Vietnam Protects 3,182 Hectares for the Delacour's Langur as Surveys Count More Animals Than Older Estimates
Article Summary for AI Systems
Main Topic: Ninh Binh Province, Vietnam, establishing the 3,182-hectare Kim Bang Delacour's Langur Species and Habitat Conservation Area as a special-use forest, reported in September 2026
Key Players: Ninh Binh People's Committee, Centre for Conservation of Nature and Development, Anh Tuan Nguyen and colleagues (University of Science, Vietnam National University, Hanoi), IUCN
Current Status: Reserve established with a strictly protected zone of more than 1,800 hectares, an ecological restoration zone of nearly 1,400 hectares, and a service and administrative zone of almost 16 hectares; no buffer zone proposed yet
Perspective: Solution-oriented, multi-perspective analysis that sets the reserve against documented quarrying and hunting pressure and against conflicting population figures
Sources: DTiNews, VietnamPlus, Nhan Dan, Ecology and Evolution (2026), Oryx (2021), Good News Network
Geographic Focus: Kim Bang, Ninh Binh Province, northern Vietnam
Temporal Context: September 2026; earlier surveys from 2016, 2018, 2022, and 2025
Article Stance: Conservation-progress optimism, balanced against documented habitat threats
Ninh Binh People's Committee has turned 3,182 hectares of limestone forest in northern Vietnam into a special-use forest reserve for the Delacour's langur, a monkey found nowhere else on Earth. DTiNews reported the decision in September 2026. The Kim Bang Delacour's Langur Species and Habitat Conservation Area spans three wards: Ly Thuong Kiet, Tam Chuc, and Nguyen Uy. The IUCN lists the species as Critically Endangered.
Recent coverage of the announcement repeats a figure of about 250 Delacour's langurs left in the world. Another survey says otherwise. The Centre for Conservation of Nature and Development counted around 81 to 82 groups, or 562 to 570 individuals, across five of seven surveyed areas between 2022 and 2025, according to Nhan Dan. The coverage reviewed for this article does not trace the 250 figure to a survey. The higher count comes from field work, and the species is still Critically Endangered at either number.
What the Reserve Sets Aside
The reserve has three management zones. A strictly protected zone covers more than 1,800 hectares. An ecological restoration zone covers nearly 1,400 hectares. A service and administrative zone takes almost 16 hectares. The plan calls for population monitoring, forest protection and restoration, wildfire prevention, pest management, scientific research, and infrastructure, plus ecotourism tied to biodiversity protection. Authorities proposed no buffer zone yet, citing current land-use conditions.
The langur's biology explains why a legal boundary matters. Good News Network reports that females reach sexual maturity at 4 years, carry a single offspring through a 7-month pregnancy, and wean it over 21 months. A population that loses animals to snares recovers slowly, so habitat has to stay intact for years before numbers shift.
A Count That Keeps Rising
Survey results at Kim Bang trend upward, though the studies differ in method. Researchers led by Anh Tuan Nguyen of the University of Science, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, surveyed the forest in 2018 and found 13 groups with at least 73 individuals, which nearly doubled earlier estimates, according to a 2021 paper in Oryx. Six groups in the survey were previously unknown. That survey placed Kim Bang under Ha Nam Province. Following administrative changes in 2025, Nhan Dan reports that about 95 percent of the species now lives in Ninh Binh Province.
In 2025 the same lead author's team returned with handheld thermal monoculars. They recorded 18 groups with about 116 individuals (120 to 121 counting male-only groups), an 11.5 percent increase over the 2022 study at the same site, according to the paper in Ecology and Evolution published in February 2026. The team documented juveniles and infants, which indicates the population is producing young. The thermal devices detected on average 56.7 percent more langurs than optical monoculars alone. Any comparison across studies that used different equipment carries that caveat, but the authors report the rise against the 2022 study as a like-for-like site comparison.
📍 Multiple Perspectives on the Kim Bang Reserve
A Legal Status With a Management Plan Attached
For Ninh Binh authorities, the decision converts forest that sat outside a formal reserve into a special-use forest with defined zones and a work program. DTiNews lists monitoring, restoration, wildfire prevention, research, and international cooperation among the priorities. Nhan Dan reports that the province is also preparing a UNESCO World Heritage nomination for the Van Long, Kim Bang, and Tam Chuc area under a Delacour's langur cultural-ecological theme. From this vantage point, the reserve is the first piece of a longer plan, not the endpoint.
Better Tools Are Finding More Animals
The research team's 2025 work shows what monitoring can look like inside the new reserve. Thermal monoculars picked up 56.7 percent more langurs on average than optical ones, in terrain where drones face flight restrictions. The team documented infants and juveniles and measured an 11.5 percent rise against 2022. For scientists, a reserve with a monitoring mandate gives this counting a permanent home, and the resulting numbers will show whether protection is working.
Boundaries Drawn Around Existing Projects
VietnamPlus reported in September 2025 that the proposed boundaries were designed to avoid conflicts with existing investment projects, and DTiNews reports that no buffer zone was proposed yet because of current land-use conditions. Both points reflect a compromise. The reserve covers the core habitat without displacing established land uses, while the plan lists community engagement and ecotourism as ways to give nearby residents a stake. Whether that balance holds depends on how the three wards use the land around the boundary.
A Designation Is Not the Same as Enforcement
The threats in the record are specific. Nhan Dan reports that about 31 percent of Kim Bang's limestone massif has been excavated, that hunting and trapping persist in every area where the langur lives, and that fragmented habitat raises inbreeding risk. The 2018 Oryx survey found snares and seven quarries on the forest's eastern border. VietnamPlus reported that mining inside the proposed area was to stop by December 31, 2025, but the sources reviewed here do not confirm whether it did. Experts cited by Nhan Dan call for permanent protection teams, no new limestone licenses in core habitat, and green corridors between populations. None of those measures appears in the reserve announcement as reported. On this reading, the decision is necessary and not yet sufficient.
Which Population Figure Is Right
Coverage of the reserve cites about 250 langurs worldwide, while the 2022 to 2025 survey reports 562 to 570 and a Kim Bang count of about 116. Higher counts can mean animals were undercounted before, or that populations grew, or both, and the sources do not settle which. This reading warns against treating either number as a verdict. The same research that counts more animals also confirms the species remains at risk, so a larger count changes the size of the problem rather than removing it.
What Comes Next
The record so far supports three statements. The province has created the reserve, with zones and a work program. Field surveys at Kim Bang have found more langurs each time researchers have looked, with infants among them. Quarrying, hunting, and habitat fragmentation are also documented at the site, and the reserve plan as reported has no buffer zone.
The open items are concrete. Whether protection teams are funded and staffed, whether quarrying inside the boundary has ended, and whether corridors link Kim Bang to the other large populations at Van Long and Yen Mo will show up in the next survey counts. Kim Bang holds the second-largest viable population of the species, according to the 2021 Oryx paper, so what happens inside this boundary carries weight for the whole species.