State of the Environment Vietnam - issues\state_and_impact\biodiversity_state_and_impact.htm

State of the Environment Vietnam - issues\state_and_impact\biodiversity_state_and_impact.htm

Biodiversity State and Impact

Pressure

Response

Conclusion

Impacted ecosystems
Decline in numbers of individual species
Red list of threatened species increased

Impacted ecosystems

Almost all natural ecosystems were impacted in the process of socio-economic development. Natural ecosystems with high level of biodiversity have decreased in area or transformed into other secondary ecosystems. Forest ecosystem has been lost in Central highland due to cultivation of coffee, pepper, and rubber. In northern mountains, forests were destroyed to cultivate crops with low productivity and then abandoned. In the delta flats, the area under agro-ecosystems gradually decreased for building urban and industrial zones.

Due to rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, the increase of waste sources has impacted on water quality and caused degradation of biodiversity and quality of aquatic ecosystems. It has also caused decrease in quality of economic species because of the accumulation of toxins. Also, with the formation of some large reservoirs the major spawning grounds of some migratory species of fish with high economic value such as Clupanodont, Thrissa in areas up-stream of the Red River have been lost. A large area of mangroves has been transformed to aquaculture ponds with low productivity.

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Decline in numbers of individual species

Research results show that because of overexploitation and habitat loss, the numbers of some rare species have rapidly declined

Quantitative decline of some rare species with high economic value in Vietnam

No.	Species	Period
No.	Species	Before 1970s (Individual)	Data of 1999 (individual)
1	Javan Rhinoceros	15 - 17	5 - 7
2	Asian Elephant	1,500 - 2,000	100 -150
3	Tiger	about 1,000	80-100
4	Kouprey	20 - 30	Insufficiently known (necessary to study)
5	Gaur	3,000 - 4,000	400 - 500
6	Banteng	2,000 - 3,000	150 - 200
7	Muntjac	2,500 - 3,000	150 - 170
8	Ca Toong Deer	700 - 1,000	80-100
9	Spotted Deer	300 - 800	Very rare
10	Sao la	newly discovered	Insufficiently known
11	Giant Muntjac	newly discovered	300-500
12	Truong son Muntjac	newly discovered	Insufficiently known
13	Napa Muntjac	200 - 300	Very rare
14	Black Gibbon	-	350-400
15	Hainan Gibbon	100	Insufficiently known
16	White Cheeked Languor	thousands	350-400
17	Reddish Cheeked Languor	thousands	150-200
18	White headed Languor	600 - 800	60-80
19	Snub-nosed Monkey	800 - 1,000	150 - 200
20	White nuchal Languor	-	300 - 350
21	White gluteal Languor	-	80-100
22	Peafowl	thousands	150 - 200
23	Black crest gray Pheasant	-	very rare
24	White crest gray Pheasant	-	very rare
25	Tam Dao toadfish	thousands	200 - 300
26	Crocodile	thousands	100-150
27	Ngoc Linh ginseng	Estimated production 6-8 tones/year	about 100-150 kg/year
28	Boi Loi plant bark	Estimated production in Ngoc Linh mountain area of 20 tones/year.	about 7-8 tones/year

Source : Institute of Ecology and Biological Resource, Report on Biodiversity 1999

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Red list of threatened species increased

After conducting faunal and floral inventories and surveys in Vietnam, two Red Data Books were published, one for animals (1992) and the other for plants (1995). The books contain a list of 365 animal and 356 plant species with detailed description on their distribution, ecological behaviour, assessment of threats, and protection measures. Recently, due to overexploitation some more species are proposed to be added to the Red Data Book of Vietnam. This indicates that the numbers of rare and endangered species is decreasing continuously.

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