THE RED-SHANKED DOUC LANGUR DESERVES TO PLAY THE AMBASSADOR ROLE FOR DANANG
On the occasion of the 3rd International Conference on illegal wildlife trade hosted by Vietnam in Hanoi, GreenViet’s representatives were invited to have a discussion with Prince of the UK and Ambassador of the US about Son Tra’s doucs.
In November 17 and 18, “Hanoi conference on illegal wildlife trade” held in Hanoi was attended by over 100 senior delegates from France, the US, Britain, the Philippines, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, etc. especially with the participation of the United Kingdom’s Prince William. Information about the conference is posted via this website: http://iwthanoi.vn/.
GreenViet participated in the conference with the aim of sharing the activities which have been implemented in an effort to reduce wildlife consumption in Da Nang city. Since 2014, Greenviet has been funded by the CEPF Fund (Fund conservation of critical ecosystems) through the International Union for Conservation of Nature IUCN to cooperate with local partners in organizing social communication campaigns, especially on the program implemented at Danang airport and 300 Mai Linh taxis from 2014 to 2015.
In addition to these contributions and share in this conference, GreenViet staff were also invited to have dinner at the home of the US Ambassador, Mr. Ted Osius, and have a talk with Britain’s Prince William and other NGOs to share stories of wildlife conservation in Vietnam.
GreenViet shared the story about the red-shanked douc langur in Son Tra to emphasize the efforts of Da Nang’s community and government in keeping a balance between economic development and nature conservation for long-term sustainable growth. The US Ambassador and the UK Prince were excited to receive presents from GreenViet – the stuffed doucs. GreenViet also invited Prince William to take his wife and his son to visit Son Tra one day and emphasized that such visits will help the government and people of Danang have more motivations and pride in putting efforts on saving the douc’s population in Son Tra.
The red-shanked douc langur is one of 26 species and subspecies of primates of Vietnam. This species is distributed in the wild only in Indochina, including Vietnam where has an important distribution. In Vietnam, the Red-shanked douc langur has a scattered distribution in fragmented forests from Nghe An to Kon Tum, Gia Lai. Only the population of this species in Son Tra Peninsula is easily researchable, accessible and manageable. In the other forests, there has not been sufficient assessment of the species’ population size and habitat yet. This douc species are prioritized for protection in Appendix I of Decree 160, Group IB Decree 32 and listed as endangered (EN) in the Red Data Book of Vietnam (2007) and IUCN (2015).
The population of the red-shanked douc langur makes a great value for Da Nang, not only because of the rare beauty of this species but also its family living style’s behavior (small group) that evokes close and interesting feelings for humans. Previously, due to the effects of the visits of Prince of Denmark (2015) and Deputy US Ambassador in Vietnam (2015) and other expert groups, the red-shanked douc langur in Son Tra has received great attention of Da Nang’s government such as the Department of Foreign Affairs, Department of Culture, Sport and Tourism. Additionally, this species was recommended to be named as Da Nang’s symbol for Summit APEC 2017, and stuffed doucs were given as gifts for the guests and athletes in the 5th Asian Beach Games (ABG5).
Currently, the status Son Tra Peninsula and the population of the red-shanked douc langur is pretty vulnerable because Da Nang government has been facing lots of pressures in keeping a balance between economic development and nature conservation. Hopefully, such contributive efforts from the community are added incentives for the city government to make the right decisions for Da Nang’s long-term development.
