The Conservation of Nature in Viet Nam

Abstract

Systematic efforts to conserve Viet Nam's natural resources began (in the North) in the early 1960s with the establishment of a 25,000-hectares' area, Cue Phuong National Park, south-west of Hanoi. Since the end of the Second Indochina war, Viet Nam's Ministry of Forestry has undertaken a comprehensive programme to restore forests that were destroyed or damaged in the fighting, to inventory forests and their resources, and to develop forest management for the economy and recreation of the Vietnamese people. The Ministry of Forestry's Institute of Forest Inventory and Planning is the agency carrying out these tasks; it employs about 5,000 people, including well-trained scientists.Before 1963, there were no regulations regarding hunting in Viet Nam. Now the Ministry of Forestry has a Department of Protection which attempts to regulate hunting of game, such as deer, Wild Pigs, Tigers, and Leopards. Many species of birds and mammals are now totally protected. These include two primates, the Indochina Gibbon and the Douc Langur, as well as three species of wild cattle, the Kouprey, Banteng, and Gaur. The Kouprey and the Javan Rhinoceros are classified as endangered species because only a few individuals are known to be still alive, at least in Viet Nam. Elephants are trapped and trained for commercial purposes and for capture of wild Elephants, while the wild herds are increasing owing to the war's end and the prevention of killing.