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RED-SHANKED DOUC LANGUR (PYGATHRIX NEMAEUS) PHOTO CREDIT: LE MANH HUNG ASSESSMENT OF THE BIODIVERSITY BAC HAI VAN PROPOSED NATURE RESERVE, THUA THIEN HUE, VIETNAM Disclaimer: This report is made possible by the support of the American People through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID.) The contents of report are the sole responsibility of ECODIT/WWF-Vietnam as a sub-contractor and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States Government. CONTENT ACRONYMS 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 1 PART 1. SITE DESCRIPTION 3 PART 2. SURVEY DESCRIPTION 4 OVERVIEW 4 AIMS 6 SURVEY METHODS 6 CAMERA TRAPPING 6 SMALL MAMMALS 7 BIRDS 8 REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS 9 PLANTS 10 FOREST COVER AND FOREST FRAGMENTATION 13 PART 3. RESULTS: CAMERA TRAPPING 13 COMPLETENESS OF COVERAGE 13 SURVEY RESULTS 14 KEY SPECIES ACCOUNTS 16 THREATS 16 PART 4. RESULTS: SMALL MAMMALS 17 COMPLETENESS OF COVERAGE 17 KEY SPECIES ACCOUNTS 18 THREATS 20 PART 5. RESULTS: BIRDS 21 COMPLETENESS OF COVERAGE 21 KEY SPECIES ACCOUNTS 21 THREATS 22 PART 6. RESULTS: REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS 23 COMPLETENESS OF COVERAGE 23 KEY SPECIES ACCOUNTS 24 THREATS 31 PART 7. RESULTS: PLANTS 32 COMPLETENESS OF COVERAGE 32 KEY SPECIES ACCOUNTS 32 THREATS 33 PART 8. RESULTS: FOREST COVER AND FRAGMENTATION 34 PART 9. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 36 REFERENCES 38 ANNEX 1: SPECIES LIST 43 SPECIES RECORDED BY CAMERA TRAP 43 SMALL MAMMAL SPECIES RECORDED 47 BIRD SPECIES RECORDED 50 AMPHIBIAN AND REPTILE SPECIES RECORDED 56 THREATENED PLANT SPECIES RECORDED 64 ANNEX 2: GLOSSARY 65 LIST OF TABLES Table 1 – Forest Cover Types Of Bac Hai Van NR In 2018 3 Table 2 – Priority Reptile And Amphibian Species Targeted Under This Survey. 10 Table 3 - Species List, Number Of Detections And Naive Occupancy Estimates Of All Ground Dwelling Mammal And Bird Species In Bac Hai Van. 14 Table 4 - Survey Effort For Small Mammal Surveys. 18 Table 5 – Total Small Mammal Species Recorded At Each Site And Diversity Indices. 18 Table 6 – Dominance Indices – Small Mammals 19 Table 7 - Survey Effort For Amphibians And Reptiles 23 Table 8 - Encounter Rates For Indochinese Water Dragon 25 Table 9 - Encounter Rates For Granular Spiny Frogs 26 Table 10 - Encounter Rates For Smooth Soft Poilan Frogs 27 Table 11 - Encounter Rates For Annam Flying Frog 28 Table 12 - Encounter Rates Anderson Spadefood Toad 29 Table 13 - Encounter Rates Black Striped Frog 29 Table 14 - Encounter Rates Hasse Spadefood Toads 30 Table 15 - Encounter Rates Anderson’s Frog 31 Table 16 - Plant Species Of Conservation Concern In Bac Hai Van PNR 32 Table 17 – Forest Cover Change 34 Table 18 - Mammal Species Recorded From Systematic Camera Trapping Surveys In Five PAS 43 Table 19 - Bird Species Recorded From Systematic Camera Trapping Surveys In Five PAS 45 Table 20 – Small Mammal Species Recorded In Hue Saola Nature Reserve 47 Table 21 - Bird Species List For Bac Hai Van Proposed Nature Reserve 50 Table 22 – Amphibian And Reptile Species List For Bac Hai Van PNR 56 Table 23 - Plant Species Of Conservation Concern In Bac Hai Van PNR 64 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 – Map showing the location and forest cover of Bac Hai Van Proposed Nature Reserve. 3 Figure 2 - A harp trap set in the forest. 8 Figure 3 - Methodological approach for sampling plants used during this survey. 11 Figure 4 - How to organize components in the main sample plot. 12 Figure 5 – Distribution of cameras and number of species detected at each camera trap station in Bac Hai Van. 15 Figure 6 - A sambar Cervus unicolor in Song Thanh NR. 16 Figure 7 - Black Giant Squirrel Ratufa bicolor. 19 Figure 8 – The large brown flying squirrel Petaurista philippensis. 20 Figure 9 - The Endangered red-shanked douc langur Pygathrix nemaeus in Bac Hai Van PNR. 22 Figure 10 - White-crested laughing thrush killed by an impact with a car inside the Bac Hai Van PNR. 23 Figure 11 - Indochinese water dragon. 25 Figure 12 - Granular spiny frog. 26 Figure 13 - Smooth soft poilan frog. 27 Figure 14 - Annam flying frog. 28 Figure 15 - Anderson spadefood toad. 29 Figure 16 - Black striped frog. 30 Figure 17 - Hasse spadefood toad. 31 Figure 18 - Map showing the Deforestation/Degradation of Bac Hai Van PNR (top right), Thua Thien Hue Saola NR, Quang Nam Saola NR, Bach Ma NP. 35 ACRONYMS asl Above Sea Level BCC Biodiversity Conservation Corridors CAL Central Annamites Landscape CarBi Avoidance of deforestation and forest degradation in the border area of southern Laos and central Vietnam for the long-term preservation of carbon sinks and biodiversity project DARD Department of Agriculture and Rural Development DoNRE Department of Natural Resources and Environment EBA Endemic Bird Area FPD Forest Protection Department GIS Geographic Information Systems ha Hectares IBA Important Bird Area IZW Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research MARD Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development MB Management Board MoNRE Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment NP National Park NR Nature Reserve PA Protected Area PNR Proposed Nature Reserve SMART Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool SNR Saola Nature Reserve SOP Standard Operating Procedure TNA Training Needs Assessment UTM Universal Transverse Mercator WWF World Wide Fund for Nature USAID.GOV ASSESSMENT OF THE BIODIVERSITY OF BAC HAI VAN PROPOSED NATURE RESERVE, THUA THIEN HUE, VIETNAM | 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Central Annamites houses one of the largest continuous natural forest areas in continental Asia. It is home to many endemic species including the saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), large antlered muntjac (Muntiacus vuquangensis), Truong Son muntjac (Muntiacus truongsonensis), Owston’s civet (Chrotogale owstoni), crested argus (Rheinardia ocellata), and Annamite striped rabbit (Nesolagus timminsi); as well as other species of high conservation value including gibbons (Nomascus annamensis), red and grey shanked douc langurs (Pygathrix spp) and several pheasants (Lophura spp). The Central Annamites is included as part of the Annamite Range Moist Forests, one of the Global 200 Ecoregions which have been identified as the most crucial areas for conservation of global biodiversity (Olson & Dinerstein 1998). Within the Indochina region it is recognized as being an important biodiversity corridor containing multiple Key Biodiversity Areas within the target area of Quang Nam and Thua Thien Hue Provinces, including; A Luoi-Nam Dong; Bach Ma; Ngoc Linh; Phong Dien and Song Thanh (Tordoff et al 2012). But while the Central Annamites are characterized by high biodiversity, it is also under high anthropogenic pressures, which have reduced the population sizes of the region’s most important threatened and endemic taxa. The two biggest threats to wildlife are poaching and logging; poaching (commonly through snaring) has targeted ground dwelling mammals and birds, and logging has disturbed arboreal species. Most information available to management boards stems from rapid wildlife and habitat assessments conducted prior to the preparation of an investment plan for establishment of these nature reserves which produce lists of species, but often includes no quantitative data on species abundance or distribution making it difficult to set management priorities. The Biodiversity Inventories component under the Green Annamites project aims to establish a baseline for biodiversity monitoring systems in identified PAs (Song Thanh Nature Reserve, Quang Nam Saola Nature Reserve, Phong Dien Nature Reserve, Thua Thien Hue Sao La Nature Reserve, Bac Hai Van Protection Forest Area). This will include creation of species lists, abundance estimates of key species and threat analysis data in the landscape that will provide input into management planning and zoning of target protected areas. This data will serve as a basis for upgrading, expanding and establishing new PAs in the landscape and facilitating sustainable management. The current report details biodiversity surveys conducted in Bac Hai Van NPR as part of the USAID funded Green Annamites project, with this component implemented by WWF-Vietnam. Taxonomic surveys included field-based surveys for small mammals (Class: Mammalia), birds (Class: Aves), Reptiles (Class: Reptilia), amphibians (Class: Amphibia) and plants (Kingdom: Plantae). In addition, extensive camera trapping was conducted in order to detect largely terrestrial mammals and birds, which would not be detected through other methods. Prior to surveys, scoping work was conducted to provide an initial assessment of the current state of knowledge of targeted taxa for biodiversity surveys in the protected areas of Thua Thien Hue and Quang Nam provinces. The Scoping Report outlined the initial approaches to surveys in terms of methods and effort to be applied. Subsequently, Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) were developed to detail the methodological approaches for collecting and analyzing data. The creation of Standard Operating Procedures ensured a standardized approach across protected areas in terms of data collection and analysis during field-based biodiversity assessments. Six SOPs were developed: - SOP for Small Mammal Surveys - SOP for Bird Surveys - SOP for Amphibian and Reptile Surveys - SOP for Plants - SOP for Camera Trapping - SOP for Field-based Threat Assessment USAID.GOV ASSESSMENT OF THE BIODIVERSITY OF BAC HAI VAN PROPOSED NATURE RESERVE, THUA THIEN HUE, VIETNAM | 1 To facilitate skills transfer to protected area staff for biodiversity assessments, a Training Needs Assessment (TNA) was conducted with ranger and technical staff. The TNA focused on staff current capacities in relation to species identification and monitoring with all competency assessments following the IUCN Global Register of Competences for Protected Area Practitioners (Appleton, 2016). This provided a basis for development of training curricular to support PA staff in developing capacity in biodiversity monitoring, which was delivered through classroom and field-based training. Protected area staff then engaged in the field-based biodiversity assessments presented in this report to allow for application of the training. Subsequently, biodiversity surveys were conducted in Bac Hai Van NPR in early 2018 by the expert technical teams supported by protected area staff.