Quang Nam expands natural habitat for rare douc langurs

Quang Nam expands natural habitat for rare douc langurs. (Photo:VNA)

Quang Nam (VNA) – Authorities of the central province of Quang Nam have been working to converting production forest areas on Hon Do mountain in Nui Thanh district into special-use forest areas in order to expand the natural habitat and ensure a suitable living environment for the development of a rare gray-shanked douc langur population.

Accordingly, the area will be expanded from 30 hectares to 150 hectares.

Deputy Director of the provincial Department of Forest Protection Tu Van Khanh said as many as 68 individuals of this kind were counted in Hon Do Mountain in early June this year, an increase of 18 compared in 2018.

Khanh attributed this to the efforts of the community in protecting them and the involvement of the local authorities and relevant agencies in controlling and preventing poaching and in addressing negative impacts on the forest and this rare primate herd in recent years.

Quang Nam is one of five localities in the country that have been identified as the habitat of the rare gray-shanked douc langurs. (Photo: VNA)

This is a rare and endemic primate species of Vietnam and classified as critically endangered in the Vietnam Red Book and the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN), with only about 1,000 individuals in the wild.

Quang Nam is one of five localities in the country that have been identified as the habitat of the rare gray-shanked douc langurs.

The expansion of habitat for the species in Hon Do mountain area is hoped to help thoroughly solve the situation in which that of this rare primate is divided by production forests of local residents, said Le Van Dung, a member of a community group to protect gray-shanked douc langurs in the mountain./.

VNA