The Cat Ba Langur Conservation Project (CBLCP) was founded in 2000 to halt the impending extinction of the Cat Ba Langur (Trachypithecus Poliocephalus), a critically endangered leaf eating monkey endemic to Cat Ba Island off the shore of northern Vietnam.
Since its initiation, the project has worked on species and habitat protection, law enforcement, population monitoring, environmental education, and research. Additionally, the CBLCP provides the provincial authorities with environmental consulting services to mitigate the effects of environmentally unsound development projects.
Partnerships with Cat Ba National Park and local people in villages surrounding the park provide the foundation for direct community participation in the conservation effort. The ultimate goal is to restore the Cat Ba Langur population to a long-term viable number and for the rich biodiversity of Cat Ba Island to be maintained into the future.
www.catbalangur.org (English), www.catbalangur.de (German)
Croeni Charity supported this initiative through a 2-year grant.
Impact
The Cat Ba Langur Conservation Project’s (CBLCP) has a primary conservation partner on the island in the form of the Cat Ba National Park (CBNP). The two organizations have been closely working and coordinating their activities together for the last 15 years.
The CBLCP provides regular support to the CBNP including training and capacity building activities, equipment support, allowances for extra patrols in the forest and on the sea, funding for fuel allotments, and political support. They also provide monthly allowances to the CBNP rangers to cover fuel costs and extra patrols carried out each month. Additionally, the CBLCP periodically supplies equipment such as GPS units, solar panels, batteries, bamboo boats, etc.
Our grant was split into two parts and supported (a) 2 months of anti-poaching work in 2015, and (b) 5 months of the CBNP ranger activities in 2016.
The latter portion of the grant was used to fund ranger allowances, fuel, food and other costs associated with keeping the patrols in the field and guarding the entirety of the Cat Ba Island.
From June to October, which is the slow season for hunting on Cat Ba, the rangers from 12 ranger stations in the Cat Ba National Park participated in 246 patrols (over and above their required monthly patrol amount), with 24 of these being joint patrols including either citizen based anti-poaching teams or the CBLCP staff members. During this period, the following was achieved:
- 7 arrests made
- 68 people individually educated
- 67 people expelled from the national park
- 15 boats and 11 trucks checked for illegal cargo
- 1 floating house checked for contraband
- 1 hunting camp discovered and destroyed
- 21 string traps, 3 cage traps, 1 steel trap, 1 deadfall type net trap (a new trap type on the island intended to catch ground dwelling birds), 1 gecko snare, and 1050 meters of bird net confiscated and destroyed
- 1 firearm confiscated (an old .22 caliber Russian made TOZ-8 dating from the 1930s or 1940s)
- 1 bird released
Croeni Charity 