Rhino poached to extinction in Vietnam: WWF

A critically endangered species of rhino has been poached to extinction in Vietnam, wildlife groups said Tuesday after the country's last Javan rhino was found dead with its horn hacked off.

The Javan rhinoceros was pronounced extinct in Vietnam by WWF and the International Rhino Foundation (IRF) after all dung samples in a 2009 and 2010 survey at Cat Tien National Park -- the only known habitat -- were confirmed to have been from the animal.
"The last Javan rhino in Vietnam has gone," said Tran Thi Minh Hien, WWF Vietnam country director. "Vietnam has lost part of its natural heritage."
In a new report, WWF suggests poaching was the likely cause of death for the rhino, which was found in April 2010 with a bullet in its leg and its horn removed in the national park in southern Vietnam, around 160 kilometres (100 miles) from Ho Chi Minh City.
The group said "ineffective protection by the park was ultimately the cause of the extinction" and warned that illegal hunting to supply the wildlife trade threatened the futures of other rare animals in the country.
"The tragedy of the Vietnamese Javan rhinoceros is a sad symbol of this extinction crisis," said Nick Cox of WWF's species programme in the Greater Mekong.
He said efforts to protect natural habitat and deter poaching "were inadequate to save the Javan rhino" in the country and predicted the "continued situation will no doubt lead to the extinction of many more species in Vietnam".
The rhinoceros was believed to be extinct on mainland Asia until 1988 when one of the animals was hunted from the Cat Tien area, leading to the discovery of a small population.
Javan rhinos are critically endangered, with barely 50 individuals left in a single group in a small national park in Indonesia.
WWF said Asia's voracious demand for rhino horn for traditional medicine continues to increase every year, meaning "protection and expansion of the Indonesian population is the highest priority".
The group said other species on the verge of extinction in Vietnam include the tiger, Asian elephant and Siamese crocodile.

Warning of disease risk from wild animals

High-risk behaviours, such as using wild animals as food and as a medicine source will increase the danger of disease transmission from wild animals to people and domestic animals. 
The warning was given by international experts who attended a seminar on the situation of emerging diseases and wild animals in Vietnam , in Hanoi on March 15

The seminar was jointly held by the Wildlife Conservation Society in Vietnam , the US Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.

Recent reports showed that 75 percent of infectious diseases in humans originated from animals, the experts said, adding that Southeast Asia is a hot spot of emerging disease outbreak.Director of USAID Vietnam Francis Donovan said people throughout the world have a better understanding of the connection between human health, animal health and the environment, adding that Vietnam is one of the pioneers in applying the “One-Health” approach to develop policies in preparation for pandemics.Since the transmission of such pandemics as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) or bird flu caused serious impacts on public health and economic development, it is necessary to raise capacity to discover and cope with dangerous diseases, the USAID Director said.

PT_Source: vfej.vn

Technology transfer still facing big barriers

The policy on developing renewable energy has been applied for a long time. However, there has been no considerable progress in utilizing renewable energy in daily life, which has been attributed to unreasonable policies.

In September 2010, the HCM City’s authorities decided to develop a project on solar electricity for local residents in Thieng Lieng hamlet in Can Gio District. The project, initiated in early January and completed on January 26, has brought electricity to 174 households in the suburb area. With the project, electricity has also been brought to the works of public interest such as the hamlet’s management board, a forest management station, a healthcare center,  the Thieng Lieng Primary School, a customs station and a border control station.

However, experts say that the solar electricity projects that are running so far are just for “performance”. Solar energy projects still has not been developed on a large scale because the overly high investment capital is a deterrent to investors. To date, the solar water heater project remains the most successful project with the high growth rate of 200 percent per annum.

The door to the market open

Tuan An Energy Trade Company has invested two billion dong to build up a solar power system for an office building in Binh Tan District in HCM City which has the capacity of 70KW per day.

The door to the renewable energy market is now open. At the end of January, the US First Solar Group was granted a license to build a solar panel factory in Vietnam with a total investment capital of one billion dollars. Philips also plans to build a factory to build LED lamps that utilize energy saving technology in Vietnam. Experts say that this should be seen as a good sign for the renewable energy market in Vietnam because big foreign economic groups will bring modern technologies to Vietnam, and their appearance will make policy makers pay more attention to the field. Besides, big foreign groups will also help attract more foreign investors to Vietnam who will operate in supporting industries.

Red Sun, a Vietnamese company that also specializes in solar cells in Long An province, has also announced that it will expand its production scale. Chair of Red Sun Huynh Kim Tuoc said he does not feel the pressure of the competition from the US First Solar Group because the two factories will churn out two different product lines.

Tuoc said that Vietnam needs to pay more attention to technology transfer rather than research. In the production of solar cells, for example, while new technologies have been utilized widely in the world, Vietnam is still busy pursuing academic, scientific research. Meanwhile, it would be simpler to import technologies to utilize domestically.

In the production of solar water heater, the most important component of the product, the heating tube, is still being imported from China even though the technology is not too complicated. A tube production line now has the price of 700,000 dollar. However, many enterprises still cannot import the production line due to financial incapabilities.

The barriers that need to be overcome

Professor Dr Phan Hong Khoi from the Vietnam Science and Technology Institute said that there are many barriers that need to be overcome in order to improve the current situation.

The first barrier is that it is necessary to upgrade technologies. For example,, in producing LED lamps, the life expectancy of a lamp depends on the environment and technology, which explains why a lamp can only last for 10 years while another can last for much longer.

The second barrier comes from how clients discover new technologies. In many cases, though technologies bring efficiency in energy saving, environment protection and emission reductions, they still find it hard to find clients.

The production cost is also a big barrier for enterprises to conquer the market. Therefore, enterprises should understand that high initial expenses can bring long term benefits.

The story about the consumption of laptops and mobile phones is a typical example. When they first appeared on the market, they had very high sale prices. However, later, together with the development of technologies, the products have become cheaper. The same scenario may happen with solar cells, wind solar or LED lamps, and the products will become more popular and cheaper.

Meanwhile, experts have urged government agencies to apply reasonable policies to encourage foreign investors to transfer technologies. They said that currently, foreign economic groups come to Vietnam just to take full advantages of low investment costs and investment incentives, while they do not pay attention to technology transfer.

Every year, Vietnam imports 10 billion dollars worth of technologies, while the technology export turnover remains very modest.

PT_Source: Thoi bao Vi Tinh Saigon

Construction to promote green tech

The construction industry would be giving preferential treatment to investors in green technology, said Nguyen Tran Nam , Deputy Minister of Construction.

Nam added that the ministry would create a legal framework to boost the development of green industries.

The Government wants the country to become an industrialised nation by 2020. In that time, it anticipates the population in major cities to rise by about 45 percent from its current level.

The World Green Building Council said that buildings consume about 40 percent of the world's energy and generate 30 percent of global carbon emissions.

Green buildings, therefore, are crucial to reducing the country's carbon footprint, said Tran Huu Ha, Head of the ministry's Science, Technology and Environment Department.

He said going green would also reduce the effects of global warming.

However, he said the development of clean technologies would initially require a big investment.

Le Thi Bich Thuan, Deputy head of the ministry's Institute of Architecture , Urban and Rural Planning, said industrialisation also led to the loss of green spaces, further adding to global warming.

Thuan added that up till now little had been done to encourage construction firms to invest in green buildings.

She also said the Government should invest more in environmental sciences and raise public awareness about the need to conserve resources.

PT_Source: vfej.vn