Yok Don National Park

who we are

 

Established in 1992, Yok Don National Park covers over 115,000 hectares in western Dak Lak Province in the Central Highlands. It is bisected by Srepok River, one of the major tributaries of the Mekong, and borders Cambodia to the west.

Characterised by flat, lowland landscape with an average altitude of 200m, the natural resources of the park are abundant, diverse and unique. Yok Don features dry deciduous forests, semi-deciduous forests, horned bamboo forests and semi-evergreen forests, and the forests of the park also provide a large amount of dried gum using in paint industry.

In addition, Yok Don boasts rare and precious wild animals in Indochina, with a large concentration of Asian elephants, gaur, bunting and Samba deer as well as smaller numbers of Brow-antlered deer, tiger, giant muntjac, leopard and green peafowl.

what we do

The park's mandates include management and protection, conservation and development, developing eco tourism and increasing the living standards of minorities in the area. There are three communes including 25 villages with over 2,000 households of indigenous ethnic minorities such as Ede, M'nong, Laotian, Gia rai, Tay and Muong, who depend mainly on swidden cultivation and hunting.

The Park aims to protect the forests by protecting people living in the forests. We believe the forests become beautiful when forest people acquire a decent life. By finding stable, alternative sources of income for the villagers such as ecotourism activities, we are working to improve the park's role as habitat for wildlife.