Hanoi (VNA) - The VietnamAdministration of Forestry has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) withAnimalsAsia on building plans to better protect bears.
The MoU is aimed at creatingfavourable conditions for the administration and AnimalsAsia to carry outnecessary activities to phase out bear bile farming in Vietnam, increasemanagement of bear raising at rescue centres and preserve bears in naturalhabitats.
According to the Convention on International Trade in EndangeredSpecies of Wild Fauna and Flora office,some 245 Tibetan bears are being kept at 430 bear farms across Vietnam.
Under the MoU, the twosides will commit to cooperating and working with relevant agencies to increasemanagement of bear preservation nationwide via a series of activities, such ascompleting bear preservation policies, promoting information dissemination andmass communication to raise public awareness on protecting bears and enhancingthe adoption of regulations on managing and supervising bear raisingactivities.
They will also work toenhance capacity of bear rescue centres and research more activities to protectbears.
[Photos: New home for rescued capitive bears in Vinh Phuc]
Cao Chi Cong, deputy head of the VietnamAdministration of Forestry, said the MoU was expected to help promotecoordination activities between the two sides in research and implementing bearpreservation activities nationwide.
Jill Robinson, MBE, co-founder andCEO of AnimalsAsia, said cooperation between the two sides was very important.AnimalsAsia would try its best to ensure efficiency of joint activities betweenthe two sides in managing bear preservation in Vietnam.
The country’s wild bear populationhas declined sharply over the past 20 years, according to recent surveyscarried out in 22 protected areas.
The surveys were part of athree-year collaborative project by the Centre for Environment and RuralDevelopment at Vinh University with the support of conservation and animalwelfare organisation Free the Bears and AnimalsAsia.-VNA