Keeping the forests safe and peaceful

The rainy season breathes new life into the vast Cat Tien forests and marks the breeding season for wildlife, but it is also the time when poachers step up their use of traps to hunt wild animals.

To protect the forest's flora and fauna, rangers at Cat Tien National Park work silently day and night to remove traps and safeguard the peace of the forests.

Silent footsteps in the vast forest

On a day in early August, while most people were enjoying their weekend, a mobile ranger team from the Cat Tien National Park Forest Protection Division set out for Sub-zone 402, an area regarded as the “heart” of the park's core zone. The area is home to many valuable Group I timber species, including red dipterocarp, rosewood and sindora, as well as populations of rare and endangered wildlife.

Rangers at Cat Tien National Park remove a pitfall trap used to capture hoofed animals.

Leading the patrol, Nguyen Van Sang, Deputy Head of the Mobile Ranger Station, carefully watched for suspicious signs along the trail while talking about the quiet work of forest rangers in the field. “In the dry season, we focus on forest-fire prevention and control; in the rainy season, we combat wildlife hunting. So we have to stay in the forest year-round and remain on duty 24/7 to fulfill our responsibilities,” Sang said.

When the rains arrive, vegetation flourishes and food becomes abundant, prompting animals to frequent grasslands, streams and waterholes. This is also when poachers take advantage of small boats to navigate the waterways deep into the forest and set traps. Pitfall traps, cable snares and spring traps are placed along trails commonly used by wildlife. “Pitfall traps are extremely dangerous for animals such as deer, wild boars and gaur. When an animal steps into one, the sharp metal spikes pierce deeply into its leg. The more it struggles, the tighter the trap becomes,” Sang explained.

To find these traps, rangers must undertake patrols lasting several days. Each person carries food, a hammock and a raincoat, eating and sleeping in the forest. They inspect every trail, tree trunk and stream bed. The work requires stamina, patience and years of accumulated experience.

Ranger Tran Cam said the rainy season quickly erases traces. Human footprints, tire marks and signs of trap placement can disappear after heavy downpours. Meanwhile, poachers are becoming increasingly sophisticated. They often select “bottleneck” areas where animals are forced to pass, or trails along streams and beneath dense canopies to set their traps. Finding them requires careful attention to every bent branch, crushed patch of grass and direction of animal tracks. Danger lurks beneath every step, and a moment's carelessness can leave a ranger caught in a trap. Fallen trees, flash floods, venomous snakes and wild animals can also appear at any time. For this reason, the unbreakable rule is to patrol in groups so that team members can assist one another in an emergency.

Rescuing animals caught in traps can also require rangers to carefully weigh the safest course of action. For gaur and other large animals, rangers must report the incident and mobilize specialized teams to ensure safety. For monkeys, civets and other smaller animals, they seek to remove the traps as quickly as possible and release the animals back into the wild. With king cobras, which are highly venomous, rangers must remain absolutely calm. They gradually cut away the trap mechanism and loosen each loop of wire, allowing the snake to crawl away on its own and avoiding any action that might provoke it into attacking.

Rangers face not only harsh natural conditions but also aggressive illegal loggers and poachers. Ranger Nguyen Van Thinh still vividly remembers the nights spent lying in ambush deep in the forest. “Sometimes we could hear poachers approaching but had no idea how many people there were or whether they were carrying weapons. The pressure was enormous, but we always encouraged one another to remain calm and handle the situation. As a result, we successfully stopped many offenders, seized evidence and ensured the safety of our personnel,” Thinh recalled.

Asked what motivates rangers to remain in the forest day and night, Thinh smiled and replied: “Perhaps it is our love for the forest. Every time we remove a trap, rescue an animal and release it back into the wild, we feel happy and fulfilled.”

In the first six months of 2026, the Cat Tien National Park Forest Protection Division conducted more than 6,500 patrols. Through these operations, 40 violators were detected and handled, while more than 1,500 traps of various types were removed.

Effective forest protection measures

According to Nguyen Thanh Long, Deputy Head of the Cat Tien National Park Forest Protection Division, wildlife hunting tends to increase during the rainy season because it coincides with the breeding season of many species. Abundant food draws animals to waterholes, grasslands and streams, where poachers often secretly enter the forest to set traps.

Another factor is that the rainy season is also the agricultural off-season for many households in the park's buffer zone. Some residents enter the forest to set traps.

In response, the Cat Tien National Park Forest Protection Division proactively develops intensive patrol plans at the beginning of the rainy season, assigning responsibilities to individual stations, teams and rangers. The division uses years of data from SMART software to identify “hotspots” and deploy personnel where they are most needed rather than spreading resources thinly. It also strengthens checkpoints at forest entrances, river landings and trails, combining fixed patrols with mobile and surprise patrols. GPS devices, camera traps and drones are also being used to monitor rugged and difficult-to-access areas during the rainy season.

Long said that with more than 71,000 hectares of special-use forest and a relatively thin ranger force, the division has identified technology and community participation as key ways to address its limited manpower. Local residents in the buffer zone are also encouraged to participate through forest-protection contracts, payments for forest environmental services and cooperation in providing information.

The coordinated implementation of these measures has helped improve the effectiveness of patrols and the detection and handling of violations. However, illegal wildlife hunting remains complicated, requiring more appropriate and effective solutions in the future.

Long noted that penalties for violations are necessary but only address the “surface” of the problem. To eliminate illegal trapping and wildlife hunting at their roots, the livelihood challenges facing people in the buffer zone must also be addressed. For this reason, Cat Tien National Park is continuing to expand forest-protection contracts and payments for forest environmental services, while developing ecotourism and community-based tourism to create more local jobs. The park is also working with local authorities to develop livelihood models such as growing medicinal plants under forest canopies, beekeeping and developing OCOP (One Commune, One Product) items linked to forestry. “When people have stable jobs and incomes, forest protection will be more effective,” Long said.

By An Nhon - Translated by Mai Nga, Thu Ha