Xe Sap

Xe Sap is a national park in the Annamite Mountains of southeastern Laos, spanning Sekong and Salavan provinces, with a protected area of 202,300 hectares that includes the 49,000-hectare Pale area^[1]. It lies along the Vietnamese border and covers a range of habitats from wet evergreen forest in the east to drier forest in the west^[2].

Species recorded or reported for Xe Sap include Roosevelt's muntjac, red-shanked douc, Annamite striped rabbit, crested argus and the saola^[1]. The saola has never been confirmed there by DNA or a camera-trap photo, but the wet evergreen forest in the east is considered ideal saola habitat, and a 2014 survey with 28 camera traps found moderate to high ungulate densities, though depressed by hunting. Asian elephant and tiger were present in earlier decades^[2].

The park supports evergreen, semi-evergreen and high-altitude montane forest. The east is wet evergreen forest with little or no dry season, while the western section has dry forest^[2].

Xe Sap lies on the Annamite Mountain Range, which runs along the Laos-Vietnam border. The sources consulted give no detail on its bedrock.

The climate is tropical monsoon, with a moisture gradient from east to west: the eastern part in Sekong is comparatively wet, and the western part in Salavan is much drier^[2].

Nearly 35 villages lie in and around the park^[1]. Shifting cultivation and logging have degraded much of the habitat over time^[2].

The area was long managed as the Xe Sap National Protected Area, and a Prime Minister's Decree announced on 25 June 2024 upgraded it to a national park, one of seven in Laos^[1]. The Pale extension was surveyed and demarcated under the SAoLA project^[1].

Xe Sap is valued mainly for its wildlife and remoteness rather than marked trails. It is one of the few places in the Annamites where the saola has been reported^[1].

The eastern section is very remote: in 2014 a survey team needed three days by car from Pakse and three more on foot to reach the village of Ban Kalo, and the road from Ban Pannon to Ban Kalo was impassable except on foot in the rainy season^[2].

Illegal hunting, especially wire snaring, is the main threat, and the 2014 survey found that many poachers appeared to cross the border from Vietnam; it recommended anti-poaching patrols and a permanent station in the Kalo region^[2]. The 2024 upgrade contributes to the global 30x30 biodiversity target^[1].