The Conservation Status of Gibbons in Vietnam - Gibbon Research ...

The Conservation Status of Gibbons in VietnamTable 2. Documented prices of gibbons and gibbon productsLocation Purpose Price (VND) Year ReferenceMuong La District Dead 1.8 million 2010 Le Trong Dat and LeMinh Phong (2010)Pu Hoat PNR Live 1.5 to 3 million 1990s Nguyen Manh Ha(2005)Pu Hoat PNR Live 1.5 million 2005 Nguyen Manh Ha(2005)Pu Hoat PNR Live 400,000 2009 Luu Tuong Bach &Rawson (2010)Pu Mat NP Live 800,000 to3 million2003 Roberton et al. (2003)Cat Tien NP Live 4 to 5.5 million 2007-2008Nguyen Manh Ha(2009)Chu Yang Sin NP Live 3.5 million 2007 Le Trong Trai (2007)Chu Yang Sin NP Bile 150,000 2007 Le Trong Trai (2007)Da Lat city Live 5.5 million 2009 WCS (2009)Bao Loc, Lam Dong,Sourced from Dong Nai, Cat TienPhong Nha-Ke Bang NPPhong Nha-Ke Bang NP Primate balm 300,000 to600,000 kg -1Live 4 million 2009 Nguyen Manh Ha(2009)Dead for local 30,000 kg -1 2004 Bottrill (2005)consumption2004 Roberton et al. (2004)At about a third of sites, infrastructure developments, such as hydropower dams or roads, arecited as a significant threat to gibbons. The impacts these developments can create are increasedaccess to forest for hunting, direct habitat loss and habitat fragmentation. In addition, at the timeof construction, particularly for hydropower projects, an influx of construction workers can lead toa sudden increase in local demand for wildlife meat. Some key sites for gibbon conservation willbe adversely threatened by infrastructure development, which could send some species on arapid decline towards national extinction. The Mu Cang Chai SHCA-Muong La WatershedProtection Forest complex faces the twin threats of an approved hydropower project on one edgeof the forest with incoming access roads and a road bisecting the forest from the other side.Another hydropower project is also planned there. These developments are the greatest threatsto date for the only viable population of N. concolor in Vietnam. Planned roads through Pu MatNational Park may fragment and jeopardise what is by far the largest population of N. leucogenysin Vietnam. A major road is proposed through Chu Yang Sin National Park, potentially separatingit from adjacent Bi Dup-Nui Ba National Park and so fragmenting the largest area of contiguousprotected area forest in Vietnam. This road, along with a proposed system of trails, wouldfacilitate access to over half the park’s forest and form barriers between some of the gibbongroups known to be found in the national park.Significant gibbon populations remain within State Forest Enterprises (SFEs), mainly in central tosouthern Vietnam, comprising nearly 300,000 ha, i.e. 15%, of managed forest areas recorded inthis status review. As there have been no significant surveys in SFEs group densities andpopulation figures remain unclear. There may be more SFEs holding significant gibbonpopulations. SFEs are subject to commercial logging, so inevitably a large area of gibbon habitatis under direct threat within such a management regime.16