Protecting wildlife: Do it, but don’t be delusional While the Vietnamese community has been trying to protect the wild animal and struggle for the green life, some people still keep indifferent to the environment protection movement.   In the morning, the cleaners in the resorts on Son Tra peninsula occasionally see a European woman with small stature walking along the route up to the mountain. The woman carries a plastic bag, roots up 20 creepers, then put them into the bag, fastens the bag and puts it into the public garbage can. This species of wild creepers, which has been growing very rapidly, is believed to spoil the soil and kill the local plants in the sanctuary. The woman is Dr. Ulrike Streicher, a zoology expert, who has participated in many Vietnamese animal rescue projects, including the Cuc Phuong National Park and the Son Tra Sanctuary. The scientist, during her fact-finding trips every day, has the habit of rooting up 20 harmful plants, thus making her contribution to the nature protection. Dr. Ulrike Streicher was the scientist who informed to the world about the existence of a herd of Pygathrix nemaeus on the Son Tra peninsula, the only one in the world, a species of primates that was previously thought to disappear. BBC then sent its staff to Son Tra in early 2013 to make a film based on the scientist’s research, thus calling for the joint efforts to protect the precious wild animal species. It was the scientist who persuaded the Da Nang City People’s Committee to set up the bridges, made of rope and crossing major roads, which help the langurs move more easily. The original bridges have attracted a lot of visitors, who can see the strange and interesting things in a sanctuary. Dr. Ulrike Streicher has a lot of friends, who could be the researchers, journalists and businessmen. They listened to her presentations about the projects on protecting the wildlife, and helped convince the local authorities to stop the projects on opening roads on the sanctuary. The businessmen in the tourism sector have been persuaded by her not to breed wild animals in captivity. A lot of groups of students followed her to go to the forest, learned how to take care for the wounded wild animals. Da Nang proves to be the only locality where a page on wildlife rescue has been set up on Facebook. The members of the page share the knowledge on the nature protection and seek the homes for ownerless dogs and cats and express their love to animals. The Facebook page has got 5,000 “likes,” which means that they have 5,000 arms which are ready to share information and take actions to protect animals. Meanwhile, local newspapers everyday report about the wildlife cases discovered, the dog killing, and the difference to the community’s efforts to protect the environment. Analysts have advised not to be delusional that the existing problems can be settled overnight. It’ll take a long time more to persuade Vietnamese not to kill wild animals and protect the nature. An officer of the World Wild Fund for Nature WWF related that when organizing the workshop on reducing the rhino horn demand worldwide, WWF intended to invite some showbiz celebrities to sign for the movement on protecting rhinos from extinction. The celebrities then asked how much they would be paid for the signing. Source: DNSG