It is named after Nam Poui village, also known as "Muang Pieng[2]" and is one of the 21 National Biodiversity Conservation Areas (NBCA) established by the Lao government.

The NBCA is located in the forested mountains of the Luang Prabang Range and shares a border with Thailand and three other national parks.

[3] It is part of the Luang Prabang montane rain forests ecoregion.

[4] Nam Poui NBCA is home to 50 - 60 Asian elephants, the largest wild population left in Laos.

It is because of this that the elephant and wildlife monitoring in Nam Poui NBCA needs to be strengthened.