How cave conservation in vietnam led to an unexpected wildlife recovery

Three and a half decades ago, Vietnamese hunter Hồ Khanh made an extraordinary discovery while seeking shelter from a storm—he had stumbled into what would later be identified as the world’s largest cave. But in that moment, his attention quickly returned to his livelihood: hunting endangered species like slow lorises and pangolins, and harvesting valuable agarwood from the ancient karst limestone forests of central Vietnam and Laos.

At the time, wildlife was scarce in the region. Hồ and other local hunters had depleted animal populations through decades of poaching, selling slow lorises as exotic pets and pangolin scales for traditional medicine. The valuable agarwood trees were similarly overexploited for their fragrant heartwood, prized for ornaments and incense. Howard Limbert, a British cave explorer who began surveying the area in the 1990s with his wife Deb, recalls seeing barely any wildlife during their early expeditions.

Everything changed when the Limberts heard Hồ’s story about the mysterious cave entrance that led to “howling chambers.” In 2007, the British couple partnered with the former hunter to relocate what became known as Sơn Trà Cave—the world’s largest cave passage. This discovery helped establish stronger protections for what became Phong Nha-Kẻ Bàng National Park in 2001.

The conservation efforts that followed to protect these remarkable cave systems created an unexpected bonus: a dramatic wildlife comeback. As hunting pressure decreased and habitat protection increased, animal populations began recovering throughout the 400-million-year-old limestone landscape, demonstrating how protecting one natural wonder can create cascading benefits for entire ecosystems.