At a press briefing in Hanoi on March 15, Nguyen Thi Van Anh, coordinator for an ENV programme on wildlife protection, announced the initial results of the survey on tiger caging and trading in Vietnam.

The survey indicated that people’s demand for tiger bones to use as medicine, which is believed to help strengthen human bone, improve health and treat other diseases, has reduced the number of tigers in Vietnam and other countries.

The survey also showed the relations among tiger farms and the illegal trading and farming of the animal, an overall picture of cross-border tiger trading and other related activities in Vietnam.

According to the World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF), there are only about 30 wild tigers left in Vietnam. Hunting, a changing of living environment and fewer sources of food are major reasons for the reduction of the wild tiger population.

Nguyen Thi Van Anh stressed that tiger trading is not only a problem for Vietnam, but also an international issue, so that Vietnamese agencies should coordinate with relevant agencies in other countries in investigating and prosecuting illegal tiger traders.

ENV is the first local non-governmental organisation in Vietnam involved in natural and environmental preservation with the aim of improving people’s awareness of the environment relating to wildlife protection, natural bio systems and climate change.