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What is the aspiration of ethnic minority communities in Ha Giang province? Ha Giang province is characterized by karst plateaus in the north which cover areas of 04 districts comprising Mèo Vạc, Đồng Văn, Yên Minh, Quản Bạ. This unique topography constituted more than 80% of the surface as rocks with steep slopes. With the average elevation of above 650 m asl, the weather in this area is cold and lack of rain falls. Despite the harsh environment, this place is a home for generations of local ethnic minority communities. The indigenous people have developed an adaptive yet impressive cultivation on rocky mountains. Ha Giang people living in karst plateau areas have been cultivating corn as their main food. The process of growing crops on rocky mountains relies on nature, human strength, and primitive tools. Local people have a custom of cultivating, harvesting together and in circulation for all families in the neighborhood. The cooperation among communities is vital for them to sustain in regard to environmental challenges. In order to empathize better with indigenous people, let’s join CCD Experience tours to Ha Giang province in the annual harvesting season. While taking part in the activity, tourists and travellers will probably harmonize with the joy and get aspired by the genuine yet affluent dreams of local people.

The Delacour’s langur (Trachypithecus delacouri) has a highly restricted distribution and is an endemic primate species to northern Vietnam. The global population is estimated at 300 individuals, mainly distributed in Van Long Wetland Nature Reserve and Kim Bang protection forest. During 2016-2018, a series of field surveys conducted by CCD’s experts discovered the world’s second largest known population of the Delacour’s langur in Kim Bang protection forest with the number of individuals of nearly 100. The species is classified as Critically Endangered (CR) in the IUCN Red List and under the strict protection of national and international laws. Therefore, the conservation of Delacour's langur has significance not only for Vietnam but also for the whole international community. Despite its importance, the Delacour’s langur population in Kim Bang forest is currently on the edge of extinction because of hunting, habitat degradation caused by stone mining and farm invasion within the langur habitat. In addition, lack of investment and the limited human resources are causing difficulty in species protection and conservation. Aware of the situation of this threatened primate, NHÂN DÂN TELEVISION delivered a documentary providing the whole picture of conservation effort for this species in Kim Bang Forest, Ha Nam, especially emphasizing existing conservation challenges. The documentary is a positive indicator of public concern about endangered species as well as biodiversity conservation in Vietnam. CCD will work with other NGOs to support local Forest Protection Departments and local authority to improve monitoring and protection and mitigate threats to the critically endangered langur in Kim Bang and its ranges as a whole. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c8-_hHsA7Lw The conservation efforts and challenges in protection of the Delacour’s langur in Kim Bang forest, Ha Nam province.

Cuc Phuong is the first National Park (NP) of Vietnam. The Park has a diverse landscape with its unique tropical evergreen forest on limestone and karst caves system. Among nature's beauties, the park is also home of Muong ethnic community with their unique culture that enriches the park's potential. The potential could help the park to diversify its tourism services including community-based tourism activity to ensure that the local community will benefit from the park's natural value. In its history of development, Cuc Phuong acquired a prominent role as a leading ecotourism and education activity. Currently, Cuc Phuong continues to provide new, unique and eco-friendly tourism products with its iconic events such as "Cuc Phuong the Spring Festival"; “Homecoming -a wildlife rehabilitation event” and “Jungle Trail”, ... Those activities have impressed the public and increased the park's recognition even in the difficult time of Covid-19 pandemic. Continuing the support on sustainable and equitable tourism, the Center for Nature Conservation and Development (CCD) is working with Cuc Phuong to formulate a framework of eco-tourism and community-based tourism. In the effort, the principles of sustainable tourism will be appropriately integrated into tourism plans and activities. The participation of local communities will be strengthened through community-based tourism in the park’s buffer zone. This approach aims to improve the local economy and livelihood for the Muong ethnic minority households then reduce their dependence on forest resources and to raise community awareness and be responsible for the park’s natural resources and conservation efforts. CCD is also supporting other national parks, nature reserves, and protecting forests and provinces to formulate tourism development plans regarding the post-Covid-19 period. These strategies are strategically planned to adapt to new pandemic circumstances and the change of tourism in the future while conserving natural and cultural values remain as the principal goals. Thus, CCD will continue its support to build capacity and promote best practices to create smart and responsible tourism with high educational impact. Photo 1. The scenery at Mac Lake Photo 2. The botanical garden in Cuc Phuong national park Photo 3. The May Waterfall located in Thanh Hoa province - originates from Cuc Phuong National Park Photo 4. The CCD’s team discussed with Cuc Phuong Management Board Photo 5. CCD’s team on the field survey at Cuc Phuong commune

Implementation time: 2021 Partners: Dien Bien People's Committee; Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Abstract: Dien Bien is a mountainous province at the northwestern border region of Vietnam. This is a home to many ethnic minority groups with diverse cultures. Dien Bien is a province with various topography but mainly mountainous terrain, with a number of valleys and alternating rivers, streams along with limestone karst in some areas. It is the separation that creates numerous topographies, landscapes and biodiversity. The combination of nature and culture has created special tourism values for Dien Bien province. Nowadays, Dien Bien is well-known to tourists and travellers with the Dien Bien Phu victory. However, Dien Bien has many more natural and cultural values that can be utilized to develop tourism and help visitors have the opportunity to understand and experience more. Center for Nature Conservation and Development (CCD) is formulating the Dien Bien tourism development plan. The plan’s purpose is to improve livelihoods for communities through tourism while promoting natural and cultural values. During this process, CCD focuses on orienting community-based tourism and ecotourism activities to provide the disadvantaged with opportunities to learn, work and increase their income. Such activities also help to raise public awareness and responsibility towards nature, environment and culture.

Implementation time: 2021 Partners: Quang Ninh People’s Committee Abstract: Binh Lieu is a remote mountainous district of Quang Ninh province. Recently, community-based tourism (CBT) is focused by the district to utilize the natural and cultural potentials of ethnic minority communities. Binh Lieu has majestic mountains with grand waterfalls created by its steep slope. With magnificent scenery along the frontier with China, border landmarks are the most famous destination in tourists' minds when Binh Lieu tourism is mentioned. In addition, ethnic minority communities such as Tay, Dao, San Chi scattered all over the district. They preserve diverse yet genuine customs, cuisine, architecture,… that could be unforgettable for tourists and travellers. Recognizing these unique potentials, the Center for Nature Conservation and Development (CCD) in collaboration with the government of Binh Lieu district to formulate a tourism development plan to advance the tourism potentials into practices. During this process, CCD focuses on community-based tourism and eco-tourism activities to provide the disadvantaged with opportunities to learn, work and increase their income. Such activities also help to raise public awareness and responsibility towards nature, environment and culture.

Dien Bien is Vietnam’s well-known historical place for the world with a climax of the Dien Bien Phu Victory. Dien Bien has also known as a splendid land, a valley where Thai ethnic culture originates. In addition, the mountainous areas surrounding the Muong Thanh valley with its magnificent scenery and the unique culture of many ethnic minority groups in the Northwest. However, that priceless natural, cultural, and historical values have not been used effectively to attract tourists, thereby increasing income for the community and boosting the socio-economic of the Northwest region. Promoting those hidden charms, the Center for Nature Conservation and Development (CCD) is supporting Dien Bien province to strategize and formulate a tourism plan for 2021-2026. The plan will detail the “Vietnam Tourism Development Strategy by 2030” and concretize the Dien Bien province’s resolution on turning tourism into a strategic and most important economic development tool. Tourism and its supporting services will help to increase the value chain, improve production, services, and consumption. Tourism also helps to promote the recognition of the province’s natural cultural values to the public and the world. Tourism will help the public to know Dien Bien beyond a land of victory but a province with its magnificent natural landscape, diverse cultural of ethnic people such as the Thai in Muong Thanh valley, the H’mong in the Tua Chua Karst Plateau, and other ethnic groups in the far Westernmost corner of Vietnam. Photo 1: Dien Bien province: a view from the Pha Din pass Photo 2: Ta Sin Thau occasional fair Photo 3: The magnificent Landscape of Tua Chua district Photo 4: The Da river in Dien Bien province Photo 5: Traditional folk dance of the Ha Nhi people Photo 6: Land on the clouds – Landscape of the Vietnam’s far West corner Photo 7: CCD’s team discussed Provincial Leader and Department of Culture, Information and Tourism

The Center for Nature Conservation and Development (CCD), Xuan Lien Nature Reserve, and One Tree Planted are conducting a reforestation program for the Chu River watershed with the active participation of local communities. On June 17, 2021, the reforestation program was broadcasted on Thanh Hoa province’s Radio and Television. The documentary showed the strong interest and support of Thanh Hoa and Thuong Xuan People’s Committee to the meaningful program. The reforestation program aims to recover the degraded forest and improve watershed forest protection of Chu River, eventually securing water resources for local communities in Western and Northwestern regions of Thanh Hoa province. Reforestation Xuan Lien Nature Reserve is one of CCD’s activities aimed to increase forest cover, enhance ecosystem services and improve biodiversity conservation in Vietnam’s strategic watershed and conservation landscapes. CCD is working closely with local stakeholders, protected areas and protection forests to promote reforestation and restoring natural forests with strong engagement of local communities and local authorities. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9W2S2giiMw

Tourism has become an important source of income in many countries. Tourism not only creates jobs, generates income but is also an effective tool that facilitates the service chains and goods consumption to leverage economic and social development. In addition, tourism could positively support the development, such as boosting creative ideas and new, smart businesses, creating new services and improving infrastructure development and transportation. In addition, tourism also helps to improve access to information, promote cultural exchanges, education, sustain and preserve the local cultural values. Binh Lieu district is a remote mountainous district of Quang Ninh province. Binh Lieu is well known for its spectacular mountainous landscapes and majestic features of a border region. In addition to these natural values, there are traditional cultures of the Dao, Tay and San Chi ethnic groups with their unique lifestyle and customs. The nature and culture values make Binh Lieu district a land of tourism potentials that could be used to attract tourists and travellers. Therefore, having a proper development plan and adaptive practices would ensure the district’s advantages in using its tourism potential as an effective development tool to boost local economy and sustain livelihoods, especially for ethnic minority communities. Recognizing these unique potentials, the Center for Nature Conservation and Development (CCD) in collaboration with administrative apparatus of Binh Lieu district to formulate a tourism development plan to advance the tourism potential into practices. The plan would not only help tourism development, but to support poverty reduction, socio-economic improvement and gender equity. The tourism plan, with a vision to 2030 will help transform the district’s economic and services structure, thus creating more jobs, increasing incomes and awareness of the local community, and more importantly, helping the district achieve sustainable development goals. Photo 1: The “Dinosaur Spine”/“Dinosaur Backbone” at Hoanh Mo commune (Photo: Dung Bui/CCD) Photo 2: A grand view at Khe Moi hamlet, Dong Van commune (Photo: Vi Bui/CCD) Photo 3: A Dao woman is embroiding a traditional costume (Photo: Vi Bui/CCD) Photo 4: A San Chi ethnic woman at local market (Photo: Dung Bui/CCD) Photo 5: A traditional collate of the Tay ethnic minority (Photo: Vi Bui/CCD) Photo 6: The planning team at the Cao Ba Lanh summit (Photo: Vi Bui/CCD) Photo 7: Assoc. Prof./PhD Pham Hong Long sharing tourism development ideas at Binh Lieu District People’s Committee (Photo: Vi Bui/CCD)

The World Environment Day this year is to focus on the theme “Reimagine. Recreate. Restore” the ecosystem with the aim to heal the damage of ecosystems, including forest ecosystems. In response to World Environment Day 2021, CCD, Xuan Lien Nature Reserve and One Tree Planted launched a reforestation program. The project will plant at least 20,000 native trees to restore 45 ha of degraded forest and bare land in the Xuan Lien. The project will help to improve environment protection, reduce risks from disasters, restore habitats for wildlife and protect strategic upstream watershed forests including the Chu River. The reforestation program not only received support from local authority and Xuan Lien but also received the active participation of local communities. On the launching day, more than 30 local people, including women from the Thai ethnic group joined the reserve’s and CCD’s staff in transporting seedlings and planting trees. CCD has been working with protected areas, protected forests, and donors on afforestation to restore forest ecosystems that will benefit endangered wildlife, improve forest cover, and resilience to extreme weather and climate change. The reforestation event is one of the CCD’s efforts to support Government Vietnam’s goal to plant 1 billion new trees in 2025. Join us in environmental protection and wildlife conservation at CCD’s website https://ccd.org.vn/

Lorises are nocturnal and arboreal primate (in contrast to many other species of the primates), so studying them is often difficult and time consuming. Up to the present, there are few researches have been done to study the species in Vietnam. Lack of necessary information on the species’ populations and threats limits conservation efforts. Under the cooperation program between the Center for Nature Conservation and Development (CCD) and Xuan Lien Nature Reserve (Xuan Lien) on conservation of endangered fauna and flora species, in April 2021, a research team of CCD and Xuan Lien conducted a survey of loris in the southern section of the reserve. The research team carried out night spotting activities on 08 routes, with a length of 30.8 km, and 12.1 hours of the continuous survey. During the survey, the team recorded a total of 08 pygmy lorises (Nycticebus pygmaeus). The lorises were recorded in different habitat types, but mainly in secondary forest and mixed bamboo forest. The group did not record any loris in old growth forest (primary). In particular, out of the 08 individuals recorded this time, there were 03 lorises recorded in Acacia plantation (Acacia mangium), this is also a new record of loris in this type of forest. Acacia plantation is considered an unsuitable area for wildlife, especially primates. This new record shows the adaptation of loris to the changes in vegetation in their ranges. However, this is a plantation which will be cleared-cut in a 5-year cycle, so, how will these lorises survive? Or maybe, the loris only comes to feed in the acacia forest but do not live permanently in this habitat. During the survey, no Bengal slow loris (Nycticebus bengalensis) was recorded. It seems that Bengal slow loris has become very rare. Through previous surveys efforts, we only recorded 02 Bengal slow lorises, which was significantly lower than 30 recorded of the pygmy lorises for the same survey efforts. During the survey, interviews with local people showed that lorises are a target species for hunting and trafficking, although some local villagers still caught lorises to keep as pets, they usually die after several weeks. CCD will continue its cooperation with Xuan Lien to promote the research and provide better information about the lorises population, especially for the Bengal slow loris, and opportunities for recovery of these species. Furthermore, we will work with the reserve to organize more awareness-raising activities to enhance conservation knowledge for local people. The awareness events will not only improve public awareness but also to reduce wildlife poaching and increase community responsibility for the conservation of loris, and other endangered animals in the Reserve. Photo 1: A pygmy loris (Nycticebus pygmaeus) recorded in the acacia forest Photo 2: A pygmy loris (Nycticebus pygmaeus) recorded in the mixed bamboo forest Photo 3: Harvesting acacia forest in Hón Can during the survey Photo 4: Field research team of CCD and forest ranger of Hón Can station

The booming of wildlife poaching and trafficking lead to a serious declining for turtles and tortoises in Vietnam. Most of the species are now facing serious threats include extinction risk. Because of the trafficking, some species are now considered to be extinct in their former known ranges. Considered as one of the important biodiversity conservation area in northern Vietnam, Xuan Lien Nature Reserve (will be called as Xuan Lien hereafter) is home to many endemic and endangered species of wild fauna and flora. In particular, the dominant habitats of Xuan Lien are evergreen forest in the low-mountain and mixed bamboo forest, which are ideal habitats for many species of tortoise and turtles. Photo 1: Four-eyed turtle (Sacalia quadriocellata) in Xuan Lien Continuing our collaboration with the Xuan Lien on conservation of turtles and tortoises in Xuan Lien Nature Reserve, in April 2021, a research team from Center for Nature Conservation and Development (CCD) and Xuan Lien conducted a field survey for turtles and tortoises in Hon Can and Song Khao. In this survey, the team not only focus on field survey but also piloting turtle monitoring using radio tracking equipment. The aim of the piloting was to test the equipment and gather experience to prepare a long-term monitoring for releasing of post-seizure turtles and tortoises. Photo 2: Tracking for turtles using radio tracking device In this survey, 02 Indochinese box turtles (Cuora galbinifrons), 01 Keeled box turtle (Cuora mouhotii) were spotted in Hon Can area, and 01 Four-eyed turtle (Sacalia quadriocellata) was spotted in Song Khao. All these turtles are listed as Critically Endangered and Endangered by Vietnam Red Data Book and the IUCN Red List. The team also attached transmitters to 03 turtles to track their movement patterns and evaluate the overall equipment effectiveness in the field. These survey results reconfirm the diversity of tortoises and turtles in Xuan Lien and radio tracking tool is working well with the reserve terrain and vegetation. However, during the survey time, the team also recorded some information that illegal poaching and trafficking of turtle and wildlife from the reserve by local community. Thus, to improve protection for wildlife and enhance local community’s responsibility for endangered wildlife, Xuan Lien should promote more field patrol, awareness campaigns in local villages to raise awareness and reduce poaching and trafficking. Photo 3: Transmitter attached to Keeled box turtle (Cuora mouhotii) CCD will continue our collaboration with Xuan Lien to implement the turtle surveys and use radio tracking to monitor and evaluate the habitat and viability of released turtles in the wild. CCD will also assist Xuan Lien to carry out more awareness-raising activities to raise awareness and reduce poaching and impacts of human activities on wildlife species in this important reserve.

On March 2021, Center for nature Conservation and Development in collaboration with Xuan Lien Nature Reserve conduct a field surveys to identify the population and distribution of turtles, tortoise and Lorises in Xuan Lien. The surveys were conducted in the forest sector no. 498, 495 and 507, in the upstream of Hon Mong, Hon Ca and Vung Bo streams in Xuan Lien reserve. The main habitat of these areas is mixed woodland-bamboo forests which is considered as ideal habitat of turtles, tortoise and Lorises. Due to the survey time was early spring and the weather was still cold, it was not the right time for turtle and lorises active. So there were hardly no signs of the targeted species in these areas. However, our team also recorded some animals in the study sites including Indochinese flying squirrel (Hylopetes phayrei); Asian small clawed otter (Aonyx cinereus), Common palm civet (Paradoxurus hermaphroditus), Phayre’s leaf monkey (Trachypithecus phayrei), Northern white-cheeked gibbon (Nomascus leucogenys), Stump-tailed macaque (Macaca arctoides), muntjacs, wild boar and many other reptiles and amphibians. Our team also observed several animal traps (then removed them) and shelters of local people who entered the core zone of the reserve to catch fish, frogs and small animals. The findings indicated that the study area is an important conservation stronghold in the reserve but it also is one of frequent impacted areas by local people. Turtles, tortoise and the lorises are fully protected by Vietnamese regulations, for instance, most of the turtles, tortoise species and the both loris species distributed in Xuan Lien are on the protected lists in Decree No. 06/2019/ND-CP and Decree No. 64/2019/ND-CP. Therefore, it is necessary to implement more patrol and protect activities to minimize the human impact in this reserve. CCD will continue its cooperation with Xuan Lien to provide more information on species diversity as well as opportunities for conservation and population recovery for these species. Meanwhile, CCD will cooperate with Xuan Lien to organize more awareness raising activity to enhance conservation knowledge for local people. The awareness will not only improve public awareness but also help to reduce illegal wildlife poaching and increase community responsibility for the conservation of turtles, loris and other endangered animals in the Reserve. Photo 1: CCD’s staff was setting camera traps in survey transects Photo 2: CCD team in a nocturnal survey Photo 3: CCD’s staff was conducting turtle survey Photo 4: CCD’s staff was conducting turtle survey Photo 5: Research team was going to study sites