Le Manh Hung

Building a Foundation for Monitoring and Conservation of Raptor Migration in Northern Vietnam

Raptor counting at Tam Dao national park.

Trained on how to use the field book.

Data collecting on Autunm migration at Tam Dao national park.

Training for local team members in the field.

Town/RegionCountryCategoriesDate
Cuc Phuong National Park
Hoang Lien Son Sa Pa National Park
Tam Dao National Park
Viet NamAsia, Biodiversity, Birds, forest16 Oct 2007

Biodiversity in Vietnam has been declining at a rapid rate due to habitat loss and degradation, especially in natural forests. The remaining natural forest is now also being fragmented. Improving the conservation of biodiversity in Vietnam is a critical issue of concern. Raptors and raptor migration are poorly studied in Vietnam. There have only been a few studies so far, the most notable being the studies by Tordoff et al. (2003) and Davison et al. (2005).

This project will be an integrated work to address conservation problems and enhance raptor and bird conservation in Vietnam. The project will identify and list all migratory raptor species. The migration routes of every species will be mapped. The project will collaborate with the raptor migration project of the Asian Raptor Research and Conservation Network to compare data and link with migration routes within the region. Potential roosting or stopover sites of species will be identified. Any threats to migratory raptors will be documented. Recommendations for the protection of migratory species will be produced and the awareness of local people and communities raised.

The project will be conducted at Hoang Lien–Sa Pa, Tam Dao and Cuc Phuong National Parks. This project will be the first comprehensive study of raptor migration in northern Vietnam, spanning three different and important national parks. Recruitment, training and coordination of team members from the three national parks will help long-term monitoring of migratory raptor species and spread understanding about the importance of raptors.

The project will identify important roosting or stopover areas for migratory raptor species, helping conservationists and decision makers to make informed decisions about land-use and infrastructure development, such as sighting of power lines. The information will also help national parks to develop more sustainable eco-tourism, using raptor migration as a focus. Awareness raising among local communities will be carried out during the surveys by showing posters, videos and migrating birds themselves.

For more information contact hungniltava@yahoo.com

Project Update: January 2009

With the financial support from Rufford Small Grant for Nature Conservation, our project started in July 2008 and to date the following works have been done successfully.

• July 2008: Purchase of equipment, medical supplies and insurance.

• August 2008: Prepare logistics and permissions.

• September 2008: Indoor training for local team members (four members) from Hoang Lien Sapa, Tam Dao and Cuc Phuong national parks on the raptor survey techniques, field data collection, methodologies for monitoring of raptor migration.

• October- November 2008: Outdoor training and field surveys to collect data on autumn raptor migration over the three national parks. From 24-28 October 2008, we co-operated with Asian Raptor Research and Conservation Network (ARRCN) and organized the raptor training workshop in Hanoi, Ba Vi and Cuc Phuong national parks. Ten experts from Asian countries including Japan, Mongolia, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan have been invited to give lectures. All the team members have joined in the training workshop and carried out field survey at Cuc Phuong National Park. The first, permanent raptor watchsite has been setting up at Tam Dao National Park.

• December 2008 - January 2009: Autumn data processing.

Final Report

Read about the acitivities undertaken and findings of this project in the final report below.

File DownloadSize
Final Report730 KB
2nd RSG Awarded

Read about the latest work from Le Manh http://www.ruffordsmallgrants.org/rsg/projects/le_manh_hung_0


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