The Nam Ha National Park is situated in the extreme northwest of the Laos, in Luang Namtha Province, and comprises 222,400 hectares of land ranging from the lowlands of the Luang Namtha Plain to the 2,000-m-high peaks of its northern highlands. The altitude ranges from 560 m on the plain to 2,094 m at the highest peak and thus, supports a wide variety of flora. Exploring by boat, Simon Crerar shared a mutual curiosity with Laotian villagers
We are sitting beside a river in northern Laos, eating the best meal of our lives: dried buffalo meat, raw red chilli, river algae and cold sticky rice, served on banana leaf. You don’t endure transcontinental flights, spine-jarring bus rides and manic tuk-tuks just to eat lunch. My girlfriend and I are here to explore the vast new Nam Ha national park. With our guide, Bouaket, and his assistant, Mr Pow, we will spend three days travelling down the Nam Ha River, in valleys reachable only by boat, sleeping each night in a different village. Earlier, our departure had been watched by hoards of half- inquisitive, half-scared kids. Soon we were steering our inflatable kayaks through lively rapids. Travelling by river, we hoped to skip the gruelling hikes that typify many treks. The first morning’s paddling alone through gorgeous primary- growth rainforest has justified the cost of the trip ($420 a person). Later we will see troops of monkeys in treetops, huge lizards basking in the sun, soaring eagles, kingfishers and swimming snakes, plus a dazzling array of butterflies and dragonflies. Over lunch, Ket explains that we are now entering a region populated by tribes who arrived here hundreds of years ago from China and Burma; people with their own languages and unique From 1998 to 2003, direct threats to the priority areas were determined. Threats include hunting of wildlife for sale or food, over-harvesting of non-timber forest products, and slash and burn agriculture. A threat assessment was used to rank the area, intensity, and urgency of the direct threats so that protected area activities could be prioritized to reduce the most serious threats to site biodiversity. Activities, which were carried out over the next several years, included the training of a National Protected Area Unit to implement natural resource management, enforcement, and conservation education. In 1999, a plan for research and monitoring was initiated in order to determine the effectiveness of management activities for reducing threats and sustaining species.
Set to begin in October 2005, this project will take place within the Nam Ha National Protected Area (Nam Ha NPA). Forests form the economic base for rural communities: they provide food, fuel, medicine, and construction materials. A significant portion of subsistence needs and income come from Non-Timber Forest Products (NTFP). WCS will work in collaboration with the Adventist Development Relief Agency (ADRA), who is currently working within seven villages on the outskirts of the Nam Ha NPA as part of the ADB Northern Economic Corridor project. ADRA is committed to integrated rural development and seeks WCS assistance in natural resource management. WCS work in this area in the past (make link to Nam Ha NPA page) show that people hunt a lot of wild animals for food, and that most animals weigh less than two kilograms because larger mammals have been killed off or displaced by habitat destruction. Together, ADRA and WCS hope to create a more sustainable way of life for villagers near the Nam Ha NPA. The project will incorporate village-based surveys of the abundance of NTFP and wildlife in the forest, the development of village rules to manage the harvest of these resources and the development of a monitoring system of NTFP and wildlife harvestin The Nam Ha National Protected Area (NPA) was established in 1993 with the introduction of the Lao PDR protected area system. Nam Ha NPA is located in Luang Namtha province in northern Lao PDR. It spans five districts and covers 222,300 hectares of evergreen and broadleaf forests and harbors 288 species of birds and at least 38 species of mammals. In a biological prioritization of the country’s 20 protected areas, Nam Ha ranked 3rd for birds and 5th for large mammals in a national species analysis. Overall Nam Ha ranked third in the national management priority index. This was based on the value of the biodiversity, watershed, eco-tourism potential, and level of pressure on the site. Nam Ha NPA harbors the endangered Asian elephant, four large cat species of which the tiger and clouded leopard are listed as globally threatened, Sun bear and Asiatic black bear, and six ungulate species including the vulnerable guar and southern serow. WCS has been active in the Nam Ha NPA since 1996, and this site has become a Lao model for protected area management. The project was initiated with participatory rural appraisals and village “buy-in”. Village wildlife reports were followed up by a wildlife and habitat survey by a joint Department of Forestry/WCS survey team early in 1997, which concentrated on large mammals and birds. Based on these reports, several habitat areas were identified for priority action, and in 1999 the Prime Minister tripled the size of the NPA, making it the third largest protected area in the country. In December 2003 the Prime Ministers Office declared the Nam Ha NPA to be the only Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) Heritage Park in the Lao PDR.
The Lanten speak their own language and write a script based on Chinese characters. They worship ancestors and village spirits. There is no school. The children pummel rice as soon as they can walk. Grandmothers carry babies, toddlers stumble around with machetes.
The women’s thick black hair is swept up and held in place with chunky silver jewellery; most intriguingly they have no eyebrows (they are removed to mark the end of childhood).
We sleep in simple huts. To avoid headmen pocketing all the money from such visits, families take it in turns to look after visitors. Arriving somewhere like Ban Nam Khoy makes me feel like a 19th-century colonialist discovering a “savage” people. Elsewhere in Laos the outside world is gradually creeping in. Out here, we feellike exhibits in a human zoo , the locals gather around to try out Helen’s sunglasses, fiddle with our playing cards and press my watch’s luminous button. At dinner, every mouthful is tracked by dozens of pairs of shy eyes. We feel lucky to catch a way of life probably doomed to extinction as Laos develops. Next evening, we stay at the more prosperous Khamu village of Ban Hat Yong, sleeping in a shaky bamboo hut beside a shop selling “Colon” biscuits, cashew nuts and warm beer. The Khamu wear Tibetan-style tunics and wonderfully fluorescent tartan headscarves. Many women sport the ruined gums of the betel-nut addict. The older men smoke opium. Scores of children clamber over each other to watch us change. Later, we find the entire village crammed into a hut watching uproarious stand-up comedy videos, the generator powered by a boat propeller dangled in the river. Skipping the show, we gaze in wonder at the darkest, most star-packed sky we have ever seen. We doze off beside a clucking chicken. Next morning, the same bird is boiling in the breakfast pot.
