USAID Helps Supervise Biodiversity in Central Vietnam

Authorities in Vietnam’s central province of Quang Nam have approved a project on supervising biodiversity in special-use forest which will receive nearly $247,000 worth of non-refundable aid from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). The World Wide Fund (WWF), the leading organization in wildlife conservation and endangered species, will conduct the project which aims to improve people’s awareness of natural conservation. The project with a focus on protecting Sao la or Pseudoryx nghetinhensis or Asian bicorn, is one of the world’s rarest large mammals, a forest-dwelling bovine found only in the Annamite Range of Vietnam and Laos, in Quang Nam, will last from November 2016 to August 2021. Sao la was discovered in May 1992 during a joint survey carried out by the Vietnamese Ministry of Forestry and the WWF in north-central Vietnam. The team found a skull with unusual long, straight horns in a hunter’s home and knew it was something extraordinary. (Baotainguyenmoitruong.vn Dec 3, Quangnam.gov.vn Dec 2)