Tran Thi Ngoc Lan
Delacour’s langur is endemic to Northern Vietnam and its second-largest population was confirmed in Kim Bang Forest, Ha Nam Province. Habitat disturbance and poaching and conservation neglected are the key threats to long-term survival of the langur and other important species in this forest. Most of the conservation efforts for wildlife in Vietnam were focused on improving enforcement, very few focused on raising public awareness. Our project focus on using conservation education as a parallel approach with enforcement to raise local community awareness to mitigate threats then gain their support for the langur and wildlife conservation.
The Delacour’s langur (Trachypithecus delacouri) is endemic to Vietnam and listed as Critically Endangered by the IUCN and among the World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates (Mittermeier, 2012). Currently, Delacour's langur population is estimated to be only about 234-275 individuals in two separate sub-population in Van Long Nature Reserve and Kim Bang Forest (Trinh Dinh, 2018; Trinh Dinh & Le, 2016; Nadler, 2015). Unlike the population of Delacour’s langur in Van Long nature reserve where the langurs receive good protection, the population of this species in Kim Bang Forests is facing increasing threats from poaching by local community, timber cutting, fuelwood collection, and limestone mining. Because Kim Bang has not been designated as a protected area, and therefore no protection effort has been done for this area.
In addition, local community has not received any conservation message on the seriousness of poaching and habitat destruction on the survival of the langur and how they could contribute to the protection and help to recover this langur from the brink of extinction. Therefore, it is a great significance to implement conservation education to enhance local community’s awareness about the langur, mitigate threats, ensure the long-term survival and recovery of the langur.