TAM DAO BEAR RESCUE CENTER: MODERN, WELL-RUN AND

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 001402 STATE FOR OES/ENRC (SCASWELL AND HSUMMERS) JUSTICE FOR ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES (JWEBB) SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: SENV SOCI EAGR VM SUBJECT: TAM DAO BEAR RESCUE CENTER: MODERN, WELL-RUN AND UNDER-UTILIZED REF: A) HANOI 1184; B) HANOI 398; C) 07 HANOI 1763 D)HCMC 156 HANOI 00001402 001.2 OF 002 ¶1. (U) Summary: Animals Asia Foundation, a Hong Kong based NGO, recently completed construction of the first stage of a bear rescue center in the Tam Dao National Park. The state of the art facility can provide long-term housing for nearly 50 bears and has sufficient facilities to provide care for an additional 70 animals for up to six months. However, despite ambitious expansion plans, the facility remains under utilized. Though Government of Vietnam (GVN) officials strongly supported the construction of the facility, they have been less willing to enforce Vietnamese animal protection laws to remove bears from bear farms to the rescue center. End Summary. First Class Bear Care -------------- ¶2. (U) On December 22, Embassy Officers visited the Animals Asia Foundation Tam Dao Bear Rescue Center approximately 90 kilometers northwest of Hanoi. The first stage of the facility opened earlier this year with top-of-the-line housing, medical care, and nutrition for nearly 50 bears. Currently, the facility's veterinary staff, bear managers and local employees look after 22 animals, most of which have been rescued from bear farms or confiscated during transit into Vietnam from Laos and Cambodia or out of Vietnam into China. (Note: Animals Asia has rescued several bears after receiving notification through a hotline run by U.S.-supported indigenous wildlife NGO Education for Nature Vietnam (ENV)). Built at a cost of nearly USD 500,000, largely raised from individual donors around the world, the center hopes eventually to return some of the bears in its care to the wild. Unfortunately, many of its residents no longer know how to fend for themselves or are in poor health. Additionally, according to Tuan Bendixsen, the Vietnam Director of Animals Asia, there are few possible places to relocate the bears as the estimated wild bear population in Vietnam is in the hundreds and the national park system does not have the capacity to manage reintroduction. Ambitious Expansion Plans -------------- ¶3. (U) Following approval from the office of Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung, Animals Asia has begun construction on the second phase of the project, which will cost USD 3.3 million. By March 2009, it hopes to open a spacious new bear enclosure with capacity to accommodate 40-50 bears, which will soon be followed by a visitor center as Animals Asia plans to bring in schools, local officials and other visitors to educate them about the need to protect wildlife. An environmentally friendly facility, the center has set up a biogas system to eventually use bear waste to power outdoor lighting and purchases many of the fruits and vegetables consumed by the bears from local organic farms. Upon completion, the facility will provide a semi-natural environment to care for up to 250 animals at an estimated monthly operating cost of USD 50,000 to 70,000. Animals Asia will run the facility for 20 years after which time it will turn the center over to the Vietnamese Forest Protection Department (FPD). Fading GVN Commitment? -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Bendixsen stated that early cooperation with the GVN has subsided. He reported excellent cooperation with the Tam Dao park director since planning for the center commenced in 2005 and noted that the GVN provided 21 hectares for the center. Initially, the FPD worked closely with Animals Asia and other NGOs to draft animal protection laws and regulations. However, FPD has shown much less enthusiasm for enforcing those laws, particularly when bear farm managers have strong political connections (Ref D). For example, earlier this year, Animals Asia learned of 80 unregistered bears illegally kept at a bear farm in northern Quang Ninh province, largely to provide bear bile for tourists visiting from China and South Korea. However, when contacted by Animals Asia, the FPD refused to support relocation to the center arguing that the center did not have adequate facilities (which it does, insisted Bendixsen, noting that the Animals Asia constructed temporary facilities for 60 bears just for this purpose) and that removal of these 80 bears would necessitate the removal of thousands of others around the country, without the necessary national rescue infrastructure. Eventually, the decision on how to proceed landed on the Prime Minister's desk and he sided with FPD, though one token Quang Ninh bear has been sent to Tam Dao. While FPD promised to provide 50 more bears to the center by October 2008, this has now been delayed to HANOI 00001402 002.2 OF 002 next March. Bendixsen expressed his concern that the planned expansion of the center would not succeed if FPD does not keep this promise. Comment -------------- ¶5. (SBU) The Tam Dao Bear Rescue Center is a remarkable facility that provides care equal to that at animal protection sites anywhere in the world. However, facilities, like laws and regulations, are only the start. Tam Dao's unused capacity, particularly when illegal bear farms operate with seeming impunity, highlights the GVN's ambivalent approach to wildlife protection. Vietnamese officials are willing to take the easy steps, but hesitate before tackling implementation (Refs A, B, and C). The United States and other countries with an interest in wildlife protection need to urge Vietnam to live up to its commitments in practice, not simply on paper. MICHALAK