Community Conservation team in Tuyen Hoa

Vietnam is home to globally important threatened species. In Tuyen Hoa district, Quang Binh province, the endangered Hatinh Langur was spotted for the first time in 2012, when there were only 10 individuals living in the karst area of  Thach Hoa, Dong Hoa, Thuan Hoa, and Son Hoa commune. From the perspective of WildAct, empowering local communities is critically important to save the wild population and its habitat in the long term. Conservation actions need to take place in the areas, especially when hunting constantly occurs in the area but it hasn’t received much attention and investment from conservation agencies because it is not located in a protected area or nature reserve.

The Conservation Community Team in Tuyen Hoa, Quang Binh Province

Without secured funding, a community management and conservation model, named Conservation Community Team, was established on a voluntary basis among the nature conservation team, the local forest protection division, and the administrations of the four communes to protect the primate herds of the surrounding families. WildAct has been raising funds from crowd-funding, selling local products, and calling general donations to support the Conservation Community Team to buy patrolling equipment, provide technical training, and support a part of income and safety insurance for the patrolling team

Up to now, the Hatinh Langur has been managed according to the community model, closely preserved and developed over the years. There are at least 22 herds of Hatinh with 156 individuals, mainly living in 2 communes of Thach Hoa and Dong Hoa. The increase in this endangered wild population shows the dedicated and effective practices of the patrolling group, local communities, and authorities in Tuyen Hoa. In order to ensure this impact lasts long, WildAct aims to raise funding to support the local communities and authorities here to continue their good work to recover wild populations of not only the primate but other species in the area.

In order to enhance the efficiency of langur conservation, WildAct has been supporting local people and authorities by providing necessary tools such as shoes, protective clothing, monthly subsidiary and supporting the locals in conducting surveys and patrolling. However, that is not enough. WildAct hopes to receive more support from the public so that we can help them buy health insurance, develop sustainable forest-based livelihood, remove traps, patrol, manage langur population and educate the local community about langur conservation. The local conservation team carry out these activities on a voluntary basis. We want to motivate them to maintain conservation activities as well as to replicate it to many other areas.

Watch recap video activities in Tuyen Hoa HERE.