Endangered Asian Species Trust (EAST)

About us

The Endangered Asian Species Trust (EAST) founded in 2007 is a UK charity, established by Monkey World-Ape Rescue Centre (UK) and the Pingtung Rescue Centre (Taiwan), working to find sustainable solutions to conservation issues in Asia, starting with endangered primates in South Vietnam
Our mission is to help conserve Asia’s endangered wildlife by:
• Tackling the illegal wildlife trade in Asia, with a current focus on endangered primate rescue and reintroduction in southern Vietnam.
• Engaging communities through conservation education and awareness.
• Encouraging responsible tourism, respecting wildlife and wild places.

Activities:
• Endangered Primate Rescue and Reintroduction: The Dao Tien Endangered Primate Species Centre opened in 2008 within Cat Tien National Park in southern Vietnam. This is the flagship project for EAST – and the central point for a lot of our work. This specialised project focuses on the rescue, rehabilitation and reintroduction of the four endangered primates found in the region.
• Conservation Education & Community Engagement: For the long-term survival of these species, we have a duty to ensure future generations take an active interest in conservation. We work to engage the local community and beyond to be advocates for the environment, providing information at schools, morning markets and community meetings. Since opening in 2008, we have reached over 5,000 students with field trips to the centre, outreach to local schools and inner-city projects in Vietnam. Now, we are embarking on links with universities internationally in the field of environmental education.
• Responsible Tourism; Respecting Wildlife & Wild Places: Travelling through Asia, macaques are the primates most likely to be seen chained to a post at a tourist attraction or left neglected in a small cage at a resort. This highly-intelligent primate is hunted illegally for research laboratories, for traditional medicine (bones boiled down for a tonic), for meat and for tourist attractions. Our founding organisations, Monkey World – Ape Rescue Centre (UK) and Pingtung Rescue Centre (Taiwan), have worked to try to change this. Conservation education is a very powerful tool that can reach out and protect more individual macaques from needing to be rescued.

For other net participants we can offer an expert guidance through trained staff, give an expert opinion, procure expert information and establish new contacts in the field of our work.