whose distribution is driven by anthropogenic pressures rather than habitat preferences, while several endemic mammal species, such as the saola, have distributions determined almost exclusively by hunting pressure.

To prevent the Annamite Striped Rabbit from becoming extinct, experts suggest linking science with on-the-ground action. For example, conservation stakeholders need to embed species conservation programs into a holistic, adaptive management framework, with intensified antipoaching patrols focused on removing snares in locations where the species was recorded as well as repeating systematic camera trapping and raising awareness among local populations about the importance of preserving ecosystems. Without action, the rabbit could become as rare as the saola.


© Illustration credit: Eric Losh