Vinh Phuc (VNA) – The Animals Asia Foundation (AAF) has teamed up with the Vietnam Forest Protection Department and the Tam Dao National Park to set up the Quarantine Facility-Bear Rescue Centre in Vietnam .
Officially opened on April 7, the facility, part of the phase one of the AAF-funded 60-billion VND Vietnam Bear Rescue Centre, has been taking care for the first six bears.
The 10-million VND facility is set to provide a lifetime refuge for bears confiscated by the Forest Protection Department authorities from farms where they have previously been kept for bile extraction or from bear owners who voluntarily handed bears back to the government.
Located rightly in the Tam Dao National Park in northern Vinh Phuc province, the Quarantine Facility, when completed, is able to look after more than 200 Asiatic black bears in a semi-natural environment. Currently, the facility can nurture up to 100 bears.
Tuan Bedixsen, Vietnam AAF Director, said the Quarantine Facility was a concrete step in the fight to save the remaining bear population in the wild and to end bear farming in Vietnam .
According to the Forest Protection Department, less than 100 bears are living in the wild in Vietnam while more 4,000 others are farmed for bile extraction.
The Tam Dao Quarantine Facility, which is Vietnam ’s first world-class bear rescue centre, will also work as an educational centre to help raise the public awareness of the conservation and welfare of bears in Vietnam .
It will also be integrated into an overall Tam Dao National Park plan for environmentally friendly alternative tourism.-Enditem
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