Oak conservation in Vietnam

Conservation of two threatened endemic oak species in Lam Dong Province in Vietnam

Partner: Dalat University
Years: 2022-2025

This project aims at conducting botanical inventories to understand better the distribution, the habitat, the threats, and the population trends of two threatened endemic Quercus species in Vietnam and to increase their populations size by assisting natural regeneration, propagation, and replanting.

Vietnam is one of the most diverse countries of Quercus species in the world, with a total of 49 species reported, of which 20 species (40.8%) were assessed as threatened for the Red List of oaks published by Morton Arboretum in 2020. The conservation activities of Quercus species in Vietnam are still poor while the forest coverage is quickly disappearing under the pressure of rapid economic development. This rapidly changing situation requires to make urgent conservation efforts by conducting additional botanical inventories to understand better their distribution and habitat, the threats, the population trends and, even more importantly, to increase their population size by assisting natural regeneration, propagation, and replanting. This project focuses on two threatened oak species, Quercus baolamensis and Quercus bidoupensis, recognized as Critically Endangered (CR) by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).