Overview

Pu Mat National Park is one of Vietnam’s largest national parks and is home to several hundred gibbon groups, making it a global stronghold for the white-cheeked gibbon as well as countless other species. The capacity of authorities’ to manage the park effectively is limited, leading to threats from hunting and unsustainable livelihood practices. These threats are exacerbated by a number of roads that were recently built into the park for national security and border patrols, but which fragment the habitat and make it easier for people to carry out illegal and unsustainable activities. Action is urgently needed to improve law enforcement, build the capacity of community conservation teams and develop a sustainable management plan for Pu Mat. 

Objectives

The project is designed to support improved protected area management, institutional coordination and cooperation, law enforcement and community engagement, all of which will enhance the long-term survival prospects of the species living in the park. 

Pu Mat National Park is the highest priority site for the conservation of the northern white-cheeked gibbon. This species faces significant threats from hunting and habitat degradation, driven by the demand for primate bones, exotic pets, land for farming, high value timber and fuelwood, cardamom cultivation and livestock grazing space. We aim to strengthen the park’s effectiveness and sustainability, providing more robust monitoring and raising international and domestic attention for gibbon conservation. 

Our work

FFI’s community-based conservation teams support on law enforcement and threat reduction, systematically removing snares through regular patrols. We also provide technical support to the park through capacity building and scientific monitoring of the park’s wildlife. This includes monitoring gibbon and elephant populations and mitigating human-elephant conflict. 

FFI also works with communities living in and around Pu Mat National Park on sustainable livelihood initiatives and our conservation team implements conservation criminology approaches, including situational crime prevention and place-based investigations. 

Key Milestones

  • 2022

    Systematic surveys of snare prevalence are completed.

  • 2021

    A new model for community-based monitoring is launched.

  • 2020

    An updated population survey of the park’s gibbons is completed.

  • 2019

    Park-wide camera trap survey is completed for the first time.

  • 2017

    Two community-based patrol teams are established.

  • 2016

    FFI begins a new era of conservation in Pu Mat National Park.

  • 1998

    FFI camera trapping in Pu Mat National Park captures the first wild picture of a saola.

Project partners

  • Pu Mat National Park Management Board 
  • Re:wild 
  • Leibniz Institute for Zoo & Wildlife Research 
  • Save Vietnam’s Wildlife