A moon bear caged in a village during the surveys (Photo: Photo courtesy of Centre for Environment and Rural Development)
Hanoi (VNA) - The country’s wild bearpopulation has declined sharply over the past 20 years, according to recentsurveys carried out in 22 protected areas.
The surveys were part of a three-yearcollaborative project by the Centre for Environment and Rural Development atVinh University with the support of the conservation and animal welfareorganisation Free the Bears and Animals Asia.
Interviews with over 1,400 residents living nextto the protected areas indicate that the bear population declined between 1990and 2005, mainly due to hunting. Although 77 percent of respondentsbelieved bears were still present in their local forest area, the majorityagreed their numbers had declined.
This period coincided with the expansion of bearbile farming, with the number of bears kept on bile farms increasing tenfold,from 400 to over 4,000 between 1999 and 2005. Bears in bile farms, mostlyAsiatic black bears, also known as moon bears, are subjected to bile extractionfrom their gall-bladders, allegedly for medical use.
To hasten the phasing out of bear bile farmingin Vietnam, the report suggested that the Ministry of Agriculture and RuralDevelopment, in collaboration with partner NGOs, conduct a thorough and rapidassessment of all remaining facilities, to determine the number of bearsremaining, their ages, physical conditions and veterinary requirements.
A management strategy should be developed torehome and provide life-long care for the bears in rescue facilities as soon aspossible, it said.
The report recommended that Government andnon-government partners assist the traditional medicine community in promotingthe use of herbal and synthetic alternatives to bear bile.
Brian Crudge of Free the Bears, the project leader and research programmemanager, said the survey results show that the practice of bear bile farming islikely to increase demand and hunting pressure.
“These survey results show clearly for the firsttime just what misadventure bear bile farming has proven to be,” said MattHunt, Chief Executive of Free the Bears and co-chair of the Asiatic Black BearExperts.
“Our only hope now is that wild bears might have a chance to recover in Vietnam,and that other bear bile farming nations may learn from this folly and beginclosing down their own farms before it is too late,” he said.-VNA
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A moon bear caged in a village during the surveys (Photo: Photo courtesy of Centre for Environment and Rural Development) 
