Smart phone app launched to protect Son Tra Nature Reserve

GreenViet, an NGO in Da Nang, will launch a warning application for smart phone users to alert of violations against animals and vegetation in the Son Tra Nature Reserve.
Smart phone app launched to protect Son Tra Nature Reserve ảnh 1A screenshot of the Son Tra SOS application for smart phone users (Photo: courtesy GreenViet)
Da Nang (VNA) - The Biodiversity Conservation Centre of GreenViet,an NGO in Da Nang, will launch a warning application for smart phone users toalert of violations against animals and vegetation in the Son Tra NatureReserve.

Director of GreenViet, Tran Huu Vy, told VietNam News the Son Tra SOS application will be used from November. Smart phoneusers can report or send photos of illegal logging or hunting in the reserve toGreenViet for rapid response.

Vy said the Son Tra SOS, funded by theInternational Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), would create quicksupervision of any dangerous situations and infringements in the reserve, whichis just 10km from the city centre.

GreenViet has been developing a website forthe red-shanked douc langurs (Pygathrix nemaeus) – an endangered primatespecies.

The NGO is also co-operating with theFrankfurt Zoological Society of Germany, San Diego Zoo Global in the UnitedStates and the IUCN to protect the red-shanked douc langurs through long-termcampaigns.

More than 440 visitors had joined freebiodiversity trips in the reserve, while 400 junior secondary school studentswere taught about biodiversity in the reserve. 

According to a recent report by the city’srangers, six monkeys were killed by motorcyclists in 2015-17, and two cases ofillegal hunting were uncovered. Two red-shanked douc langurs were also killedfor money.

Around 10ha of forest was illegally loggedfor buildings in three cases between 2014-16.

Thousands of traps and tonnes of rubbishhave been collected by local rangers and volunteers over the last two years.

The langurs in Son Tra Nature Reserve weredeclared endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature(IUCN) in 2013, but the species has recently been classed Critically Endangered(CR) – nearly extinct.

Biologists warn that the development ofconcrete buildings will push the endangered primates into extinction.

In March, the National Administration ofTourism designated Son Tra Mountain a national tourism site. It will host aluxury eco-tour resort complex including 1,600 luxury hotel rooms, and 4.6million tourists by 2030.

The nature reserve has shrunk from 4,300hain 1977 to 2,500ha in 2014 to make room for the development of dozens ofresorts and hotel projects. More than 20 streams in the reserve have driedup.-VNA
VNA

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