"Remember Who You Are"

The muse came this morning as I remember my indigenous mother, sister of Ban Don's last Elephant King, and daughter of the legendary Ama Krong, Elephant King and peacemaker. Their tombs will probably outlive the wild elephants and their tropical dry forests, whose leaves are now turning to brilliant shades of red and orange. This poem is for my family, friends and the elephants they love.

Tombs of Elephant Kings in Vietnam. Photo ©Elizabeth Kemf

Remember Who You Are

©By Elizabeth Kemf

Each day spend time

with yourself,

recalling your dreams.

Your visions will remind you

of who you are. 

Beneath my computer

rests a manuscript, written in my baby's blood

and my husband’s tears.

His mother’s stories,

intertwined in my life,

stare at me from my desk.

.

Each dawn

beliefs, fought for and defended with passion

beg me to give them life,

before the memories of the Elephant Kings

and their real rulers, strong-willed women,

and their mothers’ myths

disappear into lost languages and rituals,

taking their children, their land, their dignity,

and their legacy

                        to their royal tombs.

Missing Ice Age Mammal found in Vietnam after 15 years

Forest guards in Central Vietnam set off on daily patrol. Photo WWF/ E Kemf

Recently, I went with WWF in search of the saola in remote regions of the Ho Chi Minh Trail in the steep borderlands of Vietnam and Laos. Today, brave forest guards, who ward off poachers and demolish thousands of snares and traps each year, celebrate the survival of a species that was unknown by science until 1992. It was not seen in the wild by biologists in Vietnam since 1998. 

For thrilling news that heralds hope for the planet, read WWF's Press Release and my blogs (from Vietnam and Laos), features, and full report.  Watch the world's rarest antelope, the saola, in captivity.

The Ice Age Saola’s Battle for Survival

 

Tug of War on the Ho Chi Minh Trail

 

by Elizabeth Kemf, Consultant to WWF's Greater Mekong Programme

A tug of war between conservationists and developers has intensified on the Ho Chi Minh Trail – the infamous network of secret transport routes that formed a north-south supply line during the US/Vietnam War. Vietnamese conservationists, protected area managers and a number of NGOs tried to but the brakes on the Ho Chi Minh Highway as asphalt began replacing the hidden routes that bisect protected areas and endangered forest habitat in the Annamite mountains, its foothills, and the country’s Central Highlands.

The highway, which has provoked road rage among Vietnamese and international conservationists since its planning stage, slices through ten national parks including the country’s first, Cuc Phuong, and Phong Nha-Ke Bang, declared a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2003.

Conservationists contend that huge swathes of concrete sever some of the region’s critically important protected areas, like Cuc Phuong National Park, which was inaugurated by President Ho Chi Minh in1962. The highway, which runs for lengthy stretches, mainly in Vietnam, pierces the heart of the mysterious Annamite Mountain range, which straddles the once war-torn Vietnam/Lao border, most of which was until recently only approachable on foot or on elephant.

Planting rice in the foothills of the Annamite Mountains in Laos. WWF/E.Kemf

.

“Ho Chi Minh would not like a road bisecting a national park which he approved as president,” states Prof Vo Quy, the pioneer of Vietnam’s conservation movement: “The road in Cuc Phuong was not part of the Ho Chi Minh Trail and we conservationists wanted it to be outside of the park. Sensitive animals like the Delacour's Langur (Trachypithecus delacouri) found in Cuc Phuong, or animals such as the saola (Pseudoryx nghetinhensis), found further south, will never cross big roads, so small populations of animals are cut off from each other”.

To learn more about the mystery of the Critically Endangered Ice Age species and its unique wet evergreen forest habitat that straddles the remote wet evergreen forests on the border of Vietnam and Laos, read the full report: The Saola's Battle for Survival on the Ho Chi Minh Trail, published on 30 August 2013 by WWF-World Wide Fund for Nature. The groundbreaking report is written by Elizabeth Kemf and illustrated with her photographs as well as those contributed by the Saola Working Group of IUCN's Species Survival Commission and the Wildlife Conservation Society in Laos and team members from WWF's Greater Mekong Programme.

Discovering an Ice age mammal in 20th century Vietnam

In 1985, when I first went to Vietnam to research and write about the environmental effects of the US/Vietnam war I met a handful of Vietnamese scientists who were operating on a shoestring budget. They were racing against time to regreen the war-scarred land. Over 25 years later, biologist To Duoc is as hard working and optimistic as ever. He is still on the search for the mysterious saola, the world's most primitive bovine, which he discovered with scientist John Mackinnon in 1992. Of course, indigenous groups in Vietnam and Laos have known and treasured the Ice age relic saola for centuries, decorating the roofs of their ceremonial houses with its skulls, which they believe are the vessels of their souls.

Discover Vietnam's invincible scientist and his ongoing campaign to save the saola from extinction at

 http://wwf.panda.org/?209344/Vietnams-invincible-biologist