‘Batman’ to the rescue

Hurt by the sight of bats shot or injured by hunters, student Ly Quoc Dang has made it his mission to protect the flying mammals.

The bats – hundreds of thousands of them that had made the pagoda their home – fascinated him.

Five years ago, when Ly Quoc Dang was a student at Soc Trang Ethnic Group Boarding High School, he would visit Wathseraytecho Mahatup (Bat Pagoda) often and walk around, contemplating the nocturnal creatures that hung upside down from the branches of trees.

The big ones had a wing span of between 1.2 meters and 1.5 meters and were impressive as they spread them out sometimes.

Dang also saw bats crawling on the ground in their own blood, injured by hunters, or large bats that had been shot, but were still trying to fly back to the pagoda.

Ly Quoc Dang, a Khmer ethnic minority student, has implemented projects to increase awareness of bat protection among students and the larger community. (Inset) A large flying fox bat (Pteropus vampyrus) which is on the verge of extinction in Vietnam

Deeply moved by their suffering, Dang began to read and learn more about bats to understand the species better. He often told his friends, “Bats are good friends of human beings.

“They catch crop-destroying insects, eat mosquitoes transmitting infectious diseases and help flowers pollinate to produce more flowers and plants and fruits,” he told them arguing that everyone should protect the creatures.

The more he learnt, the more determined Dang was to become an environmentalist.

But first he wanted to find a way to protect bats in the Mekong Delta province of Soc Trang.

Majoring in environmental studies at the Ho Chi Minh City University of Science, Dang had more opportunities to learn about bats.

He learnt, for instance, that there are less than 30 of the large flying fox bats (Pteropus vampyrus) weighing over three kilograms with wing spans of nearly 1.5 meters, in the country and all of them were living in the Bat Pagoda.

In 2006, he sent a proposal to the Bat Conservation International (BCI) to implement a project to raise awareness of bat protection among the residents of the province. BCI is a US environmental organization devoted to conservation, education and research initiatives involving bats and their ecosystems.

He received a reply soon after that his solutions were impractical and not convincing. Dang did not give up. He worked hard to make his project feasible and sent a revised proposal in 2007.

Eventually, he received approval from BCI with a US$2,000 grant to launch the project in Soc Trang Town.

Dang, now a senior student, said, “This time, I am targeting students of the Le Hong Phong Primary School next to the Bat Pagoda to enhance their awareness.

“From the students, my project will broaden to the community,” he added.

Under the project, Dang conducted a survey on the students’ knowledge and awareness of bats and their importance. He also designed models for studying bats at the school and organized games with extra-curricular activities.

The students were then given opportunities to disseminate their knowledge of bats to the community.

The project received much praise from local authorities, the school management and monk Kim Renh head of the Bat Pagoda.

“Although the pagoda caught fire in 2007, bats still fly here now. More than one million bats are well taken care of here,” he said, adding that bat hunts seem to have reduced of late.

The project also attracted attention from some environment protection organizations like Earth Rights International that has supported training of environmentalists from the Mekong Delta in Thailand.

The ASEAN Youth Camp organization and ASEAN People’s Forum also invited him to attend two seminars in Bangkok about the Mekong Delta’s environment and the role of youth in protecting the environment.

As he persists with this environmental activism, Dang hopes to get a master’s degree focusing on environment and the community.

Source: Tuoi Tre