Conservationists oppose wild animal farming

VietNamNet Bridge - Wildlife conservation organizations have voiced their concern about the increasingly high number of wild animal farms in Vietnam, saying that the existence of the farms make it difficult to control wildlife trafficking.

VietNamNet Bridge - Wildlife conservation organizations have voiced their concern about the increasingly high number of wild animal farms in Vietnam, saying that the existence of the farms make it difficult to control wildlife trafficking.

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Nguyen Thi Lien, the legal representative of Bach Ngoc Lam Company Ltd, the wife of Pham Van Tuan, in January 2016 received a license from the Nghe An provincial People’s Committee on breeding tigers for ecotourism. The company received 15 tigers from Muong Thanh Ecology Company Ltd in Nghe An province.

The license granted by the Nghe An authorities to Bach Ngoc Lam Company to breed tigers for ecotourism development in January has raised concerns among conservationists.

Van Ngoc Thinh, director of World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF) in Vietnam, said the organization does not advocate any form of breeding wild animals in captivity for tourism or any business for profits.

Under the current laws, individuals and organizations are allowed to breed tigers and wild animals for healthcare and conservation purposes, but the breeding must be allowed by appropriate agencies.

However, there is no regulation concerning tiger conservation.

State management agencies, including CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD), have the responsibility of informing individuals and organizations if they can farm tigers for certain purposes.

According to Thinh, all experts in wildlife conservation, for many reasons, do not agree to license private establishments to import tigers for breeding.

First, there are not many tigers living in their normal habitat. Scientists believe there are only several dozen of tigers in Vietnam. However, they cannot find proof showing they are living in the wild or their reproduction in the wild.

The tigers being bred at privately run farms are all imports. Meanwhile, since the imports have not had health examination, there are latent risks of disease transmission.

Some individual and private organizations register to breed tigers for conservation purposes, but illegally trade tigers in the market.

Rare and precious wild animals are bred in captivity, for commercialization and profit.

Thinh stressed that provincial authorities are not in the right position to license tiger breeding. The agency which has the right to do this is CITES Vietnam.

He went on to say that wild tigers have no place to live in Vietnam because the habitat has been damaged.

According to an expert, a tiger needs an area of 30 square kilometers to live. “How can one conserve a tiger with a 1,000 square meter cage,” he said.