They were among 22 reserves across the world voted at a session of the International Coordinating Council of the Man and the Biosphere Programme, which was held in Nigeria from September 13-17. With the recognition, Vietnam has a total of 11 biosphere reserves, becoming a country with the second largest number of biosphere reserves in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia, which has 19 biosphere reserves.
Nui Chua Biosphere Reserve covers a total area of more than 100 thousand hectares and has a typical and unique dry forest ecosystem in Vietnam and Southeast Asia. It is one of the 200 globally important ecological regions and one of the highest conservation priority areas of all major habitat types on Earth.