Xe Bang Nouan. Abbreviated: XBN

Established by PM Decree 164, 29 October 2024

Latitude: 15º44' - 16º01' N
Longitude: 105º33' - 106º18' E.

Scale I :100,000

Scale I :200,000

Scale I :500,000

Salavan
Savannakhet

Songkhon
Tha Pang Thong
Salavan
Toumlan
Vapi
Lakhonpheng

km

Generally following the outside base of the hills forming the Xe Bang Nouan watershed.

as decreed: 1,260 km²

Road access is possible on rough all weather roads to within 1-15 km boundary in the west, north and south. Seasonal branch roads provide access to near the boundary and to Ban Nalan in the heart of the NBCA.

Residents of some 65 villages within 3 km of the boundary use forest products especially damar, fish, sticlac and medicinal plants. Three enclave substist mainly on sale of damar, livestock and shifting cultivation

NBCA declared

The eastern portion is flat to gently rolling terrain under 400 m north and south of the Bang Nouan river. The flats are bounded by low hills to the north and the south. In the central portion the river breaks through a large block of steep hills. East from the hills the river again flows in a wide valley rising north, south, and east to hills the crest of which demarcates the edge of the Bang Nouang catchment.

<200 m - >1000 m

About 87% of the area is forested, with 51% dense/mature forest:
Evergreen forest 39 %
Dry dipterocarp forest 21%
mixed decidous forest 27%
other natural forest 12%
Most of the lowland evergreen forest has been logged. Forest cover toward the upper reaches of the river and its tributaries is increasingly sparse and open due to drier conditions

• Rocky flats or grass and shrub on thin soils are frequent on the western rise to the central hills.

• Saltlicks

• Forest degradation as a result of damar collection and the attending clearing and fire

• Intensive fishing with indigenous poison of virtually all accessible streams

• Fishing with explosives

IUCN (1995). Protected Area Fact-Sheets. Annex 3 to the mid-1995 status report on protected area system planning and management in Lao PDR. Vientiane .