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 Quang Nam and Quang Ngai 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 Quang Nam and Quang Ngai 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 To protected forest zone in Quang Ngai 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 My Tay commune in Nui Thanh district of Quang Nam province.
A group of 95 CR individuals was reported living in the protected National Sông Thanh Park in Qu?ng Nam Province, according to the park’s director Dinh Van Hong.
H?ng 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 Vietnam (VFBC) and Species Conservation Fund (SCF) under the USAID, Hong explained.
More surveys and supervision activities on the species will be expanded in four new communes of La De, Dak Toi, Dak Pring and Dak 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 Vietnam, with 38 species listed in the Red Book of Vietnam and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Hoang Van Mat, 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 To district in Quang Ngai and Kon Ka Kinh National Park in the Central Highlands Gia Lai Province.
In a recent trek in jungle of Ba To district, 60km south of Quang Ngai Provincial center, Ba Trang commune recorded a crowd population of the grey-shanked douc langurs with four troops and 27 individuals, according to GreenViet.
The 46,000ha primary forest area in Ba To 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 neighboring Binh Dinh Province’s An Toan Nature Reserve, and Gia Lai province’s Kon Chu Rang Nature Reserve in creating a great corridor in the world biosphere reserve.
Quang Ngai is one of five provinces in Central Vietnam – including Binh Dinh, Gia Lai, Kon Tum, and Quang 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 Danang and Quang Ngai province in improving biodiversity protection central Vietnam in 2024-26.
GreenViet has been providing awareness improvement communication programs for local communities in protection of endangered species in Quang Nam, Quang Ngai provinces and Danang City.