First Vietnamese elected as Vice Chairman of IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group

The election proved the capacity of Save Vietnam's Wildlife - a non-profit organisation founded by Vietnamese people involved in pangolin conservation. 

Thai has had a passion for the wildlife. He was born and grew up near the Cuc Phuong National Park, and had devoted to forest and wildlife protection. He was concerned about poaching activities in which various animals were killed for traditional medicines and bushmeat. His first encounter with a pangolin occurred when he was eight years old, when his fellow villagers dug out a pangolin mother and her young pangolin from their underground burrow as a hunting trophy. This moment turned his life around. Thai decided to commit himself to nature conservation and preserve these special insectivores.

In 2005, Thai joined the Asian Pangolin Conservation Program (APCP) as a volunteer and then a coordinator. After his successes in rescuing and saving pangolins, in late 2007, Thai became the manager of the Carnivore and Pangolin Conservation Programe (CCPCP). He also conducted numerous studies on habiting pangolins in nature and in captivity conditions.

In 2012, he was named one of 40 leading conservationists in the book titled Wildlife Heroes published in the United States.

In 2016, Thai was presented with the award "Future for Nature", a prestigious international prize to honour outstanding individuals in wildlife conservation.

To change the fate of the pangolin, Thai began the mission by raising public awareness about the importance of pangoline conservation. 

He noted down instructions to rescue and take care of this mammal, and published his studies on foreign magazines. He attended international conferences and built the first process of monitoring and restoring the pangolin population in Vietnam.

He also set up a center for Asian pangolin rehabilitation, the first of its kind in Vietnam, which aims at rehabilitating captive pangolins.

In 2014, when Thai turned 32, he found and became Managing Director of Save Vietnam's Wildlife. He is also the first Vietnamese to be elected as Vice Chairman of the IUCN SSC Pangolin Specialist Group.

Besides, Thai has coordinated with the Management Board of the Pu Mat National Park in Nghe An province to establish a group in charge of forest protection in 2018. The model is the coordination between a non-profit organisation and state management agencies. He provided the group's staff members with knowledge about wildlife conservation, skills to identify wild animals, and how to use GPS.

With his efforts in protecting and  rehabilitating pangolins, Thai has made great contributions to understanding about and protection of this endangered animals.

In particular, Save Vietnam's Wildlife is the first organisation in the world to monitor released pangolins by drones, with the support from Wildlife Drones and the US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Recently, Save Vietnam's Wildlife captured numerous pictures of new-born pangolins in some places where adult Java pangolins had been previously released back into nature. 

This showed a positive signal for the conservation and restoration of pangolin populations in Vietnam.

Translated by Nguyen Thuy