Urgent Project
Saving Species and Storing Carbon in Laos
The lush Annamite Range , a mountain chain spanning the Laos-Vietnam border in Southeast Asia , is rich in beauty , biodiversity and carbon . Once inhabited by elephants , tigers and rhinos , human activities — particularly deadly snaring practices — have voided these forests of many large mammals and left others at the brink of extinction .
Xe Sap National Protected Area ( NPA ) may be the last place on Earth where one of these rare species could still be found — the elusive Critically Endangered Saola . Also known as the “ Asian Unicorn ” because it is rarely seen , this species was discovered in 1992 , making it the first large mammal new to science in over 50 years . In September 2013 , an adult Saola was photographed by a camera trap in the Hue-Quang Nam landscape of Vietnam , directly across the border from Xe Sap .
Xe Sap NPA extends 377,000 acres across the Central Annamite Mountains , a biodiverse treasure in the heart of the Indo-Burma hotspot . This moist forest ecoregion shelters some of the world ’ s highest concentrations of endemic species .
In addition to the Saola ( CR ), other threatened species here include the Large-antlered Muntjac ( CR ), Red-shanked Douc Langur ( CR ), Vietnamese Crested Argus ( CR ), Owston ’ s Civet ( EN ), Dhole ( EN ), Northern Yellow-cheeked Crested Gibbon ( EN ) and the Greater Slow Loris ( EN ).
This fragile landscape is threatened by an increase in slash-and-burn agriculture , gold mining , illegal logging and small- to large-scale hydropower projects . These activities have led to the degradation of much of the remaining habitat and created another peril for wildlife living in the Annamites .
In addition to the mysterious and biodiverse species who call this home , the beauty of this mature secondary and wet evergreen forest is underscored by the massive amounts of carbon stored here . Rainforest Trust and our partner , WWF-Laos , are working to expand the Xe Sap NPA by 118,221 acres . Once protected , these acres will increase this contiguous , high-integrity forest for species by 25 % and safely store 19,659,596 metric tons of CO₂ equivalents ( equal to 4,236,038 gasoline-powered passenger vehicles driven for one year ).
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