Nui Chua National Park

Geography and establishment

The park sits at the eastern edge of the South Central Coast, on ground rising from sea level to 1,039 m at Co Tuy peak, the highest point of the Nui Chua massif^[1][2]. National Route 1 bounds it to the west, the South China Sea to the south and east, and the southern part of Cam Ranh Bay to the north^[2]. The Vietnamese Wikipedia article gives the park's own coastline as just over 40 km, and separately notes that if the boundary is drawn along the whole natural mountain block, reaching Mui Xop at the mouth of Cam Ranh Bay, the coastline extends to about 57 km and the north to south distance to about 33 km^[1].

The reserve that preceded the park became a national park on 9 July 2003 under Decision 134/2003/QĐ-TTg of the Prime Minister^[1], a decision the English Wikipedia article cites in the shorter form 134/QĐ-TTg^[2]. The area is given as 298.65 km² in both language editions of Wikipedia and in the Wikidata record^[1][2][3], though the body of the English article instead totals 24,353 ha across a strict protection zone of 16,087 ha, a rehabilitation zone of 8,261 ha and an administration and services area of 5 ha, adding a further 11,200 ha of buffer zone and an adjoining 7,352 ha marine protected area^[2]. Rainfall in the area averages about 650 mm a year, among the lowest in Vietnam, and the dry season runs for roughly eight months, from around November to July or August^[2].

Biodiversity

The park holds 72 recorded mammal species and 181 bird species, including what is reported as the largest known population of the black shanked douc in Vietnam, alongside the pygmy loris, the Asian black bear, the sun bear, the large antlered muntjac and the siamese fireback^[2]. Twelve bat species have been recorded, including the lesser short nosed fruit bat^[2].

The park holds eleven species of turtle, terrestrial and marine, which its English Wikipedia article calls the highest for a Special Use Forest in Vietnam; several of its beaches are described there as the last nesting sites on mainland Vietnam for small numbers of green turtles and other marine turtles on the IUCN Red List^[2]. The fringing reefs carry 307 recorded coral species in generally good to excellent condition; a survey for WWF found 46 species new to Vietnam’s known distribution records and a coral community structure distinct from other Vietnamese reefs^[2].

People and land use

About 30,000 people live inside the park boundary and a further 25,000 in its buffer zone, most of them Kinh, Cham or Raglai; the Raglai make up about 21 percent of this population and the Cham about 3 percent^[2]. Wet rice covers more than 600 ha of the park, shifting cultivation more than 2,500 ha and industrial cropland more than 750 ha^[2]. Rice, banana, cashew, papaya, jackfruit and pineapple support residents for part of the year, and forest products, chiefly timber, charcoal and fuelwood, are reported to supply 56 percent of household income^[2].

Protection status

UNESCO recognised the surrounding area as a World Biosphere Reserve at the 33rd session of the Man and the Biosphere Programme's International Coordinating Council, held in Nigeria; the government portal Chinhphu.vn reported the decision on 16 September 2021 as taken at the afternoon session of 15 September, giving the reserve a total area of 106,646.45 ha with Nui Chua National Park as its core zone^[4]. The Vietnamese Wikipedia article instead dates the designation to 14 April 2021 and gives a rounded area of 106,600 ha, recognised at the same time as the separate Kon Ha Nung Biosphere Reserve in Gia Lai province^[1]; the two sources disagree on the date.

The park lies in Vinh Hai commune, formed on 16 June 2025 under Resolution 1667/NQ-UBTVQH15 by merging the former communes of Nhon Hai, Thanh Hai and Vinh Hai^[6]. Before 1 July 2025, when Ninh Thuan merged into Khanh Hoa under Resolution 202/2025/QH15, the park lay in Ninh Hai district of Ninh Thuan province^[5]. It is now managed jointly with the neighbouring Phuoc Binh National Park, under the Nui Chua - Phuoc Binh National Park Management Board of Khanh Hoa province, according to the park's own website^[7].