Ba Be national park

The park is a tropical primary rainforest with a large collection of animals, birds and reptiles. Many of the plants are unique to Vietnam and very well protected. Ba Be national park is located in Thai Nguyen province. It is centred of Ba Be lake. The name Ba Be means “three lakes” although the lake is one continuous water body, 8 km long and up to 800 m wide. It is the only significant natural mountain lake in Viet Nam and contains various number of small limestone islet.

Ba Be national park is located in Thai Nguyen province. It is centred of Ba Be lake. The name Ba Be means “three lakes” although the lake is one continuous water body, 8 km long and up to 800 m wide. It is the only significant natural mountain lake in Viet Nam and contains various number of small limestone islet.

The geology of the area is predominantly limestone, with numerous rugged peaks and deep, steep-sided river valleys. Among the caves there, Phuong cave is the largest with 300 mettre-long, through which Nang river


Biodiversity values
The forest at Ba Be can be divided into two main types: limestone forest and lowland evergreen forest. The limestone forest is distributed on steep limestone slopes with shallow soil, and covers a large proportion of the national park. Lowland evergreen forest is distributed on shallow slopes with deeper soils. This forest type has a higher tree species diversity than limestone forest and has a richer ground flora.

Ba Be national park is particular suitable for  globally vulnerable Owston's Civet Hemigalus owstoni and Francois's Leaf Monkey Trachypithecus francoisi, although it appears that only one group of 7 to 13 Francois's Leaf Monkeys remains.

Especially, the globally critically endangered Tonkin Snub-nosed Monkey Rhinopithecus avunculus continues to occur within the core zone of Ba Be National Park. According to National Ba Be park staff, the species may have appeared in the north-west of the national park as recently as 1997.

According to a survey of Bird Life International and Fauna & Flora International on behalf of the Creating Protected Areas for Resource Conservation Using Landscape Ecology (PARC) Project, in 2002 and 2003, provided no evidence in support of the supposition that the species remains at Ba Be. There are many butterflies are living here, Ba Be also includes a high butterfly species richness. According to a survery during 1997 and 1998, 332 species were recorded here and 22 were new records for Viet Nam.