Nam Ngiep 1 Hydropower Project
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
NAM NGIEP 1 HYDROPOWER PROJECT FINAL DRAFT REPORT 13 AUGUST 2016 A BIODIVERSITY RECONNAISSANCE OF A CANDIDATE OFFSET AREA FOR THE NAM NGIEP 1 HYDROPOWER PROJECT IN THE NAM MOUANE AREA, BOLIKHAMXAY PROVINCE Prepared by: Chanthavy Vongkhamheng1 and J. W. Duckworth2 1. Biodiversity Assessment Team Leader, and 2. Biodiversity Technical Advisor Presented to: The Nam Ngiep 1 Hydropower Company Limited. Vientiane, Lao PDR. 30 June 2016 0 CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.................................................................................................................... 6 CONVENTIONS ................................................................................................................................... 7 NON-STANDARD ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS ............................................................... 9 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................... 10 PRINCIPLES OF ASSESSMENT ........................................................................................................ 10 CONCEPTUAL BASIS FOR SELECTING A BIODIVERSITY OFFSET AREA ............................. 12 THE CANDIDATE OFFSET AREA ................................................................................................... 13 METHODS ........................................................................................................................................... 15 i. Village discussions .......................................................................................................................... 15 ii. Camera-trapping ............................................................................................................................ 16 iii. Reconnaissance walk-about .............................................................................................................. 17 iv. Gibbon survey. ............................................................................................................................... 18 TIMING AND TEAM STRUCTURE .................................................................................................. 18 LIMITATIONS ..................................................................................................................................... 19 FINDINGS ........................................................................................................................................... 20 Village basic socio-economic information .................................................................................. 20 Habitat ....................................................................................................................................... 21 Selected wildlife species accounts ............................................................................................... 22 Wildlife community overview ..................................................................................................... 41 Threats ....................................................................................................................................... 46 COMPARISON OF THE NMA WITH OTHER AREAS ................................................................... 49 SUITABILITY OF THE NAM MOUANE AREA AS AN OFFSET AREA ....................................... 52 CONCLUSIONS ................................................................................................................................... 58 1 List of tables Table 1. Summary of camera-trap survey effort in the Nam Mouane area. Table 2. Mineral licks visited in the Nam Mouane area. Table 3. Basic socio-economic information of villages around the Nam Mouane area, early 2016. Table 4. Large mammal species recorded in the NMA by all methods combined, early – mid 2016. Table 5. Bird species recorded in the NMA by all methods combined, early – mid 2016. Table 6. Location records and detail of human activities in the Nam Mouane area, early 2016. Table 7. The Nam Mouane area: suitability as an offset area. List of figures Fig. 1. The Nam Mouane area and other habitat and/or management units referred to in this report. Note that all boundaries are tentative. Fig. 2. Survey effort in the Nam Mouane area. Fig. 3. Phayre’s Leaf Monkey Trachypithecus phayrei in the Nam Mouane area, 1 March 2016. Fig. 4. Gibbon Nomascus records and reports in the Nam Mouane area, 2016. Fig. 5. Records of Roosevelts’-group Muntjac Muntiacus rooseveltorum and allied species, Northern Red Muntjac M. vaginalis and unidentified muntjacs in the Nam Mouane area, 2016. Fig. 6. Reports and records of two species associated with wet evergreen forest, Annamite Striped Rabbit Nesolagus timminsi and Crested Argus Rheinardia ocellata, in the Nam Mouane area, 2016. Fig. 7. Crested Argus Rheinardia ocellata tail feather in Ban Phonemeuang, measured at 1.37 m in length, reported to have been caught in the upper Nam Kagnee, close to Vietnam border, in May 2015, Xaychamphone district, Bolikhamxay province, Lao PDR, early 2016. Fig. 8. Records of human activities in the Nam Mouane area. List of appendices Appendix 1: People involved in camera trapping Appendix 2: Representative photos of wildlife species from camera traps 2 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS The ‘Nam Mouane area’ (NMA), a candidate biodiversity offset area for the Nam Ngiep 1 hydropower project, comprises 780 km² at 430 to 1825 m a.s.l. of the Nam Mouane and Nam Gnouang catchments, Bolikhamxay province. This area lies in the Annamite mountain range, The range supports a concentration of evergreen forest species occurring nowhere else in the world and which are somewhat to very heavily threatened by hunting and habitat degradation. Before 2016, very little information existed about the NMA’s wildlife. From late February to late May, ground wildlife was surveyed by camera-trapping in two sectors of the NMA, supplemented by photograph-documented direct searching, while walking through the area, for plants indicative of wet evergreen forest, animals, their signs, and human activity; listening-post surveys for gibbons; and discussion with local people about wildlife and human activity. The survey was too brief and spatially limited to profile the NMAs wildlife reliably and precisely, so further investigation might modify the preliminary conclusions, just as more-than-doubling the duration of camera-trapping resulted in substantial modification to the conclusions. The total amount of camera-trapping is still insufficient for anything approaching a full species list of the NMA’s camera-trappable mammals. The species present but as yet undetected may include some of high conservation importance. Camera-trapping took place in two blocks, selected as likely to be parts of the NMA the least depleted from hunting, with one in the west where the forest would be most seasonally dry, and one in the centre, predicted to be more mesic; the most climatically wet forest would be expected in the NMA’s east based on topography, but this part was reported to be heavily hunted and logged already. The NMA comprises mostly little-degraded (semi-)evergreen forest, a tract large enough to conserve the highly threatened very large mammals which have been hunted out from most of their Lao range, such as Asian Elephant Elephas maximus, Gaur Bos gaurus, Dhole Cuon alpinus, bears Ursus thibetanus and Helarctos malayanus and big cats Panthera. But these have already disappeared from the NMA or largely so, with no evidence for any species other than bears; given the survey effort, other species may persist but only in very small, and probably not recoverable, numbers. Among the ground mammals in steep hunting-induced decline in Lao PDR but surviving more widely than do the foregoing, several were not found at all (but may persist locally and/or in small numbers). But several were: Sunda Pangolin Manis javanica, Sambar Rusa unicolor, Binturong Arctictis binturong, Large Indian Civet Viverra zibetha and, probably, Hog Badger Arctonyx collaris. Each was found at only one to relatively few camera-trap stations. These species are of limited global conservation interest, with, excepting the pangolin, many secured populations in many countries. By contrast, they have mostly been hunted out of Annamite evergreen forest. Thus, their presence indicates a lower overall, to date, hunting pressure in the NMA than is typical in Annamite forest. This is probably because of a late start to industrial market-driven hunting there; based on hunting signs found and the hunting-sensitive ground animal community camera-trapped, hunting activity seems now to be very high. Similarly, a conservable gibbon Nomascus population persists, albeit probably much depleted already; although not identified to species, both possibilities are highly threatened. A few of the special mammal species of Annamite evergreen forest were recorded, primarily those with wider geographic ranges and wider occurrence in more seasonal forest: [Red-shanked Douc Pygathrix nemaeus] (reports only), unidentified gibbon, and Roosevelts’-group Muntjac Muntiacus rooseveltorum (sensu lato). The most habitat-specialised (those strongly associated with 3 wet evergreen forest; w), and the most declined (d) Annamite evergreen forest species were not recorded: Owston’s Civet Chrotogale owstoni (w, d), Large-antlered Muntjac Muntiacus vuquangensis (d), Saola Pseudoryx nghetinhensis (w, d) and Annamite Striped Rabbit Nesolagus timminsi (w). Healthy