Endangered langurs protected in central region

A grey-shanked douc langur is filmed in the jungle of Ba Tơ district of Quảng Ngãi Province. Photo courtesy of Hoàng Quốc Huy

Positive results on the conservation of nature and endangered wildlife species have been recorded in field surveys at reserves and national parks in the central provinces of Quảng Nam and Quảng Ngãi by experts from the Centre for Conservation and Research (GreenViet) and international NGOs.

GreenViet reported that more than 300 individuals of the Critically Endangered (CR) grey-shanked douc langurs (Pygathrix cinerea) were found living in forest area of Quảng Nam and Quảng Ngãi Provinces.

Biodiversity protection and forest patrols have been working well in the area, creating safe shelters for the CR primates species and other endangered animals.

It recorded five groups, a total of around 30 individuals, in a survey during 32 treks in the Ba Tơ protected forest zone in Quảng Ngãi Province in 2024.

Meanwhile, a population of nearly 30 grey-shanked douc langurs from 1997 have been increased to 77 individuals, in a small area of primary forest in Tam Mỹ Tây commune in Núi Thành district of Quảng Nam province.

A ranger treks in the jungle in the central Quảng Nam Province. The province has been boosting the protection of nature and endangered species to support eco-tourism. VNS Photo Công Thành

A group of 95 CR individuals was reported living in the protected National Sông Thanh Park in Quảng Nam Province, according to the park’s director Đinh Văn Hồng.

Hồng said rangers and conservationists had trekked in the jungle between January to August of 2024, over a total route of 979km, to check on the critically endangered species and their natural habitat.

The conservation of endangered species and biodiversity in the park was funded by the Project on Sustainable Forest Management and Biodiversity Conservation in Việt Nam (VFBC) and Species Conservation Fund (SCF) under the USAID, Hồng explained.

More surveys and supervision activities on the species will be expanded in four new communes of La Dêê, Đắk Tôi, Đắk Pring and Đắk Pre in conservation plan in 2025-30, he added.

According to the central provincial people’s committee, the 77,000ha Sông Thanh National Park is one of the biggest carbon stores in central Việt Nam, with 38 species listed in the Red Book of Việt Nam and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Hoàng Văn Mát, a member of the VFBC Project, said a further conservation research would help identify a full data of the CR primate species in the park.

The park is considered to have the third largest population of the CR primate species after Ba Tơ district in Quảng Ngãi and Kon Ka Kinh National Park in the Central Highlands Gia Lai Province.

In a recent trek in jungle of Ba Tơ district, 60km south of Quảng Ngãi Provincial centre, Ba Trang commune recorded a crowd population of the grey-shanked douc langurs with four troops and 27 individuals, according to GreenViet.

Students from Đà Nẵng City-based Đông Á University join a conference on wildlife protection and elimination of violations in trafficking and consumption of endangered species. Photo courtesy of Kim Tuyến

The 46,000ha primary forest area in Ba Tơ District was reported as a safe shelter to 169 grey-shanked douc langurs in two surveys by Fauna & Flora International (FFI) and GreenViet in 2022, the conservationists reported.

The primary forest area could build links with the neighbouring Bình Định Province’s An Toàn Nature Reserve, and Gia Lai province’s Kon Chư Răng Nature Reserve in creating a great corridor in the world biosphere reserve.

Quảng Ngãi is one of five provinces in Central Việt Nam – including Bình Định, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, and Quảng Nam – where about 1,000 CR primates species are found living in nature.

Last year, two conservation projects on protection of two endangered primates species – red-shanked douc langurs (Pygathrix nemaeus) and grey-shanked douc langurs (Pygathrix cinerea) – of Synchronicity Earth from the UK, a charity focusing on global environmental conservation – were approved by the central city of Đà Nẵng and Quảng Ngãi province in improving biodiversity protection central Việt Nam in 2024-26.

GreenViet has been providing awareness improvement communication programmes for local communities in protection of endangered species in Quảng Nam, Quảng Ngãi provinces and Đà Nẵng City./VNS