Art performers promote Sơn Trà Reserve conservation

Students join a performance of Hi Langurs, Hi Monkeys in Đà Nẵng in promotion of wildlife protection and conservation of Sơn Trà Nature Reserve. Photo courtesy of GreenViet

ĐÀ NẴNG — College students, volunteers and children from Hoa Mai Orphan School are joining in an art performance show – Voọc Ơi, Khỉ Ơi (Hi Langurs, Hi Monkeys) - to promote conservation awareness in the city’s Sơn Trà Nature Reserve on National Children’s Day, June 1.

The show, which was organised by the Đà Nẵng-based Centre of Biodiversity Conservation (GreenViet) along with Sơn Trà district’s people’s committee, will be staged across four sites including Sơn Trà district, Thọ Quang, An Hải Bắc and Mân Thái wards in the buffer zone of the reserve.

The performance, a combination of dance, drama, story telling and singing, will involve the participation of more than a thousand children and local residents.

Students dressed up as langurs and monkeys take part in a performance to highlight nature protection education programmes by GreenViet and Sơn Trà district in Đà Nẵng City. Photo courtesy of GreenViet

The show, which is directed and produced by Tony Lê Nguyễn of Lê Nguyễn Productions in Melbourne, Australia, aims to send a message to the community of the importance of conservation and protection of the two primary species -- the rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta), an old world monkey and the endangered red shanked douc langurs (Pygathrix nemaeus), both living in the 4,400ha reserve.

Lê Nguyễn, who is also a volunteer at GreenViet, works as a drama lecturer in Australia, in Hà Nội, HCM City, Cần Thơ and Đà Nẵng in Việt Nam.

Two children from Hoa Mai Orphan School in Đà Nẵng at a drama training session. Photo courtesy of GreenViet

The performances join to tell stories of the beauty of the primary forest of Sơn Trà and the lives of the endangered primary species monkey and langur families in the peninsula.

To date, more than 35,000 school students, teachers and local residents have given educational tours by the GreenViet-managed Sơn Trà Nature Education Centre in the reserve.

A red shanked douc langur -- an endangered species -- found living in the Sơn Trà Nature Reserve in Đà Nẵng. Photo courtesy of Bùi Văn Tuấn

Hundreds of children with disabilities from junior secondary and primary schools in the city had free lessons and field trips organised by the Nature Education and Experience Centre.

A monkey looks at a camera trap in a forest in Đà Nẵng. The rhesus macaque (Macaca mulatta), an old world monkey, and endangered red shanked douc langurs (Pygathrix nemaeus) – are living in the 4,400ha Sơn Trà Nature Reserve in the city. Photo courtesy of Bùi Văn Tuấn

The reserve, just 10km from the city’s downtown, is home to more than 1,300 of the red shanked douc langurs and more than 1,000 plant and 370 animal species.