Wildlife of Lao PDR: 1999 Status Report - IUCN

Wildlife of Lao PDR: 1999 Status Report
1 Threats from habitat loss are intended to represent those relating directly to the habitat degradation or fragmentation, and to reflect
current / very recent practices. In reality, habitat modification has, for most mammal and large bird species listed here, its most direct
effect through increased hunting levels.
2
Assessments are intended to indicate the threats from non-selective and opportunistic hunting, and specific hunting for home consumption;
threats from hunting driven by national / international trade are not included. Vulnerability to harvesting is assessed subjectively
using several features: day / night activity (diurnal animals are at greater risk from opportunistic hunting than are nocturnal animals),
ground-living vs arboreal (ground-living animals are at risk from snares and other non-selective ground traps, arboreal animals are so
only when they descend to the ground), habitat choice (species frequenting habitat types favoured by people, e.g. open flatland areas on
fertile soil, are likely to be exposed to higher opportunistic hunting levels than are those occurring only in dense evergreen forest), local
taste (Table 1, supplemented with subsequent unquantified experience) and other pertinent factors. Thus, box turtles are assessed to be at
high risk from hunting as they are terrestrial, diurnal, avidly eaten, cannot run away, are hunted using dogs, and under steep decline.
Conversely, Spotted Linsang (although there are few records) is assessed as at much lower risk from hunting as it is nocturnal, at least
partially arboreal, does not appear to be specifically favoured for food, and lives in large barely penetrable tracts of hill forest. Harvesting
assessments in parentheses indicate incidental threats during operations harvesting other species or resources, and pest control
operations, as well as directed harvesting. Nest loss by disturbance to sandbar nesting birds, and dolphin death in fishing nets, are
included in the first category.
3
Trade threats do not include those from local trading within the rural economy (which are considered here to form part of ‘harvesting’).
The threat indicated here is that assessed as being driven by the financial rewards from the trade to supply international markets or those
in a distant part of Lao PDR.
4
The following bird species are not confirmed to persist in Lao PDR, or are now known only as seasonal visitors. It seems quite likely that
all are extinct as breeders. If breeding populations of any were found, they would merit treatment as Acute action priority: Indian
Skimmer, Black-bellied Tern*, White-bellied Sea Eagle, Darter*, Great Cormorant, Black-headed Ibis, Spot-billed Pelican*, Painted
Stork*, Asian Openbill* and Black-billed Magpie. Asterisked (*) species have been recorded recently and protection of any sites used
regularly, even by non-breeders, is of High priority.
5
For the following migrant bird species, causes of decline or scarcity may lie outside Lao PDR and thus action within Lao PDR may not
serve any purpose. Were the primary, or a major contributory, cause of the At Risk status found to lie in Lao PDR, the species’s national
action priority would need re-assessment: Wood Snipe*, Black Kite*, Greater Spotted Eagle*, Imperial Eagle*, Lesser Kestrel, Black
Stork* and Grey-sided Thrush*. Asterisked (*) species have been recorded recently and appropriate protective measures at any sites used
regularly may be of High priority.
Criteria for assignment of action priority category:
Priorities are assessed from a national perspective. The international priorities can be deduced by combining the priority assessment with
information in the global importance column.
Acute: species with very low and/or drastically reduced population levels, and that are unlikely to persist in Lao PDR unless all remaining
populations and their habitats receive effective protection.
High: species that can still be maintained at viable levels in Lao PDR, but only if immediate and effective action to address the threats to
them is taken; all are particularly vulnerable to habitat modification and / or hunting (and usually the interaction between these), and are
likely soon to be reduced to critical levels if action is not taken.
Indeterminate: poorly known species that there are reasonable grounds for thinking that they may be under threat to the extent of being
of Acute or High national priority, but for which status information is lacking.
Assessments are made on the best available information and are subjective. In some cases extrapolations are made from other countries
/ related species, to give the best indication for action. In cases where threats really are unclear, a question mark is used. Note that the
assessments for birds differ from those in Thewlis et al. (1998), as the latter used an international perspective to assign priority for action.
Criteria for assignment of global significance category:
The contribution of the current Lao population to the conservation of the species is assessed, using maintenance of population numbers,
of ancestral range or of genetic diversity (e.g. a well-marked subspecies endemic to Indochina is considered of higher significance than
would be the same population if it belonged to a species not or weakly differentiated from those in neighbouring countries).
Very high: Species is very close to global extinction.
High: Species has a small global population and / or restricted range, and Lao populations comprise a significant proportion of remaining
individuals; or subspecies potentially close to global extinction.
Moderate: Species has a small regional (Lao PDR, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand) population but is more numerous outside the
region, or has a large regional population but is limited in distribution outside the region, and Lao numbers comprise a significant
proportion of remaining individuals.
Low: The species occurs in good numbers in at least one of Cambodia, Vietnam or Thailand and there is no obvious special role of the
Lao population in international conservation.
*Species is not confirmed to be extant in Lao PDR; assessment relates to Lao population if found to be present.
38