1. Geographical location
The Development Triangle located in the Cambodia - Laos - Vietnam border area covers the territory of the provinces that have borders with or are related to the common border area of the three countries, namely Mondulkiri, Rattanakiri and Stung Treng (Cambodia); Attapeu, Saravan and Se Kong (Laos); and Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Gia Lai and Kon Tum (Vietnam). The Triangle has a total natural area of 111,021 square kilometres and a total population in 2002 of approximately4,058 thousand inhabitants (with a population density of 37 inhabitants per square kilometre), of which:
- Theprovinces of Cambodia, i.e. Mondulkiri, Rattanakiri and Stung Trenghave a combined area of 37,636 square kilometres and a combined population of 247,8 thousand people, making up 33,9% and 6,1% of the total area and population of the whole Triangle, respectively; their population density is 7 inhabitants per square kilometre.
- The provinces of Southern Laos, i.e. Attapeu, Saravan and Se Konghave a combined area of 28,675 square kilometres and a combined population (in 2002) of 482,1 thousand people, representing 25,8% and 11,9% of the total area and population of the whole Triangle, respectively; their population density is nearly 17 inhabitants per square kilometre.
- The Vietnamese Central Highlands provinces, i.e. Dak Lak, Dak Nong, Gia Lai and Kon Tum, have a combined area of 44,710 square kilometres and a combined population (in 2002) of 3,328 thousand people, accounting for 40.3 % and 82.0 % of the total area and population of the whole Triangle, respectively; their population density is 74 inhabitants per square kilometre.
The Cambodia - Laos - Vietnam Development Triangle has border with Savannakhet province (Laos) and Quang Nam province (Vietnam) in the North, with the provinces of Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh, Phu Yen and Khanh Hoa (Vietnam) in the East, with the provinces of Lam Dong, and Binh Phuoc (Vietnam) and the provinces of Kompong Cham and Kratie (Cambodia) in the South, and with the provinces of Kompong Thom, Preah Vihear (Cambodia) and Champasak (Laos) in the West.
2. Climate
The climate in the Development Triangle is shaped by the impacts of sun radiation, circulation of atmospheric and geographical location, of which geographical location and altitude play the most important role in creating a monsoon, humid and tropical climatic region. Mainly affected by Southwest monsoon wind, summer and autumn are subject to a lot of rain with comfortable weather while there is little rain in winter and spring with severe water shortage and drought due to the impacts of the Northeast monsoon wind from the East of Truong Son Range.
The disadvantage of the climate is that in the rainy season, there are heavy and concentrated rains, easily leading to partial flood, soil erosion and landslide where forests are cut down in a large area.
Generally, the dry season is subject to severe water shortage and prolonged droughts resulting in dead trees and forest fires. Due to seriously depletion of forest coverage area, ecological environment in the Triangle has been in the deteriorated situation, execrating the severity of the prolonged dry season, increased water evaporation and natural disasters attributed to increased rains and flood.
Temperature
Temperature in the Triangle is characterized by a high temperature base, gradually declining from south to north and from low to high location.
- The areas with the high temperature base like Attapeu Delta, delta along rivers of Mekong, Sekong in Stung Treng and Rattanakiri, Cheo Reo lowland area... have a monthly average temperature of more than 250C.
- Low temperature areas like Boloven plateau, border highlands between Kon Tum, Sekong and Attapeu normally have a monthly average temperature of less than 210C.
- The annual average temperature range is relatively small, but the difference between day and night temperatures is relatively large, sometimes up to 150C.
The Triangle has a temperature regime favourable for agricultural production. The biggest problem of the Triangle is water shortage in the dry season. If the issue of water shortage is addressed, the Triangle with high temperature base and abundant land resource will have great potential for developing a diverse agricultural production of high economic efficiency.
Rainfall
- Rain regime in the Central Highlands:
In the Central Highlands, rains have been gradually increasing from lower to higher areas. Affected by topography and complicated spatial distributed rains, some areas have the rainfall which is two to three times higher than the others. The dry season normally starts from January to May and the rainy season from June to December. With its high location, the Central Highlands receive two air masses from the northeast and southwest, creating a special highland tropical, monsoon and humid climate. The upland areas like Plei Ku receiving southwest wind have a high rainfall (2,600 - 2,800 mm), higher than those in the lowland areas like Buon Ma Thuot plateau (1,600 - 1,800 mm). The areas that are protected from both southwest and northeast winds like Cheo Reo lowland have a very low rainfall (more or less 1,200 mm), An Khe, Krong Buk (about 1,400 mm). The annual average rainy days are subject to a big fluctuation among areas. The annual average number of rainy days in the plateaus of Plei Ku, Dak Nong and Buon Ma Thuot are 140 - 150 days. The figures in Ba River valley and Ea Soup high plain are only 100 - 120.
- Rainfall regime in the areas of Mondulkiri, Rattanakiri, Stung Treng, Attapeu, Saravan and Se Kong:
The rainfall regime in these areas results in two visible seasons: the rainy season normally starts in May and ends at the end of October and account for 80 - 90% of the rainfall all the year round; the dry season begins in November and ends at the end of April in the following year, accounting for only 10 - 20% of the entire year’s rainfall. The areas with a high annual average rainfall are Boloven plateau (Paksong station) with 3,374 mm, Attapeu delta with 2,270 mm, Rattanakiri and Stung Treng with 1,800 – 3,000 mm. The rainfall in less rainy areas also mounts to over 1,500 mm (the northern mountainous area of Attapeu and the south of Sekong province). The annual average rainy days are 140 - 150.
The Triangle is mainly located in the west of the Truong Son Range and therefore its topographic surface inclines gradually from east to west to receive west and southwest wind. The east side (the Central Highlands provinces) is sloppy to prevent east and southeast winds.
In general, the topography is complicatedly divided. However, it is characterised by clear hierarchy: the high hierarchy is located in the east and north while the low one in the west.
·Highlandtopography
This is the most typical topography, creating main surface of almost all provinces in the Triangle.
- The topography at the altitude of less than 300 m mainly comprises areas like plateau of Rattanakiri, Cheo Reo - Phu Tuc, Easoup...
- The topography at the altitude from 300 - 500 m mainly comprises areas along river of Dak PoKo, around Kon Tum town, An Khe, Thateng (Sekong), north of Sanam Say (Attapeu)...
- The topography at the altitude from 500 - 800m consists of the plateaus of Plei Ku and Buon Ma Thuot.
The highland topography is favourable for developing large scale agricultural and forest farms for perennial cash crops like coffee, rubber and tea etc. The biggest problem of the highland is water shortage in the dry season. Underground water is only suitable for perennial crops, which are resistant to drought.
·Mountainous topography
This type of topography mainly concentrates in the areas of watershed mountains between the basins of the Sekong and Se San Rivers (along the border of Laos and Vietnam and the border of Cambodia and Laos), northwest of Attapeu linking to Boloven plateau and the north, the east and southeast of the Central Highlands.
- Ngoc Linh is the most massive mountain range in the north of the Central Highlands stretching from north-northwest to south-southeast with the length of nearly 200 km. High mountain peaks can be named as Ngoc Linh with the height of 2,598 m, Ngoc Lum Heo: 2,023m and Ngoc Bin San: 1,939m.
- Between the two basins of Se San and Sekong rivers, there is a high mountain range, running in the south-north direction along the borderline from Thua Thien Hue to Quang Nam and to the border crossing of the three countries (the average altitude of the mountain peaks is about 1,300 – 1,500m) and in the west-east direction along the borderline between Attapeu and Rattanakiri (the average altitude of the mountain peaks is about 800 - 900m).
- To the south-southeast, there are the mountain ranges of Ngoc Krinh (with the height of 2,066m), Kon Kakinh (with the height of 1,748 m), Kon Boroa (1,532 m), Kon Sa Krong, Kon Bo Kmien (1,551 m). The Ngoc Krinh mountain range is the lowest located in Mang Giang pass (830 m), passing by the National Highway 19 from Quy Nhon to Plei Ku.
- The An Khe range is 175 km long and 30-40km wide, running from the south of Tra Khuc River to Ba River’s valley and is a massive stone mountain creating a natural barrier between the east and west of Truong Son. The common directions of these mountain ranges are north-northwest and south-southeast. The high peaks of over 1,000m are found in Ba and An mountains on the edge of the Cai River’s valley including the Chu Nhon Peak (1.284 m) to the south, and Chu Trian – the highest peak of An Khe Range with the height of 1,339 m located in the upstream of Ea Thul.
The mountainous area is one of complicatedly divided topography wherein the Triangle’s forests are mainly primitive and upstream ones. This is a less populated area whose population mostly comes from ethnic minority groups.
Construction of infrastructure for production and socio-economic development in this topography faces a lot of difficulties. In addition, this is the poorest area in terms of socio-economic development level.
Delta and valley topography accounts for a small area as compared to total natural land area of the Triangle. The followings are those with a considerable plain and valley area:
- Attapeu delta: This is one of 7 large deltas of Laos with the total natural land area of about 100,000 ha at the altitude of 100 - 110 m, sandwiched in the confluence of the branches of Sekaman, Se Su, Nam Kong, Se Nam Noi and Sekong rivers.
- The plain along the two sides of Mekong River (Stung Treng) and the fields along the rivers of Sekong, Se San, Spre pok (Stung Treng vµ Rattanakiri) have the altitude of less than 100 m.
- An Khe field has a width of 15 km and a length of about 45 km, located at the altitude of 400 - 500 m. This is a type of levelled and expanded valley between mountains. The valley has low, flat and hilly surface where a number of levelled basalt covered surface areas could be found.
- To the west of the Ngoc Krinh Range is Kon Tum lowland. Easoup low plain is the plain with some mountain remains.It is relatively flat at the altitude of 140 - 300 m, gradually inclining towards the west.
- The Cheo Reo - Phu Tuc lowland is located along the northwest – southeast fault from Kon Tum downwards. The surface of fields in Cheo Reo-Phu Tuc is relatively even with only some hilly remains.
- The Krong Pach - Lak lowland is situated in the south of Buon Ma Thuot plateau.
-The delta and valley topography area is the main one for developing food and foodstuff crops of the Triangle and has potential for developing fresh water aquaculture.
4. Natural resources
4.1 Land resource
The Development Triangle is an area with large area of fertile cultivated land and many areas of red basaltic soil and yellow red soil suitable for the development of high-value cash crops such as coffee, rubber, cashew and pepper and for that of animal husbandry. In fact, many concentrated cash crops production areas have been established in this Triangle, e.g. coffee (in Dak Lak, Gia Lai and Se Kong) and rubber (in Gia Lai, Kon Tum and Rattanakiri).
a) Main types of soil
The Triangle has abundant land resource with a large area of red basalt soil. The assessment of Agriculture Planning and Design Institute (Vietnam) and Lao’s Agriculture and Forest Research Institute (for two provinces of Sekong vµ Attapeu) indicates that the Triangle has 12 main groups of soil and 23 types of soil (under FAO/UNESCO soil classification), of which, Acrisols soil group occupies the large area of 5.4 million ha (63.14%) and Ferrasols soil group covers an area of 1.6 million ha (18.18%).
Generally, land potential in the Triangle is good for developing large-scale concentrated commodity production.
b) Land use status in 2002
In 2002, in the Triangle more than 1.2 million ha of on-using land were used for agriculture (accounting for 13.15% of natural land area), of which nearly 50 thousand ha were used for annual crops, 520 thousand ha for perennial crops, 47 thousand ha for pastures and nearly 2 thousand ha of water surface for aquaculture.
Although this is the mountainous and hilly upstream area of many big rivers and streams, its forest coverage area accounts for only 62% of the total natural land area. Due to improper forest exploitation in many years, barren land and bare hill currently cover a fairy large area of about 2 million ha and have been in a seriously degraded situation. Most of types of soil are under degradation at different degrees (of which, 71.7% of basalt soil is degraded including 21% of severe degradation and 50.7% of fair and moderate degradation). As a result, appropriate measures should be taken for land use in the coming time in order to combine bio-methods, technical solutions and compatible investments to replenish the soil fertile for putting it into agriculture and forest production and for protecting the ecological environment.
AgricultureLandUse Status in 2002
Unit: ha
|
The Development Triangle
|
By territorial area
|
Type of land
|
Total
|
%
|
Central Highlands
|
Laos
(1)
|
Cambodia
(2)
|
1. Land for annual crops
|
548,807
|
46.3
|
446,917
|
38,363
|
63,527
|
2. Garden land
|
67,793
|
5.7
|
65,795
|
766
|
1,232
|
3. Land for perennial crops
|
519,678
|
43.9
|
489,263
|
6,970
|
23,445
|
4. Pastures for cattle raising
|
46,808
|
3.9
|
3,968
|
30,540
|
12,300
|
5. Water surface for aqua-culture
|
1,947
|
0.2
|
1,785
|
102
|
60
|
Total
|
1,185,033
|
100
|
1,007,728
|
76,741
|
100,564
|
Source: - Statistics by Cambodia’s and Lao’s Agriculture Ministry (2002)
- Reports by Central Highlands’ provinces (2002) & Agriculture Planning and Design Institute
- (1) excluding data for Serevan ; (2) excluding data for Mondulkiri
4.2 Water resource
The researched area belongs to the basin of the two main river systems: Mekong river system (accounting for about 85% of natural area) and the river system flowing into the East Sea (accounting for 15% of natural area). The river and stream network is relatively dense and evenly distributed on the basins. This is the upstream area of the rivers and streams, thus having directly impacts on the downstream areas of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
a) The Mekong River system
In addition to the section of the Mekong River which is about 100 km long running through the territory of Stung Treng province, the river system here is composed of three major rivers, i.e. the Se Kong, Se San and Spre Pok.
-The Sekong Riversprings fromA Luoi district (Thua Thien Hue province, Vietnam) and runs from the North and Northeast to the South and Southwest through the provinces of Se Kong, Attapeu and Stung Treng before joining the Mekong River in Stung Treng provincial town. The major branch of this river is nearly 500 km, the area of its basin is approximately 29,600 km2(77% of which is found in the territory of Laos PDR, some 3% in Vietnam and about 20% in Cambodia), and its annual average water current in Attapeu is about 430 m3/s. In addition to the major branch, the Se Kong River consists of the following important branches:
+ Se Nam Noi River: This river originates from the Beknat mountain which is approximately1000 m above sea level and zigzags through the Boloven plateau along the main direction from South to North before joining the Se Kong River in Hun Nang village. Its basin covers an area of 1500 km2and its average annual water current is about 34.4m3/s.
+ Se Pian River: This river springs from Nong Poy village at the height of about 1,200 m above sea level, running mainly from Northwest to Southeast and from North to South. It flows into the Se Kong River in Hat Khai.The area of its basin is 3,300 km2and its average annual water current is around 17.1m3/s. Under the downstream of this river is a fairly large plain area that facilitates the utilisation of water resources for agricultural development purposes.
+ Sekaman River: This river is a large branch of the Se Kong River with an important branch called Se Xu River serving as an important source of water for the Attapeu plain. The Sekaman River originates from the high mountains in the Vietnam – Laos border area (between Quang Nam and Se Kong provinces) at the height of about 1,350 m above sea level. It runs from North to South and then Northeast to Southwest before pouring into the Se Kong River in Attapeu provincial town. The area of its basin is approximately 6,470 km2and its average annual current is some 143 m3/s.
+ Nam Kong River: This river springs from the Laos - Cambodia border area at the height of 700 m above sea level, running mainly from East to West, and flows into the Se Kong River in Nam Kong village. Its basin covers an area of about 1,750 km2.
- Se San River:The Se San River springs from the high mountain range in East of Kon Tum and runs from North to South and from North East to South West through the provinces of Kon Tum, Gia Lai and Rattanakiri before joining the Sre Pork River near Stung Treng provincial town. The area of its basin up to Veunsai (where Lower Se San Hydropower Plant No. 1 is located) is approximately 15,555 km2(11,450 km2of which are found in the Central Highlands of Vietnam). The major branches of this river include Poko, Dak Bla (Vietnam), Prec Can Chan, Nam Dziec, Dak Lieng and others (Cambodia).
- Sre Pork River:The Sre Pork River springs from the North of Da Lat province and the East of Dak Lak province of Vietnam, running from East to West and then from South East to North East through the provinces of Dak Lak, Mondulkiri, Rattanakiri and Stung Treng to join the Se San River in Luong village before merging with the Se Kong River near Stung Treng provincial town. The area of the river basin up to Lumpat (Sre Pork Hydropower Station No. 1) is approximately 26,350 km2(about 11,721 km2of which belong to the Central Highlands provinces of Vietnam). The main branches of this river include Krong Ana, Krong Kno, EaH'leo (Vietnam), Prec Chba, Dak Dam, Prec Drang... (Cambodia).
b) The system of rivers flowing into the East Sea:
- The Ba River springs from the North East of Gia Lai province and runs from North to South, then North West to South East. The area of its basin is some 11,410 km2.
- The Dong Nai River system originates from the South West of Dak Lak province and runs from North East to the South West. The area of its basin is 22,600 km2.
c) Potentials for hydropower
According to the research of the Mekong River Commission conducted in 1970, the potentials for hydropower of the major rivers of the Triangle are as follows:
·Hydropower plants over the Mekong river:
- Khon Waterfall hydropower plant (located in the section of Stung Treng province that has border with Champasak of Laos): The installation capacity of the plant is 750 MW and the power output is 6,220 GWh per annum. In addition, the plant can water about 200,000 ha of land.
- Stung Treng hydropower plant (can be an alternative for Sekong hydropower plant No. 1 and 2): The installation capacity of the plant is 3,400 MW and the power output is 24,554 GWh per annum. In addition, the plant can water 700,000 ha of land and regulate to reduce the water current of the river during flood season to about 25,000m3/s.
·Hydropower plants over the major branches of the Mekong river basin:
- In the provinces of Laos there are 14 hydropower projects with a combined installation capacity of 3,131 MW, a combined power output of 15,613 GWh per annum, and a possible watering capacity of 103,000 ha of agricultural land. These include Se Kong hydropower plants (No. 3, 4 and 5), Sekaman hydropower plants (No. 1, 2, 3 and 4), Se Su plant, Nam Kong plants (No. 1, 2 and 3), Se Nam Noi plant, Dak E meule plant, H. Lamphan Nial plant...
- The hydropower potentialsin the provinces of Cambodia include: LowerSe San1,Lower Se San2, Sre Pork1, Sre Pork 1, Sre Pork3 (with a combined installation capacity of 782 MW, a combined power output of 2,360 GWh per annum, and a possible watering capacity of 205,000 ha of agricultural land),etc.
- In the three Central Highlands provinces of Vietnam, there are 16 hydropower projects with a combined installation capacity of 1,081 MW, a power output of 5,210 GWh per annum, and a possible watering capacity of 14,500 ha. Major projects in the upstream area of the Se San River include Dak Bla, Plei Krong, Se San No. 4, Yali Waterfall hydropower plants... Those in the upstream area of Sre Pork include Krong Ana, Krong Kno, Dak Mam, Krong Pach hydropower plants, etc.
d) Underground water potentiality
Given a relatively large amount of annual rainfall and the water absorption, and the maintenance of a number of geological formations, the underground water of the Triangle plays an important role in maintaining water balance. The underground water in the basaltic formations plays the most significant role, followed by Neogen sediment formations and the formation faults. In general, the quality of underground water in the Triangle satisfies the livelihood and production requirements for water.
The reserve of underground water in the Central Highlands has been identified in the existing documents: the C2industrial reserve (potentially exploitable reserve) of some basaltic plateaus, such as Plei Ku is 1,422,000 m3/day, Buon Ma Thuot is 2,030,000 m3/day...
In summary, the water resources of the Development Triangle are severely limited in the dry season. In areas with low forest coverage, rivers and streams are dry and shallow and the level of underground water is very low. Since the upstream of most rivers and streams are found in the Triangle, the availability of water resources (mainly surface water) has direct impacts not only on the Triangle itself, but also on the downstream areas of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.
4.3 Forest, flora and fauna resources
The border area of the three countries enjoys a remarkable advantage with respect to the flora. In addition to forest resources, extremely abundant and diverse systems of flora and fauna are found in this area.
a) Forest resources
The provinces situated in the Development Triangle have the largest share of natural forest area compared to other provinces in their respective countries. The forests in the Triangle are characterised by many kinds of valuable wood, abundant and diverse systems of plants and animals. The Triangle is also a place where many natural conservation areas like Sesup, Amdongphan and Sepian (in Laos), Veunsai, Lumpat and Phu Nom Nam Lo (in Cambodia) are found. The total area of forest land in the Triangle is about 6.87 million hectares, of which more than 2.39 million hectares belong to the Central Highlands provinces of Vietnam, about 1.88 million hectares belong to the provinces of Laos and the remaining 2.6 million hectares belong to the provinces of Cambodia. The forest in the Central Highlands provinces (which accounts for 53.45% of their natural area) is the treasure of many precious and rare genes available in the tropical nature of Vietnam. The Southern provinces of Laos are those that have the highest rate of forest coverage in the Triangle with their combined forest area accounting for nearly 65.5% of their combined natural area. The area of forest in the provinces of Cambodia makes up nearly 69% of their natural area of which old forests account for approximately 50% of the total forest area including a natural conservation area of some 630 thousand hectares. The Development Triangle plays an important role in maintaining and protecting natural resources, especially land and water resources and bio-diversity, which are considered to be invaluable resources of each nation.
b) Flora resource
The forest flora system of the Triangle comprises of numerous species. To date, statistics indicate that over 3,000 species of high-grade plants have been known, of which, there are 600 species of giant wood trees with the height of 12 m or more, many species of special or semi-special use as well as several survived plants that are considered scarce and valuable ones in the world such as Glyptostrobas Penslis, three-leave pine trees, etc. In addition, two new plant species of Vietnam’s flora system were discovered in Yok Don National Park, namely “quao xe tua” and black-fur kapok trees. The forest ecological system possesses many valuable timber species such as afelia Xylocarpa, Dalbergia Dongnaiens Pierr, Ptercarpus Pedalus Pierr, Sindora Cochinchinensis, Shorca Siamnensis... and a large number of oil-bearing plant families such as Dipterrocapus Tubecellatus, Dipterrocerpus Obtusiolius, etc.
The results of the survey on medical plants in the Central Highlands show that each province has some 300 - 400 species of medical plants, including important ones like hibiscus sagittifolius, aleurites motana, bastard cardamom, kaempferia galanga, homalomena aromatica, white polygonum mulliflorium, stemonettuberosa, dioscorea persimilis prain et burk and some other medical plant species distributed within small areas such as camellia, Panax Vietnamenis, etc.
In addition to the above-mentioned natural medical plants, the Triangle also possesses an abundant cultivated plant resource, including many specialty crops of high economic value such as perennial and short term cash crops, fruit trees, medical plants, oil bearing plants, vegetables and decoration trees. To date statistics indicate that in the Triangle (mainly in the Central Highlands) there are over 300 cultivated plant species, including over 3/4 of imported ones from different climate zones in the world.
c) Fauna resource
Wild animal resource in general and livestock in particular in the Development Triangle of the three countries of Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam are very abundant. Several animal species are not only of high economic value for export and tourism but also of great scientific significance in the world. However, these potentials and advantages have not yet been given attention for efficient exploitation.
Conservation of fishery sector is the key element for sustainable development because of some species have already declined in abundance and endangered or critically endangered as a result of over fishing or change of hydrology and habitat.
Statistics indicate that in the Central Highlands alone, there are 525 species of terrestrial vertebrate animals including 102 animal species, 323 bird species and 91 reptile species and more than 70 fresh water fish species. Specially, there are 32 scarce and valuable species named in the red book and 17 ones ranked as by rare and valuable species in the world to be strictly protected by the International Natural Protection Association (IUCN) such as bull, ben teng bull (forest bull), kypray cow (grey cow), tiger, lion, rhino, Ca Tong deer, yellow deer, pea-cock, pheinadia cocellata, red face chicken,etc.
In addition, this is a region with a relatively large number of elephants and hoof group as well as herbivore animals. There are also many species of smaller animals like deer, wild pigs… as a food supply source for local people.
The Triangle’s conditions are relatively suitable for developing livestock and poultry raising such as buffalo, goat, pig, chicken, duck, wild goose, and the potential for raising them is still very great. In spite of water and animal feed shortage in the dry season, if proper development methods are employed, it is certain that animal husbandry, especially livestock raising, will be strongly developed in the Triangle.
In summary, the bio-resource in the Triangle is very diverse and abundant in terms of the number of species and varieties of scarce and valuable ones. This is a region with natural tropical genetic source and one of the regions with very high bio-diversity, playing a very important role in socio-economic development cause and genetic source preservation in Southeast Asia. However, over the past years due to improper exploitation, the Triangle’s bio-resource has been considerably depleted with many valuable and scarce species under the threat of extinction. As a result, investment in protecting, conserving and developing the bio-resource in the Triangle is one of the investment directions that needs to be given priority.
5. Mineral resources
Potentials for diverse mineral resources are available in the Development Triangle where bauxite, gold and precious stone mines, etc. are found. Over 200 mines and ore points are found in the Central Highlands provinces. Notably, the raw bauxite ore reserve is 305 billion tons and the volume of fine ore is 1.5 billion tons. As many as 21 points of gold are found here; their combined reserve includes 8.82 tons of original gold and 465 tons of gold ore scattered in these three provinces. Precious stones are found in Dak Min, Chu Se, Plei Ku, Dak Me, Dak Hia and include many different kinds like turquoise blue and blue stones, opal, brown, white, yellow, black grey stones, bauxite and iron mines, etc. Although adequate surveys and assessments of mineral resources in the southern part of Laos are yet to be available, the major mineral resources in this area seems to include copper, tin and gold ores and precious stones (in Attapeu); coal, gold, bauxite etc.Diverse mineral resources are found in the two provinces of Stung Treng and Rattanakiri including gold, base metals, dolomite, coal and gems of various kinds. In the last decade, new gold and gems deposits are accidentally discovered in Rattanakiri province and this proves that the area possess a high potential in minerals.