Edwards’s Pheasant is a Critically Endangered bird endemic to the central Vietnam. Its historical distribution range is from Ha Tinh to Thua Thien Hue provinces. Its last confirmed record in the wild was from 2000; and it’s now feared that it may have gone extinct in the wild. Yet, there is very limited knowledge of the species – its distribution, habitat requirements and basic ecology. It’s reported to prefer “exceedingly damp forests of the mountains at low and moderate altitudes”, and to be extremely wary seldom leaving the “thick under‐bush and liana‐covered hillsides” (Delacour 1977). However, all early collecting localities were in the forested level lowlands and there is no evidence that it can live above 300 m.
Currently, there is a captive population of Edwards’s Pheasant of about 1000 individuals in Europe, Japan and American zoos and private breeders. However, this captive stock likely originated from a tiny founder population (28 specimens, of which only 6‐8 were female, collected between 1924 and 1930) which was never subsequently supplemented with wild birds, and is therefore heavily inbred. In 1964 and in 1999, a similar form of pheasant (but with white central tail feathers in the male) was observed at the northern and southern ends of Edwards’s Pheasant’s known range and described as Vietnamese Pheasant Lophura hatinhensis (Vo Quy 1975).
However, in 2012, it was proposed that Vietnamese Pheasant was an inbred morph of Edwards’s Pheasant (Hennache et al. 2012) and was subsequently not recognized as a species in the IUCN Red List. The occurrence of birds showing inbred characteristics since the 1960s, and the lack of any records in the last 15 years is an indication that remaining wild populations, if any, are extremely small, fragmented and declining. Root causes for the rarity of Edwards’s Pheasant are believed to be intensive indiscriminate hunting coupled with fragmentation and loss of suitable habitat (due to human‐induced changes, climate change and possibly coupled with the species’ subtle habitat requirements).
From early 1990s up to now, several protected areas have been established in Edwards’s Pheasant’s range for the conservation of this species and other lowlands species and habitats, namely Ke Go, Phong Dien, Darkrong and Bac Huong Hoa Nature Reserves. These have had some success in slowing deforestation, but threats persist, most notably continued forest degradation and severe hunting/trapping, which results in some areas becoming so‐called ‘empty forests. In response to this critical situation of the species, since 2011 intensive camera trap surveys have been carried out to search for the species in its most suitable remaining habitats in Quang Binh and Quang Tri provinces, but no records was obtained. From mid‐ 2013, various national and international stakeholders have come together to formulate an Edwards’s Pheasant Conservation Strategy, establish a voluntary Edwards’s Pheasant Working Group in Vietnam (VN‐EPWG) and develop this 5‐year budgeted Action Plan (2015‐2020) for VN‐EPWG members and their partners to operationalize the Strategy. As it is widely agreed that time is running out for this species and its habitat, ‘business as usual’ is no longer working. Highest priority should be given to securing its remaining suitable habitat and improving the management of Edwards’s Pheasant’s gene pool (in the captive population) to prepare for the worst situation (i.e. when reinforcement or reintroduction is needed), while continued efforts should be made to clarify its status in the wild and basic ecology. A conservation breeding programme in Vietnam should start as soon as resource permits to learn more about Edwards’s Pheasant ecology in (semi‐) natural environment and to produce best birds for reinforcement/reintroduction when deemed necessary. Four programmes, namely Site Protection and Management,Conservation Breeding, Reasearch, and Coordination and Resource Mobilization, are included in this first Action Plan, all of which need to be implemented in parallel to contribute to the overall goal of having a sustainable Edwards’s Pheasant population in the wild by 2030.