In Vietnam, A Rush To Save The World's Largest Cave From The Masses

The world’s largest cave, the mammoth Hong Son Doong in Vietnam, is a relative babe-in-arms when it comes to natural history: The cavern was first discovered in 1991, then lost, then found again before it was first explored in 2009. But less than a decade later, environmentalists are scrambling to save the site from thousands of tourists and a development company set on thrusting a cable car into its depths. Located in Phong Nha-Ke Bang national park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, Son Doong stretches more than 5.5 miles underground, reaches heights of 650 feet and is home to its own jungle, ecosystem and river. Just one tour company has a concession to venture into the cave, and only a few hundred people are allowed inside the fragile environment every year. But that could soon change. HuffPost RYOT spoke with local activists, cavers and the spelunkers who first explored Son Doong about the local government’s secretive plans that may allow developers to build a massive cable car project that’d bring more than 1,000 people to the cave each day. Such threats are not new. In 2014, a group of local activists helped stave off a proposal to build a $212 million, 6.5 mile-long cable car throughout Phong Nha-Ke Bang park that would traverse parts of Son Doong. The announcement drew widespread condemnation despite assurances from the cable car company, Sun Group, that it would be an environmentally friendly way to view the park that’d bring “thousan...
Source: Science - The Huffington Post - Category: Science Source Type: news