The Babbler Number 40 - February 2012 Made in South Africa Consumed in Vietnam Photo: Jonathan C. Eames Number 40 - February 2012 CONTENTS Working together for birds and people • Comment 448 South African rhinos killed in 2011: A rhino lost every 20 BirdLife International in Indochina is a hours subregional programme of the BirdLife Secretariat operating in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and • Features The Future of the Mekong River Still Hangs in the Balance Vietnam. It currently has two offices in the region: Logging in the wild west Vietnam Programme Office • Regional News Cambodia opens controversial mega-dam Room 211-212, D1 building, Illegal South African rhino killings hit record high Van Phuc Diplomatic Compound; Brown and Northern Boobooks both occur in Thailand 298 Kim Ma street, Ba Dinh district, Hanoi, Vietnam Two new paper clip-sized frogs discovered in Vietnam P.O. Box 89 • Rarest of the rare Hoan Kiem softshell turtle (Rafetus swinhoei) 6 Dinh Le, Hanoi, Vietnam Tel: +84-4-3 514 8904 • Project Updates CEPF- Regional Implementation Team updates Securing the future for Gurney’s Pitta and its forest habitat Cambodia Programme Office #9, Street 29 Tonle Basac, • Reviews Wild Mekong Chamkarmon, Phnom Penh, Cambodia • Publications Impacts of warming on lowland forests Historical and current status of vultures in Myanmar P.O.Box: 2686 Greater Adjutant Leptoptilos dubius Tel/Fax: +855 23 993 631 • Photo spot • From the archives World Press Photo of the Year 2011 winner www.birdlifeindochina.org The Babbler 40 - February 2012 Comment 448 South African rhinos killed in 2011: A rhino lost every 20 hours am recently returned from a study tour to South Africa: the objective of which was to help Cambodian government and private sector representatives appreciate the opportunity presented by high-end I safari tourism and assess whether Cambodia could use a similar approach to ensure the long term conservation of its biodiversity-rich areas (as its protected areas system is failing). Four days into our trip and we were all confronted by the horror of a freshly dead white rhino: The result of the epidemic of rhino poaching sweeping South Africa because of demand from China and Vietnam. The bull white rhino that graces the cover of this issue and the photograph on this page was shot dead with two .375 caliber rounds, the first piercing the heart and the second, a coup de gras through the left eye, before its two horns were hacked off using an axe moments later. By the time of our arrival at the crime scene, the police and North-west Parks and Tourism Board personnel were present in force. Their mood was grim and for some the appearance of Asian faces at the scene was not a welcome sight. A shame there was no Vietnamese with us to feel this “heat”. If knowing your enemy is an essential part of winning any war, it was clear on that November afternoon there is a long way to go before there is better understanding on the part of some South African authorities, as to who the enemy is they are facing. Based on that incident alone it was clear that some in South Africa cannot even discriminate between a Cambodian, a Chinese or a Vietnamese person: They’re all just Asians it seems. But it isn’t “just Asians” it’s Chinese and Vietnamese who are consuming rhino horn. Moving amongst the sombre crowd of uniformed and heavily armed men, they were shocked to discover that rhino horn was on open sale in Vietnam, that even well educated Vietnamese cared not whether South African rhinos were hunted to extinction. Tales of the documented complicity of Vietnamese authorities drew surprised looks and gasps of disbelief all round. For the sake of South Africa’s rhinos those involved in the war need a strategic victory. Poachers are being caught and mules apprehended at Johannesburg’s’ international airport, and are receiving justice in the South African courts. How many Vietnamese have been tried, convicted and sentenced in courts The Babbler is the quarterly newsletter of BirdLife International in in Vietnam for rhino crimes? The answer is none since 2008. And I don’t mean the hapless fools who will Indochina. This quarter The Babbler was compiled by Tran Thi Thanh Huong run the risk for a few million Dong, I mean the well-educated middle class businessmen and women who [email protected] and edited by Jonathan C. Eames, Eames@birdlife. are aware of the law and who openly boast of using rhino horn at parties for the well heeled in Hanoi org.vn. The views expressed are those of contributors and are not necessarily and Saigon those of BirdLife International. Jonathan C. Eames OBE Programme Manager BirdLife International in Indochina 3 The Babbler 40 - February 2012 PHOTO SPOT Rhino wars n the war against rhino poaching officials from North-west Parks and Tourism Board in South Africa are micro-chipping and ear-notching all rhino populations Iunder their jurisdiction. All Black rhinos and a large proportion of White rhinos now carry micro-chips enabling the horns to be more easily detected and the source of the rhino traced. In 2010 In December 2010 two Vietnamese nationals were arrested in Beaufort-West, South Africa, in possession of 15 rhino horns. Subsequent scans using a trovan scanner revealed that one of the horns came from a rhino that was poached on the 5th of August 2010 in Mafikeng Game Reserve. During the recent BirdLife study tour to South Africa, we were lucky enough to be invited to see the operation in practice in Pilansburg Game Reserve. A helicopter with a veterinarian marksman quickly located and darted a young White rhino that was photographed, notched and chipped in around 10 minutes. The antidote was then administered and the rhino up on his feet again in minutes ------------- Photos and text: Jonathan C. Eames 4 The Babbler 40 - February 2012 Feature The Future of the Mekong River Still Hangs in the Balance By Ame Trandem1 he past fifteen months have witnessed an biodiverse river in the world, constructing even one intensifying regional debate over whether mainstream dam is likely to cause significant harm to Tto approve the first proposed dam for the the river’s ecosystem and the people it supports. In lower Mekong River’s mainstream, the Xayaburi October 2010, a Strategic Environmental Assessment Dam located in Northern Laos. The decision that commissioned by the MRC revealed the irreversible is ultimately made will in large part also determine damage that mainstream dams would pose to the fate of the Mekong River, its ecosystems and its the region’s wild-capture fisheries, livelihoods, peoples. While the dam’s developers have pushed agriculture, and food security, and recommended that hard for approval, a temporary reprieve was granted any decision over mainstream dam projects, including on December 8th, when regional ministers of the the Xayaburi Dam, should be deferred for a period of inter-governmental Mekong River Commission (MRC) ten years. delayed deciding on the Xayaburi Dam and instead announced plans to approach Japan and other Then, in March 2011, a technical review of the international donors for assistance in carrying out a Xayaburi’s key project documents by the MRC was new study on the impacts of the Mekong mainstream conducted as part of the regional decision-making dams. process. Amongst its key findings, this study identified that the dam would threaten the fish migration The recent MRC meeting marks the second of between 23 to 100 fish species, including five delay the project has faced since Laos first initiated IUCN red-list species. The review also reconfirmed the Xayaburi Dam’s prior consultation process earlier conclusions made by top international fishery in September 2010. At an earlier MRC meeting scientists that the project’s proposed fish ladders on April 19th, the governments of Thailand, would be ineffective and that there are currently no Cambodia and Vietnam called for an extension to proven measures that could mitigate the impacts of the decision-making process, citing their concerns mainstream dams on the Mekong’s rich fisheries. about transboundary impacts and knowledge gaps that require further study and public consultation. When the Xayaburi Dam’s Environmental Impact Vietnam went so far as to request a ten-year Assessment (EIA) was finally made public in mid- deferment in decisions over all mainstream dams. March 2011, numerous scientists from around the globe voiced their concern to the MRC over the Although the fate of the Xayaburi Dam remains flawed and sub-standard quality of the document. uncertain, a body of evidence for why the project Major flaws identified with the dam’s EIA included should not be built has continued to mount. As the lack of appropriate technical information and the Mekong River is home to the world’s largest the report’s limited scope of study, which considered Fishing near the Xayaburi Dam site. Photo: International Rivers freshwater fishery, and is also the second most impacts only within a ten-kilometer radius of the 5 The Babbler 40 - February 2012 Feature The Future of the Mekong River...(Continued) dam site despite the project’s anticipated transboundary harm under the 1995 Mekong welcomed the study under the framework electricity. The dam’s power purchase transboundary impacts. Agreement and international law, this new of the MRC and committed to helping agreement was reportedly signed in October study, if carried out in accordance with ensure the study incorporates the “best 2011 despite the fact that the project is far While the scope and timeline of the international best practice, could be a good international scientific, social and economic from winning approval of at least two of the new study agreed to by the ministers this opportunity for regional governments to be advice and holistic consultative processes region’s governments, let alone the public.