Vietnamese students win gold medal for langur research

The two teenagers were one of three Vietnamese student groups participating in the Global Natural History Day in Shanghai, China, for the first time.

“It’s the first time that we participated in an international event, and we had little time to prepare. We researched about the primate on the Internet and in books with the support of the Centre of Education and Development,” Dang Vu Minh replied via an e-mail interview.

“We had a week-long field trip to the forests of the Son Tra peninsula under the guidance provided by the Biodiversity Conservation Centre, GreenViet, an NGO in Danang, during our research of the langur,” Minh said.

Young students went on a field trip to Danang to collect information about the langurs.

Minh said the two students focused on two sections, illegal logging in a 10ha area in Son Tra forest and its impact on red-shanked douc langur flocks, and how students could protect the langur.

Minh said he went on a field trip to Son Tra forest to observe the critically endangered animal through binoculars and at close range.

The two students had three weeks to complete their data collection, oral presentations and exhibition.

At the contest held from July 21 to 29 in Shanghai, the presentation of the two Vietnamese students persuaded the jury to present them the gold medal, the first-ever prize for Vietnamese students at the event in which 90 teams from 10 countries participated.

Dao Nhat Minh said they had to answer several questions from the jury and foreigners on the primate in Vietnam.

Minh said the jury even called them ‘primate guys’.

The Hanoian student was worried that the primate in Son Tra forest would become extinct if illegal logging, hunting and excessive urbanisation continued to take place.

GNHD is an international education programme designed to inspire elementary and middle school students’ interest in natural science and history. It was launched in 2012 and more than 7,100 students have joined GNHD since then.

This year was the first time that three teams from Vietnam were sent to compete at the event.

The Son Tra Nature Reserve, which originally covers more than 4,400ha, is home to more than 300 red-shanked douc langurs, which are found only in Vietnam and Laos.

More than 100 secondary and high school students in Son Tra District were trained on the importance of primate conservation and environment protection communication programme by GreenViet.

Students in Son Tra also went on free tours to see the langurs and the forests at the reserve as well as to participate in a cleaning campaign in Son Traforests.

The central city will promote the red-shanked douc langur as a new mascot at the 2017 APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation) Summit, to be hosted by Danang next November.