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VietNamNet Bridge – The Environment General Directorate, while admitting the big
problems in the management over exotic species, has informed that the
directorate is drafting a plan to prevent and control exotic species which is
believed to help settle the current problems.
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What are your comments about the management over exotic species in general and the harmful exotic species in particular?
There are a lot of regulations relating to the management over exotic species, including the provisions relating to the animal and plant quarantine in the aquatic law, the ordinance on plant varieties, and animal breeds ordinance. However, only in 2008, when the Biodiversity Law came out, we have the concrete regulations on the controlling over harmful exotic species. In order to guide the implementation of the law, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment has promulgated the list of harmful exotic species and the species that may harm domestic creatures.
The management of exotic species should follow the principle that we need to prevent and give early alerts.
Due to the lack of the alert mechanism and a reasonable control mechanism, a lot of harmful species still have been imported to Vietnam. Therefore, the promulgation of the list of harmful exotic species aims to prevent and control the subjects.
In order to control harmful exotic species effectively, it is necessary to complete the legal documents to give guidance to control over species and assess the harmfulness of the species in accordance with the Biodiversity Law.
Besides, exotic species can also penetrate into Vietnam through different channels, besides the import on purposes, for example, across the border gates or natural ways. It is clearly easier to control the species imported on purposes. Meanwhile, there has been no effective measure to control the species which penetrate Vietnam through other ways.
We need to call for the participation of the whole community in controlling exotic species. In many cases, due to the lack of information, Vietnamese people have disseminated exotic species.
As you may know, the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Environment (MONRE) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) once argued about if white leg shrimp and Pacific oyster are considered harmful exotic species. Could you please tell us what led to the argument and the final decision?
The two species have been recognized as doing harm in some countries in the world. In Vietnam, they have been added into the former Ministry of Fisheries’ list of subjects that need further research, while the scientific council believes that they need to be listed as the species that may do harm.
However, the two species have not shown their harmfulness in Vietnam over the last 10 years, since their arrived in Vietnam. Meanwhile, MARD says that this is the key aquatic product of Vietnam, affirming that it will take necessary measures to control the breeders. Finally, MONRE decided to remove the two species from the list of harmful species.
What are the big problems behind the exotic species management?
We still lack the legal documents which guide the assessment of the harmfulness of exotic species. We still do not have the alert system on harmful exotic species, while people have limited knowledge about exotic species; that explains why they still set free red-ear turtles and yellow snails into the natural environment.
You said that the Biology Department has submitted to the government the plan to prevent and control harmful exotic species by 2015. Could you please summarize the plan?
The plan aims to implement some tasks as follows: 1) conducting survey, drawing up the list of harmful exotic species in Vietnam 2) strengthening the capacity to control exotic species 3) building up the capacity to carry out tests and assess the harmfulness of exotic species 4) implementing the program on exterminating harmful exotic species.
Source: Dat Viet
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