(VOVworld)-The World Wild Fund for Nature (WWF) and Vietnamese authorities have begun an emergency project to protect the biggest herd of elephants in Vietnam from extinction. The project, which is being undertaken by WWF Vietnam and Yok Don National Park in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak, will focus on the enforcement of environmental law and mitigation of human and elephant conflicts.

An elephant at Yok Don National Park (Source: VNA)

Yok Don Park will be equipped with a system of monitoring and reporting tools called SMART, which have proved its effectiveness following pilot use for monitoring the rare creature Sao La in the central provinces of Thua Thien- Hue and Quang Nam. The Central Highlands is home to the biggest herd of elephants in Vietnam, accounting for 70 percent of the national elephant population. The General Department of Forestry’s figures showed that in the past 40 years, the population of Asian elephants in Vietnam has decreased by 95 percent. Experts said this is the last chance to protect the elephants before the pachyderm faces a painful extinction in Vietnam much like the Java rhino.