Fokienia hodginsii tree, a precious wood, is preserved in a primary forest in Quang Nam province. The central province promoted the Song Thanh nature reserve as a national park in protection of endangered flora and fauna (Photo courtesy A Lang Nguoc) QuangNam (VNA) - The central province of Quang Nam has announced adecision to establish the Song Thanh National Park based on the Song ThanhNature Reserve.
The move aims to conserve the province’s rich biodiversity coveringnearly 77,000 hectares, of which more than 58,000 was tropical,evergreen primary forest in Nam Giang and Phuoc Son districts.
The park area, which will be preserved as one of the biggest carbon stores incentral Vietnam, is home to 831 species of flora and fauna, including 38listed in the Red Book of Vietnam, including the International Union for Conservationof Nature (IUCN)’s critically endangered grey-shanked douc langurs (pygathrixcinerea) and the endangered red-shanked douc langur (Pygathryx nemaeus),as well as precious ancient trees.
The province said the promotion of the reserve into a national park was astrong commitment to the conservation of endangered fauna and flora andboosting biodiversity research.
It agreed to develop the population of the gray-shanked douc langurs – theprimate species is only seen in five central provinces of Quang Nam, QuangNgai, Binh Dinh, Gia Lai and Kon Tum.
Quang Nam has preserved two nature reserves – Song Thanh and Ngoc Linh –a UNESCO-recognised world biosphere reserve Cham Islands-Hoi An, and thereserve of sao la, Vu Quang ox, orAsian bicorn (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis) (one of the world’s rarest largemammals) in Tay Giang district.
The province also warned that illegal logging, hunting and mining in the twodistricts have polluted and damaged the reserve in recent decades.
Eight precious and endangered flora including Ngoc Linh ginseng, condonopsis inTay Giang, pepper in Tien Phuoc, cinnamon in Tra My, large-size rattan andwhite corn in Hoi An were included on the list of conservation in theprovince.
An area of 15,000ha of Ngoc Linh ginseng (Panax vietnamensis or Vietnameseginseng) was planted in Nam Tra My district.
Up to 19,000ha of critical habitat in Nong Son district was planned as aprotection area for groups of the endangered Asian elephant with funding fromthe United States Agency for International Development (USAID)-funded GreenAnnamites Project.
The province plans to allocate funds of 4.4 million USD to restore a 100haforest as a safe habitat for a herd of grey-shanked douc langurs (pygathrixcinerea) living in Dong Co village, Tam My Tay commune of Nui Thanh district in2019-28./.
VNA
