Vietnam’s Ministry of Planning and Investment has approved plans for a VND1tn (US$44.6m, €39.6m, £34.3m) 5sq km (1.9sq m) safari park development inside a protected national park.

With the government to fund 35 per cent of the development at a cost of US$15.6m (€13.8m, £12m), the remainder of funding will be privately sourced for the project being built within Bidoup-Nui Ba National Park (BNBNP) in Lac Duong District.

Known as Highland Safari, the development is a joint project between the BNBNP and Da Lat Tourism. Scheduled for completion in 2020, the park is expected to draw 1.2 million visitors annually, generating VND300m (US$13.4m, €11.9m, £10.3m) in annual revenue.

According to park director Le Van Huong, the attraction will be a ‘semi-wildlife’ park where animals will live in the forest but under the care of humans, which will benefit both the local economy and the local ecosystem.

BNBNP has been faced with a number threats, with illegal activities including hunting and trapping of wildlife, and harvesting of trees, which is mainly down to the poverty levels of people living adjacent to the national park, according to the conservation organisation The Forests Dialogue.

The developer has hired consultants from Austria and Singapore to study the area’s terrain, and take a tally of rare animals in Lac Duong, as well as look at other major safari parks worldwide to develop ideas for the new attraction.

The park will be Vietnam’s second-such development, following the launch of a park in December last year on the southern island of Phu Quoc.