The central city of Da Nang has approved a project on conserving bio-diversity of the Son Tra natural reserve, the sanctuary of the Indochinese endemic species of Douc langur (Vooc Va).

The project’s budget of 40 billion VND (2.12 million USD) will be largely funded by the Conservation Fund of the World Bank, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA).

In addition to the main action of conservation which will focus on biodiversity priorities, the project aims to raise public awareness and sense of responsibility for ecological management and conservation, improve management capacity of responsible agencies and encourage rational use of natural resources.

All this is expected to contribute to improving local living conditions and meeting demand for socio-economic development in the central port city of Da Nang, according to the project’s documents.

The Son Tra natural reserve covers a natural territory of 4,440 ha, including over 3,430 ha of forests.

Its ecological systems are marked with coastal wetland and primeval tropical rain-forests.

Son Tra is the habitat of a number of rare animals, including the Douc langur, which are in danger of extinction./.

(Source: Vietnamplus )