© KWCI / WWF-Myanmar
Carbon and Biodiversity in the Central Annamites
Many species like the saola, Owston’s civet, crested gibbons and douc langurs call the Annamites their one and only home.

Spanning across Laos, Viet Nam and Cambodia, this mountain range contains one of the largest continuous natural forest areas in Asia. But as economic development activities sweep through Southeast Asia, pressures from large-scale forest conversion, infrastructure construction, illegal logging and poaching are threatening its unique endemic species more than ever before.

What WWF is doing

Protecting the Annamites isn’t simply vital to wildlife conservation, but also to the livelihoods of the people who depend on these forests and to mitigating climate change. By deploying snare removal teams and disrupting the illegal wildlife trade supply chain, promoting the sustainable use of forest resources, and enhancing livelihoods of indigenous people and local communities in a part of the Annamites Range - termed the Central Annamites Landscape, spanning Laos and Viet Nam borders - the project aims to support the conservation of the unique biodiversity of the landscape that serves as one of the region’s most important carbon reserves. 

In collaboration with local communities and civil society partners, WWF is working to rehabilitate and protect the forest of the Annamites by:

  • Restoring degraded forests, increasing forest connectivity and expanding protected and conserved areas
  • Building capacity to tackle illegal timber trade, illegal wildlife trade and forest encroachment, among forest rangers, local authorities and civil society organisations
  • Engaging local communities and forestry sector businesses in sustainable forest management and livelihood initiatives
  • Promoting sustainable financing mechanisms for long-term forest protection and effective management of protected areas