Hanoi (VNA) – The VietnamEnvironment Administration (VEA) and the World Bank (WB) launched on September10 a project on strengthening the partnership in the conservation of endangeredspecies in Vietnam.

This project is part of a global partnershipprogramme on wildlife conservation and crime prevention for sustainabledevelopment funded by the Global Environment Fund through the WB.

The project will be carried out by the Ministryof Natural Resources and Environment from 2019 to 2022 to protect endangeredspecies by reducing threats posed by illegal exploitation, trade andconsumption through multilateral cooperation. It will engage joint efforts bydomestic and foreign agencies and organisations, including non-governmental andsocial organisations and the private sector.

Data of the International Union for Conservationof Nature (IUCN) show that over the last 25 years, the rate of species becomingextinct has reached 10 percent. Meanwhile, the World Wildlife Fund pointed outthat the population of mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish fell 60percent between 1970 and 2014. 

According to the IntergovernmentalScience-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services, at least 1million species, equivalent to one-eighth of the known species on earth, willdisappear within this century if human do not promptly take appropriateactions.

Hoang Thi Thanh Nhan, deputy head of the VEA’sdepartment for nature and biodiversity conservation, said Vietnam has takenpart in many international and regional initiatives and commitments such as theASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network, the London and Kasane declarations onillegal wildlife trade, the East Asia and APEC summits’ statements on enhancingcooperation in fighting wildlife trafficking and consumption demand.

The country has boosted bilateral andmultilateral cooperation with many countries in the work, she noted, addingthat it has also fine-tuned the legal system and stepped up wildlifeconservation, law enforcement and awareness raising communication.

However, Nhan admitted, such efforts are stillnot enough to reverse the downward trend in the species number.

Statistics indicate that the number of wildspecies and their populations in Vietnam are declining sharply. In the IUCN RedList updated in July 2019, the number of species classified as “nearthreatened” and above in Vietnam is 700. Surveys in 2016 also proposed 1,211species, including 600 plant and fungus species and 611 animal species, beincluded in the Red Data Book, much higher than the 2007 assessment.-VNA