Kim Hy Proposed Nature Reserve
| Alternative site name(s) None Province(s) Bac Kan Area 18,555 ha Coordinates 22°11' - 22°18'N, 105°54' - 106°08'E Agro-ecological zone North-eastern Decreed by government No Management board established No |
Investment plan prepared Yes VCF eligibility criteria met A, B Social screening criteria met None Conservation needs assessment prepared No Operational management plan prepared No Tracking tool completed No Yes |
Management history
Kim Hy is not listed on any government decision regarding the national protected areas system (MARD 1997). In 1997, however, an investment plan prepared by North-western Sub-FIPI proposed establishing a 18,555 ha nature reserve, comprising all of Kim Hy, Luong Thuong, Lang San and An Tinh communes, Na Ri district, Bac Kan province (Pham Xuan Xuong 1997). This investment plan was approved by Official Letter No. 247/BNN-KH of MARD, dated 12 January 1998, and by Decision No. 811/QD-UB of Bac Kan Provincial People's Committee, dated 21 October 1998 (Bac Kan Provincial FPD in litt. 2000).
Subsequently, a nature reserve management board was established by Decision No. 1804/QD-UB of Bac Kan Provincial People's Committee, dated 1 September 2003. According to this decision, the area of the proposed nature reserve is 15,461 ha, and the area of the buffer zone is 20,528 ha. To date, however, staff have yet to be assigned to the management board, and the site is under the management of Na Ri District FPD (Bac Kan Provincial FPD in litt. 2003).
Kim Hy is included on a list of Special-use Forests to be established by the year 2010, prepared by the FPD of MARD, as an 18,555 ha nature reserve (FPD 2003); this list has not yet been approved by the government.
Topography and hydrology
In the south-west of Kim Hy, there is a large area of limestone karst. The limestone karst, which extends beyond the proposed nature reserve to the south and east, occupies less than 50% of the proposed nature reserve. In the north and east of Kim Hy, the topography is characterised by low mountains. Elevations in the proposed nature reserve range from c.250 to 938 m (Tordoff et al. 2000).
Biodiversity values
The vegetation in the north and east of the proposed nature reserve is characterised by a mosaic of swidden fields, secondary vegetation and remnant patches of lowland evergreen forest. This landscape is a result of shifting cultivation. In the south-west of the proposed nature reserve, there is a large area of limestone karst, which is almost entirely forested, except in a few small areas close to habitation (Tordoff et al. 2000). According to the investment plan, Kim Hy proposed nature reserve contains 9,409 ha of natural forest, including 7,104 ha of limestone forest (Pham Xuan Xuong 1997).
The results of a rapid field survey in 1999 (Tordoff et al. 2000) indicated that Kim Hy proposed nature reserve may support globally important populations of two primates: Francois's Leaf Monkey Trachypithecus francoisi, and the eastern subspecies of Black-cheeked Crested Gibbon Hylobates concolor nasutus. Subsequent field surveys (F. Momberg and M. Weil verbally 2003) confirmed the presence of Black-cheeked Crested Gibbon but indicated that only a handful of individuals survive.
In addition, Kim Hy supports several other species of global or national conservation importance, including Forest Musk Deer Moschus berezovskii, Southern Serow Naemorhedus sumatraensis, and the conifers Keteleeria davidiana, Pseudotsuga brevifolia and Tsuga chinensis var. chinensis (Tordoff et al. 2000).
Conservation issues
In the past, gold mining was a significant threat to biodiversity at Kim Hy. During the 1980s and 1990s, a large group of gold miners lived in the area (Geissmann and Vu Ngoc Thanh 1998). It is likely that, by living in the forest, these people caused increased levels of disturbance, hunting, forest clearance and firewood collection (Tordoff et al. 2000).
Presently, the activities with the greatest impact on forest resources are timber extraction and hunting. Timber extraction is focused on the valuable tree species Burretiodendron tonkinensis. Hunting is reportedly widespread throughout the proposed nature reserve, and primate taxa of global conservation concern are being hunted at unsustainable levels, which threatens to eradicate them from the area (Tordoff et al. 2000).
Other documented values
Kim Hy proposed nature reserve protects part of the watershed of the Bac Giang river, which flows east to join the Ky Cung river, which, in turn, flows through Lang Son province and into China.
Related projects
No information.
Conservation needs assessment
A conservation needs assessment has not been conducted for the site.
Operational management plan
An operational management plan has not been prepared for the site.
Eligibility against VCF criteria
Kim Hy is not currently eligible for VCF support because it is not under appropriate conservation management.
| Criterion |
Eligibility |
| AI |
NH2 - Northern Highlands Limestone |
| AII |
|
| BI |
Proposed Special-use Forest |
| BII |
Nature Reserve |
| BIII |
Under provincial management |
| CI |
|
| CII |
Social screening requirements
A social screening report has not been prepared for the site.
| Criterion |
Eligibility |
| A |
|
| B |
|
| C |
|
| D |
Literature sources
Geissmann, T. and Vu Ngoc Thanh (1998) Preliminary results of a primate survey in north-eastern Vietnam, with special reference to gibbons. Unpublished report to the Institute for Zoology, Hannover Zoological College.
Geissmann, T. and Vu Ngoc Thanh (in press) Preliminary results of a primate survey in north-eastern Vietnam, March 1998, with special reference to gibbons. Asian Primates.
Pham Xuan Xuong (1997) [Investment plan for Kim Hy Nature Reserve, Bac Kan Province]. Hanoi: North-western Sub-FIPI. In Vietnamese.
Phan Ke Loc, Nguyen Tien Hiep and Averyanov, L. V. (1999) [Keteleeria davidiana (Bertrand) Beissn. var. davidiana: one gymnosperm species newly recorded in northern Vietnam]. Pp 25-28 in: Le Sau ed. [Protection and sustainable development of forest and biodiversity in limestone areas of Vietnam] Hanoi: Forest Inventory and Planning Institute. In Vietnamese.
Tordoff, A. W., Vu Van Dung, Le Van Cham, Tran Quang Ngoc and Dang Thang Long (2000) A rapid field survey of five sites in Bac Kan, Cao Bang and Quang Ninh provinces: a review of the Northern Indochina Subtropical Forests Ecoregion. Hanoi: BirdLife International Vietnam Programme and the Forest Inventory and Planning Institute. In English and Vietnamese.
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