Victory in Vietnam

摘要

In February this year, during a fact-finding trip to Vietnam to plan the next phase of WSPA's ongoing campaign to end bear bile farming, a WSPA delegation met with officials from the Vietnamese government. The outcome of the talks in Hanoi was that alandmark agreement was signed which marks the beginning of the end of bear farming in Vietnam. In a Memorandum of Understanding signed with WSPA, the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has committed to register and microchip all bears in captivity and phase out the breeding of bears on bear farms, in line with exiting legislation that prohibits the exploitation of bears and other endangered species. With assistance from WSPA, the government aims to microchip all bears on farms by October 2005. A long term monitoring programme will then be implemented with farms regularly checked to ensure they have not taken in new bears from the wild or are captive breeding.