It is home to many endemic species including the saola , large antlered muntjac, Truong Son muntjac, Owston’s civet, crested argus , Annamite striped rabbit, as well as other species of high conservation value including gibbons , red and grey shanked douc langurs and several pheasants. The landscape as a whole contains 134 mammal species and over 500 species of birds. The Central Annamites is included as part of the Annamite Range Moist Forests, one of the Global 200 Ecoregions which have been identified as the most crucial areas for conservation of global biodiversity (Olson & Dinerstein 1998). Within the Indochina region it is recognized as being an important biodiversity corridor containing multiple Key Biodiversity Areas within the Carbon and Biodiversity Programme (CarBi II) target areas of Quang Nam and Thua Thien Hue Provinces.

Although the Central Annamites and specifically the CarBi II landscape are characterized by high biodiversity, it is also under high anthropogenic pressures, predominantly due to large scale legal and illegal forest conversion, logging and poaching which have reduced the population sizes of the region’s most important threatened and endemic taxa.

Strong economic growth in Viet Nam since the 1990s has also resulted in large scale deforestation. Despite continued economic growth, much of Viet Nam’s rural population remains poor and dependent on natural resources to sustain their livelihoods. Even though Viet Nam’s forest cover is currently increasing, only a small part of these increased forest areas are classified as primary forests, while by far the biggest growth in forest cover is caused by the expansion of commercial plantations.
The project aims to effectively conserve biodiversity and ecosystems in the transboundary forest complex of the Central Annamites Landscape of Viet Nam and Laos through improved natural resources management by key role players. 

As such the project contributes to the conservation, restoration and sustainable use of ecosystems and the preservation of biodiversity in the Central Annamites.

The Carbon and Biodiversity Programme (CarBi II) is implemented by WWF through KfW, and part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety (BMU) supports this initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag.