Vietnam Environmental NGO Visits U.S. to Learn about Biodiversity Conservation

A group of environmentalists from the non-governmental organization GreenViet Biodiversity Conservation Center won a scholarship package from American real estate billionaire Beth Molasky to travel to the U.S. to learn measures to preserve the red-shanked douc (Pygathrix nemaeus), the queen of primates. During the forty-five days traveling and studying in the U.S., the GreenViet group got to attend an international seminar on primates where they met Dr. Jane Goodall and gained valuable knowledge that could help preserve the red-shanked douc in Son Tra. They also had the chance to introduce international experts the species, which are found living in Son Tra peninsula in Vietnam’s central city of Danang. The world’s second largest population of Delacour’s langurs, a critically endangered primate indigenous to Vietnam, has recently been discovered in the forests of northern Vietnam, giving hope to the conservation of this rare species. According to the non-government organization Fauna & Flora International (FFI) Vietnam, the population of langurs consists of seven troops with as many as 40 individuals, marking it the largest population of the primate in Vietnam. The NGO declines to give the exact location of the discovery in fears of poaching and has notified the authorities to protect the Delacour’s langur population. The Delacour’s langur is a primate indigenous to Vietnam, first discovered by and named after Jean Théodore Delacour in 1930. (Cadn Sept 8)