Scientists are concerned that the last of Vietnam’s rhinos may be threatened by an ethnic minority group living in the same Central Highlands area.
The Lam Dong Province People’s Committee recently announced it would legally recognize 52 Stieng and Chau Ma ethnic families, who for generations have inhabited a 320- hectare area in Phuoc Cat No. 2 Commune of Cat Tien District. The area is also home to the Cat Loc Rhinoceros Reserve.
The reserve was built in 1992 after the Forest Inventory and Planning Institute discovered several rhinos in a 27,530-hectare area of Cat Loc forest.
It was then merged into Cat Tien National Park in 1998.
The legal recognition of the families means they will now qualify for development funding to improve the community’s infrastructure, but the park’s Deputy Director Pham Huu Khanh said the community has only received an initial development permit.
The permit is temporary, Khanh said, while the central government tries to find enough money to relocate the families out of the rhinos’ territory.
Khanh expressed concern that sooner or later “the demand for land for further cultivation and construction will disturb [and reduce] the rhinos’ area.”
In March 2003, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development approved a plan to move the families from the area but the project was never carried out.
During the 1960s, rhinos were thought to be extinct in Vietnam but in 1988 a hunter killed one near the Dong Nai River in the southern eponymous province, prompting scientists to look for more.
Khanh said there are about five rhinos in Vietnam, living only in Cat Loc forest, but the low quality of food in the area threatens their longevity.
Scientists have expressed concern that in the 10 years since the reserve was established, no young rhinos have been born.
Disturbance caused by human activity has been blamed for stressing the animals and discouraging them from reproducing.
Cat Tien Park officials are investigating the exact number and structure of the rhino group to find the best way to preserve them, Khanh said.
They have also installed a pool filled with mineral salts to help sustain the rhinos’ health and have fenced off an area to keep them away from nearby locals’ rice fields.
“The rhinos are a treasure not only of the park but of the whole world,” said Khanh, noting that “Vietnamese rhinos are facing near extinction.”
He added that another concern is the Dong Nai No. 5 hydropower plant, which has been planned for construction next to the rhinos’ reserve.
According to studies by Gert Polet of the World Wildlife Fund - Vietnam and Cat Tien National Park director Tran Van Mui, Vietnamese rhinos belong to the one-horned Javan species, one of the two rarest and most endangered of five rhino species.
There are only 50-70 Javan rhinos left worldwide, living in Indonesia and Vietnam, according to the studies.