The World Wide Fund for Nature in Vietnam (WWF Vietnam) has launched a communication campaign to raise public awareness about forest protection and the conservation of the saola, one of the world's rarest and most endangered mammals.

The campaign, "Preserving the forests - Reuniting with Saola", was launched in early October as part of the "Saving Saola from the brink of extinction" project funded by the European Union (EU) through the Re:wild organization. It aims to raise awareness of the Saola's perilous status and to mobilize concrete action to protect this critically endangered species.

According to Nguyen Van Tri Tin, WWF-Vietnam's Wildlife Practice Lead, the move emphasizes that forest protection is a prerequisite for the conservation of this endangered endemic species and the protection of the ecosystem and community livelihoods.

A female saola in the wild. Photo: WWF

In addition to involving communities nationwide, the campaign aims to raise awareness among youth aged 12-25 in six central provinces, including Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Quang Tri, Thua Thien Hue and Quang Nam. These are also the areas where the "Saving the Saola from the Brink of Extinction" project is conducting an intensive search for the animal, Tri said.

He added that WWF-Vietnam and its partners would widely publicize the campaign through mass media and social networking platforms to encourage responses from prestigious journalists, artists and social influencers.

The "Save the Saola from the Brink of Extinction" project has three main activities: Identifying areas with the potential to detect Saola through the observation experience of local people; Field survey to detect the last remaining saola individuals in priority areas throughout the Central Truong Son region; Raising community awareness about saola conservation.

Saola, scientifically known as Pseudoryx nghetinhensis and often called the "Asian Unicorn", was discovered in north-central Vietnam in May 1992 during a joint survey by the former Vietnamese Ministry of Forestry and WWF. Saola can be recognized by two parallel horns with sharp ends that can reach 20 inches in length and are found in both males and females.

This rare species of mammal is threatened by poaching snares and habitat destruction from illegal logging and injudicious development. By the end of 2015, WWF-Vietnam's forest guards, recruited from local villages, had removed more than 75,000 snares and dismantled 1,000 poaching and illegal logging camps.

There may have been as many as 1,000 saolas at the end of the American war in Vietnam, but scientists estimate that only a few hundred or a few dozen remain in the wild today, according to WWF-Vietnam.

As a result, the saola is critically endangered and listed on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species and Vietnam's Red Data Book.

"The saola symbolizes everything that's at stake for us. If we can save it, we can save our forests, wildlife and the ecosystem, including the freshwater that the people who live here depend on," Tri said.

He stressed that the saola and other endangered species are seriously threatened by human development activities. Since 2011, WWF-Vietnam has actively supported and implemented various activities to conserve the saola, such as establishing protected areas, conducting research, monitoring biodiversity, and recruiting forest guards to patrol and remove traps in protected areas.

Under the Carbon and Biodiversity (CarBi) project supported by Germany's KfW Development Bank, these areas have now grown into a network of protected areas throughout the saola's core range in Vietnam and Laos, covering more than 200,000 hectares of Truong Son forests.