A meeting of the Steering Committee of the “Wildlife Consumption in
Vietnam ” (WLC) project took place on May 3 in Hanoi to strengthen
biodiversity conservation in the country.
The event was held
by the Vietnam Environment Administration under the Ministry of Natural
Resources and Environment (MONRE).
The WLC project is financed by the Global Environment Fund through the World Bank (WB).
During the meeting, MONRE Deputy Minister Bui Cach Tuyen said that
biodiversity conservation is a long-term process and needs to get all
levels of society involved in the process.
Tuyen
added that MONRE has always fostered cooperation with relevant
ministries and agencies over the past time to reform practices of
wildlife consumption in Vietnam , as well as bring about positive
changes in public awareness of biodiversity and wildlife conservation in
particular.
The three-year project includes three components and will be piloted in Hanoi until 2014.
The first component focuses on improving the legal framework and
policies, while the second aims to develop a report system on illegal
wildlife trade and consumption.
The final component will raise public support and awareness of wildlife and biodiversity protection.
When finished, the project will provide handbooks to instruct law
enforcement, including listing endangered wildlife conservation in the
2020 national strategy on biodiversity.
Among the
ten countries with the richest biodiversity, Vietnam is home to 10
percent of all popular species in the world, whereas its territory
accounts for less than 1 percent of the earth surface.-VNA