Forest rangers in Huong Tra town receive two rare macaques from a local resident early this month. (Photo: VNA) Better public awareness on wildlife protection greatly contributed to thehandovers, said director of the provincial Forest Protection Department Le NgocTuan.
Tuan said that many people handed over wild animals that are in danger ofextinction like Javan pangolin, small lorise, white-cheeked gibbon, red-facedmonkey, pig-tailed monkeys, long-tailed monkeys, brocade pythons, and some rareturtle species.
Thua Thien-Hue province currently has more than 288,400ha of forest including211,200ha of natural forest. The province is also home to Bach Ma NationalPark, Phong Dien Nature Reserve, Sao La Conservation Area, with a total area ofup to tens of thousands of hectares.
Located in central Truong Son Mountain range, the forests of Thua Thien-Hue provincehave high biodiversity, with about 134 species of mammals and more than 500types of birds.
The forests are well-known for many endemic species such as saola (PseudoryxNghetinhensis), giant muntjac (Muntiacus vuquangensis), Trường Sơn muntjac(Muntiacus truongsonensis), striped civet (Chrotogale owstoni), Sao pheasant(Rheinardia ocellata), Trường Sơn striped rabbit (Nesolagus timminsi),yellow-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus annamenis), the brown-shanked douc langur(Pygathrix spp) and many other species of the pheasant family (Lophura spp).
Tuan said that many international cooperation projects to maintain thebiodiversity system were implemented in the province.
These include the project "Sustainable forest management and biodiversityconservation", the project “Raising public awareness and strengthening lawenforcement to reduce demand for wildlife in Vietnam” and the project of carbonstorage and biodiversity conservation.
In mid-July 2022, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development coordinatedwith Animals Asia to launch the project "Vietnam Bear Rescue Centre CampusII" in Bach Ma National Park. The centre covers an area of 12.7ha witha construction cost from the non-refundable aid of Animals Asia worth 10.5million USD.
To be completed in 2026, the centre will have the capacity to raise and rescuemore than 300 bears received from private bear breeding facilities.
“These are good signs for wildlife protection in the province as well as in thecentral region,” Tuan said, adding that his department also operated aconfidential hot line to receive reports on wildlife violations.
“The hotline 08.4477.3030 opened from April this year creates a professional,timely and effective communication channel between people and forest rangers,contributing to the conservation and protection of wildlife in the province,”Tuấn said, adding that the forest protection department also conductedcommunication activities on social networks.
Tran Van Vinh, Deputy Head of the Forest Protection Department of theprovince’s Huong Tra town, said that through the dissemination of the law atgrassroots level and communication campaigns on social networks, changes were madeas many people voluntarily reported and handed over wildlife animals.
From the beginning of this year until now, the department received sixpig-tailed macaques and red-faced monkeys, and three turtles. The animals werethen returned to the wild thanks to coordination between the department and thePhong Điền Nature Reserve Management Board.
Early this month, local resident Tran Van Hung from Dong Hoa village, Binh Tiencommune in Huong Tra town voluntarily transferred an eight kilogrammepig-tailed macaque (Macaca leonina) and a nine kilogramme red-faced macaque(Macaca arctoides) to the Forest Protection Department of Huong Tra town.
Now, the department is taking care of and completing the procedures to releasethe animals back to nature reserves with suitable habitats.
In middle of July, a resident in Phu Bai ward, Huong Thuy town found a Javapangolin on the side of the street and took it to forest rangers.
At that time, the pangolin was in poor health so it took forest rangers anumber of days to take care of it./.
VNA
