A cohesive conservation plan protecting the Vietnamese environment—and primates—is now signed legislation, in part due to efforts of a University of Colorado Boulder anthropologist.
The plan, which was approved by the country’s prime minister last May, aims to expand protected forests, increasing habitat for primates.
Worldwide, 75 percent of the world’s primate populations are in decline, while 60 percent are threatened with extinction, according to a study published in Science Advances last year. In Vietnam, 88 percent of primates are threatened with extinction.
A journal article titled “Primates of Vietnam: Conservation in a Rapidly Developing Country,” published in Anthropology Now in September, details the causes of environmental degradation in Vietnam, and future challenges and practices used to combat the rapidly declining populations of primates—including the new conservation plan.
The plan “actually relates to quality of life and livelihoods of future generations,” said Herbert Covert, a professor of anthropology at CU Boulder’s College of Arts and Sciences.
This plan is the result of years of work by Vietnamese conservationists and Covert, who helped lay the groundwork for the project.
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