The Nakai-Nam Theun National Biodiversity Conservation Area (NBCA) comprises one of the most pristine wildernesses remaining in South-East Asia. Nakai-Nam Theun NBCA covers approximately 3,445 km2 of the Annamite mountains and the adjacent Nakai Plateau in the provinces of Khammouane and Bolikhamxay.
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A series of surveys conducted since 1994 by the co-operative programme of the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the Lao Department of Forestry, and the World Conservation Union (IUCN) have revealed that the area has an extremely high biodiversity conservation value. Semi-evergreen forest, deciduous dipterocarp forest and stands of pine are all found on the Nakai Plateau and in the Annamite foothills to the east, grading into more exclusively evergreen forests as the land rises towards the Vietnamese border. Higher still, huge areas of montane fagaceous forest cloak the slopes, interspersed with patches of Fokienia hodginsii, a commercially valuable cypress-like conifer. On mountain-tops and above c. 2,000 m the fagaceous forest gives way to more stunted, rhododendron-dominated ericaceous cloudforest.
Species of mammals, some discovered relatively recently, include the saola, giant muntjac, and Indo-chinese Warty Pig. [1]
More than 400 bird species have been conclusively identified in Nakai-Nam Theun and the adjacent northern extension. This is by far the highest avian species richness of any site yet surveyed in Laos and is the highest recorded in a single protected area in South-East Asia.
There is only one main road which enters the heart of the NPA, and it is via Route 8B (around Ban Kengdaeng, Khamkeut District) to Ban Thamuang (on the Nam Sot) to Ban Navang (on the Nam Mon). The Nakai Plateau can also be accessed from Thakek via Route 12 and then Route 8 B to Nakai District Town and the Nakai Plateau.