Vietnam launches last ditch effort to save its wild elephants

The giant mammals will disappear from the country forever unless poaching is stopped and their habitat is preserved.

International conservationists and Vietnamese forest management officials on Wednesday kicked off an urgent action plan to protect the country’s last wild elephants that involves better monitoring and law enforcement.

Around 60 elephants in Yok Don National Park, some of the last left in the wild in Vietnam, face constant threats from poaching and deforestation. As their habitat has shrunk, they have also come into conflict with farmers in the area.

The plan includes training for forest rangers, camera traps to monitor the population and educating locals about the animal’s movements to prevent clashes, according to a WWF press release.

The rangers will use a SMART (Spatial Monitoring and Reporting Tool) system, a data collection tool used at many nature reserves across the world, including the provinces of Quang Nam and Thua Thien-Hue in central Vietnam.

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