The two were among 20 new sites approved at the ongoing session of the International Coordinating Council of UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Program in Nigeria.

New biosphere reserves are designated each year to promote sustainable development, protect terrestrial, marine and coastal ecosystems and encourage conservation.

The two new sites take the number of global biosphere reserves in Vietnam to 11, one of the highest in the world. In Southeast Asia, it is second only to Indonesia (19).

Other sites approved this year are in Canada, France, Italy, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Peru, Russia, South Korea, Spain, Thailand and Uzbekistan.

Situated at a height of 1,000 meters above sea level, Nui Chua National Park is seen as a green lung of the central Ninh Thuan Province. It has over nearly 20,000 hectares of primeval forests and is home to 300 animal species and 600 plant species.

Kon Ha Nung Plateau, around 400 km to Ninh Thuan's north, includes the two core zones of Kon Ka Kinh National Park and Kon Chu Rang Nature Reserve that cover 65,000 hectares. It has hundreds of animal and plant species, including rare ones like the gray-shanked douc langur.

There are now 727 UNESCO biosphere reserves in 131 countries and territories.