Last rhino dies but hope for other species
Vietnam has lost its last Javan rhino, killed by poachers for its horn, reports say.
The death, likened to losing part of the country’s natural heritage, leaves fewer than 50 of the animals left in the wild.
Development and population pressures are among other threats facing wildlife in Vietnam and its neighbours but in two of those countries, WWT is helping to protect environments and rare species.
The wetlands of the Mekong River floodplain in Laos have for centuries supported the livelihoods of thousands of people. Particularly important has been the 2,000 hectare That Luang Marsh, east of the capital Vientiane. Fishermen fish, farmers grow rice and thousands of others use plants and other materials gathered from the site on a daily basis.
The marsh also absorbs floodwaters and cleans up the city’s sewage, using the effluent’s water and nutrients to support the abundant fish, shellfish and aquatic plants in the marsh.
But as Vientiane’s populace moves beyond the city’s limits, and industry reclaims land from the marsh, increasingly That Luang cannot cope. Fish stocks are declining, as are the once-common herons and egrets.
To help address the problem, WWT has built a network of wetlands within Vientiane itself to clean the city’s sewage at source. There is one new wetland at a school, another next to a papermill and a third at a beer factory.
Waste water is treated before it gets to That Luang, in much smaller wetlands doubling up as new wildlife habitats. They don’t tackle all the problems affecting That Luang Marsh but do show what could be done if the wetlands network was spread across the city. Life for around 100,000 people is already thought to have improved.
WWT is overseeing an entirely different project in another of Vietnam’s neighbours, Cambodia, aimed at protecting two of the country’s last remaining wintering sites for the Critically Endangered eastern sarus crane.
Together, Boeung Prek Lapouv (BPL) and Kampong Trach, or Anlong Pring, wetlands host at least 20% of the bird’s regional population - around 300 individuals. Pollution, alien plants and the exploitation of wildlife pose significant threats but most damaging of all, especially at BPL, is drainage for rice cultivation.
The cranes used to arrive in November and depart for breeding sites in May. But in some years, BPL is parched by February forcing the birds to leave much earlier. Confusingly, while the wetlands still hold water, crane numbers have actually increased in recent years, but only because other wintering sites in Cambodia and Vietnam are being destroyed.
WWT is encouraging the sustainable use of both sites by fostering local support for conservation and eco-tourism, with major towns on existing tourism routes lying relatively close. In addition, project staff are building relationships with nearby communities to ease demands on land surrounding the wetlands.
Satellite imagery is also being used to monitor changes and we are starting to test water depth and quality, to better understand the pressures that the wetlands face.
The project runs until 2013; the first steps to saving both wetlands have been taken.
