Delacour’s langur (Trachypithecus delacouri), Van Long Nature Reserve – credit, Sharp Photography CC 4.0. BY-SA
Some of the best forest and mountain scenery Vietnam has to offer will now include a special conservation reserve to protect one of the world’s most-endangered primates.
Around 7,500 acres of karst limestone escarpments and pristine forests are set to make up the Kim Bang Delacour’s Langur Habitat Conservation Area.
Named after the French biologist who first identified it, Delacour’s langur hangs by a thread, perhaps with just 17 populations totaling a little more or a little less than 250 individuals.
Several national parks spread across the area of North Vietnam where the animal lives, but the two do not always overlap. Authorities in Ninh Binh Province are taking this extra step to try and make room for Delacour’s langur, now facing its most desperate hour.
Vietnam’s DTI News reports that the reserve covers a total area of 3,182 hectares across the wards of Ly Thuong Kiet, Tam Chuc, and Nguyen Uy. Tam Chuc (Tam Cốc) is renowned for its dreamy and UNESCO-listed landscapes of rice fields, lazy rivers, and towering pinnacles cloaked in deep emerald jungle.
4,400 acres of the reserve will be strictly guarded for the species’ protection, while an additional 3,500 acres have been singled out specifically for ecological restoration. Beyond these limits, there is no suitable habitat or land-use laws that would allow for a buffer zone around the reserve that would otherwise be befitting of a Critically-Endangered monkey.
MONKEYS OF THE WORLD:
Strict management plans will be implemented to monitor the populations of the slowly-reproducing monkey. Females reach sexual maturity at around 4 years of age. They will bear a single infant after a gestation lasting 7 months, and the babies are not weened until 21 months.
Authorities said the reserve will also help improve the wards’ overall forest quality through stronger protection measures and ecological restoration efforts.
In addition, the project aims to increase public awareness and community participation in conservation activities while gradually developing ecotourism linked to biodiversity protection and the promotion of the area’s natural heritage.
Give A Cheer To Vietnam For Its Actions To Save This Beautiful Primate…
