Why Vietnam?
Sitting within the Indo-Burma hotspot, Vietnam is a long, narrow country of mountains and tropical forests. It runs the length of the eastern Indochina peninsula and spans a wide range of latitudes, giving rise to an exceptional diversity of habitats and species, with high levels of endemism.
One of the most biologically diverse countries on Earth, Vietnam is of international conservation importance, harbouring around 10 per cent of the world’s species. It is also one of the fastest growing economies in the world, which is putting immense pressure on its exceptional biodiversity.
Protect the forests of Khe Nuoc Trong
Lying in the Annamite Mountain Range of north-central Vietnam, Khe Nuoc Trong (KNT) is one of the best remaining examples of Annamite Lowland Forest in the world. The protection of Khe Nuoc Trong is supported by the Carbon Balanced Programme, working through WLT’s in-country partner Viet Nature Conservation Centre (Viet Nature).
With input from WLT, the project balances the needs of people, wildlife and the environment and is being designed to meet the internationally recognised standards of the Climate, Community and Biodiversity Alliance (CCBA). This third party certification will give an independent assessment of net positive climate, social and biodiversity benefits.
The project aims to protect biodiversity by reducing illegal wildlife hunting and allow natural regeneration of degraded areas within the 21,127 hectare (52,210 acre) Khe Nuoc Trong forest through its establishment as a nationally recognized protected area.
Exceptional Biodiversity
Khe Nuoc Trong contains a number of globally iconic species including the Crested Argus, White-cheeked Crested Gibbon and the Red-shanked Douc Langur. It has been identified as a suitable location for the reintroduction of the Critically Endangered Edwards’s Pheasant.
The forests of the Annamite lowlands are home to exceptionally rare and threatened wildlife, with many species found nowhere else on earth. Despite facing immense pressures, the area retains a rich biodiversity and has been home to many recent scientific discoveries. One of the rarest mammals in the world, the Critically Endangered Saola (Pseudoryx ngethinhensis), was only described in 1992.
WLT has helped fund botanical, mammal and herpetological surveys in conjunction with an ongoing camera trapping programme, which establishes a biodiversity baseline, which the success of the project will be monitored against.
KNT is located within Quang Binh province, which has one of the highest levels of amphibian and reptile diversity in Vietnam. Three amphibian species new to the province were discovered in KNT following a herpetological survey in 2015.
