Pu Mat National Park is located in the Annamite Mountain Range and is considered a key biodiversity area. Home to Asian elephants, white-cheeked gibbons, red-shanked douc langurs and even the elusive saola, it is a vitally important forest ecosystem.
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.
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.
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.
Systematic surveys of snare prevalence are completed.
A new model for community-based monitoring is launched.
An updated population survey of the park’s gibbons is completed.
Park-wide camera trap survey is completed for the first time.
Two community-based patrol teams are established.
FFI begins a new era of conservation in Pu Mat National Park.
FFI camera trapping in Pu Mat National Park captures the first wild picture of a saola.
Lam Van Hoang - [email protected]
Pu Mat National Park is a key biodiversity area and a stronghold for some of Asia’s most threatened species. Please help us protect this vitally important forest ecosystem – before it's too late.
We are thankful for the support of US Fish & Wildlife Service, Re:wild, Perth Zoo, Taronga Zoo, Wellington Zoo, Zoos Victoria.
Vietnam is one of the most biodiverse countries on Earth, with a huge variety of distinctive and fascinating wildlife including 25 primate species - 11 of which are critically endangered.
Habitat loss is one of the biggest threats to biodiversity. Learn more about our work to tackle this problem.
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