2 Status of taxonomic knowledge of Lao wildlife National species diversity 1 Mammals 1 Birds
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Tables (currently grouped by threat from duckworth et al.>>
7 Status of current practices and capacity to protect and manage wildlife
All wildlife in Lao PDR is the property of the State. Presently, the use and protection of wildlife is regulated by an array of confusing and sometimes contradictory laws, executive and ministerial decrees, and directives. The principal ones and their key provisions are listed in Table. Provincial programme to collect guns from villagers may also be of considerable long-term significance to wildlife conservation in Lao PDR. At present, many species that require complete protection are not apparently listed (e.g. Black Ibis), while some common species that do not require any protective measures are listed as subject to hunting controls (e.g. drongos). The latter situation severely compromises the credibility and enforceability of the legislation. The new regulation on NBCA and wildlife management No: 0524/MAF.2001 issued by Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (07 June, 2001) was a more comprehensive code of wildlife protection. Penalties for violation of the existing decrees and instructions are outlined in the Penal Code of the Lao PDR(23 October 1989), and refined in the Instructions for the Implementation of Decree No. 118 and in the Forestry Law of 1996. The principal on Measurement and qualification of Timber for national use and export, and size permission for cutting of wild trees No:0239/MAF, dated February 25, 1997, was defined 151 wild tree species as prohibited I & II and Control species I, II & III. This principal are under revising and updating, and the new appropriate one will be replaced use soon. Under the Lao government system, implementation of conservation and other forest policy is the responsibility of the Provincial Agriculture and Forestry Offices. The role of DFRC as a central agency is confined to co-ordination, support and external liaison; it has no enforcement arm, nor are protected areas field staff directly accountable to it. In the year 2001-2002, the project concerned to the dissemination of Lao’s Forestry Law and CITES regulation, carried out by the Department of Forestry has been successful, which The outputs are shown that many concerning staff level (include central, provincial and border’s staff) are clearly understand, about the important /necessary of laws and regulation concerned and find the reasonable way of coordination their work, illegal trade of wildlife are reducing in the local market than it were before in many provinces, suggestion Lao to access to CITES is considered and has been approved by the Lao Government, Lao PDR now is prepared to be the membership of CITES . However, in practice the Forestry Law compare with another Laws and regulations of Lao PDR, is still has some gaps to be improved, the main things are to identify clearly the term of reference and national coordination system between organizations mentioned on any laws /regulations. the Forestry Law and CITES are still necessary and needed to disseminate to all level in whole country, particularly at district and village levels, so the follow up project concerning to Forestry Law and CITES will focus on these goals. In term of new member country of CITES, There are many things to be prepared for Lao PDR, the key activities will include such as development of the authorities to responsible for implement the CITES project; compiling and updating data and information concerning to the list of species, specifically the Red-List for both fauna and flora; capacity building for staff and public awareness.
The Government of Lao PDR, with the technical assistance of IUCN (through the Lao-Swedish Forestry Cooperation Programme) and other international agencies, has been developing a national protected area system for several years (Salter and Phanthavong 1989, Salter et al. 1991, Berkmüller et al. 1993, 1995a, 1995b). Surveys towards this aim began in 1988, and in 1993, 18 areas covering approximately 10% of the land area of the country were decreed as National Biodiversity Conservation Areas. A further two (Dong Phou Vieng and Xe Sap) were added in 1995-1996, meaning that NBCAs currently cover about 12.5% of Lao PDR. Ten more areas recommended by Berkmüller et al. (1995a) for NBCA status remain under consideration, as does one area subsequently investigated, Dong Khanthung (Berkmüller and Vilawong 1996, Timmins and Vongkhamheng 1996b, Round 1998). All areas are shown in Fig. 5. The system is intended to place representative areas of all significant and natural habitat (forest and wetland) types occurring within the country under protected area management. This should result in inclusion of representative populations of most wildlife species, but specific attention is needed for certain species in the design and management of the system, including: • very large and/or wide ranging species where the home ranges of a sufficient number of individuals to constitute a viable population cannot feasibly be included within individual protected areas (e.g. Tiger, Dhole, Asian Elephant, wild cattle; see Duckworth and Hedges 1998a); • species occupying habitats that are also the foci for human activity (e.g. water birds; see Thewlis et al. 1998); • threatened species of which the Lao population is of very high global importance and thus all populations merit protection (e.g. Saola); • species with very restricted distributions in Lao PDR (e.g. Black-cheeked Crested Gibbon and Pileated Gibbon, whose limited known ranges are not included within any declared NBCA); and • species with very narrow habitat requirements (e.g. a species occurring only in level lowland evergreen forest below 500 m in Lao PDR north of Vientiane; such habitat has been almost entirely cleared and no large tracts are included within declared NBCAs).
There are of over 60 Globally Threatened species of mammals, birds, amphibians and reptiles in Lao PDR, several of which are near-endemic to the country. There is now a written conservation strategy for one species, Saola, and there are research and recovery efforts underway for several others, notably Irrawaddy Dolphin in southern Lao PDR (part of an integrated aquatic resources conservation project) and Green Peafowl in Phou Khao khouay NBCA. Several further species-focussed initiatives are planned, of which work on elephants is the most advanced. Conservation interventions are mainly directed towards entire wildlife communities. They involve (1) various projects to establish effective management in gazetted NBCAs, (2) the efforts of several districts and provinces to halt the wildlife trade, and (3) local collection of hunting arms. The principal constraints on more active wildlife conservation have been limited staff and training, and the low priority of wildlife conservation for a government faced with issues of food security, basic health care, education and poverty alleviation. In the medium term the macro-economic constraints caused by the Asian financial crisis will also limit activities. Potential management measures for wildlife conservation can be grouped as hunting reduction, habitat conservation and the protected area system, and captive breeding. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||