Eighty domestic and foreign experts gathered at an international
workshop in northern Ninh Binh province on October 9 to discuss how to
protect rare and precious primate species in Vietnam.
Jointly
organised by the Endangered Primate Rescue Centre (EPRC), the Cuc
Phuong National Park and the Frankfurt Zoological Society, the
event aimed to assess the direct threats against rare primate species
in the region, thus finding solutions to preserve the species in the
coming time.
According to Director of the Nature Preservation
Department under the General Department of Forestry Tran The Lien,
biodiversity in Vietnam faces great threats due to climate change
and human activities.
He cited statistics of the World Nature
Preservation Organisation (IUCN) that seven primate species in Vietnam
are critically threatened, nine are threatened and seven others are
near threatened, which means that 90 percent of Vietnam’s primate
species are facing the threat of extinction.
Lien stressed the
need for a regional strategy with practical measures to promote
management and preservation of primates.
Truong Quang Bich,
Director of the Cuc Phuong National Park said the park has been
carrying out a project to preserve rare primates, under which the EPRC
was established in 2003 and is now home to 150 individuals of 15 rare
primate species and subspecies. Nine primate species have reproduced at
the centre, of which three species are the first to reproduce in
captivity in the world. The centre’s operation has contributed greatly
to raising awareness of local people and visitors of the significance of
preserving primate in general and Vietnam’s endemic gibbons in
particular.
Christian Roos, vice president of the IUCN’s
specialised group on primate, spoke highly of the role played by the
EPRC and Tilo Nadler, who is co-director of the primate preservation
project at Cuc Phuong Part in rescuing, preserving primates and helping
them re-assimilate into their natural habitat.
He called for
joint efforts and closer cooperation between regional countries’
governments to counter the threats to primate species before it is too
late.-VNA