Participating in the opening ceremony were Laos’ Deputy Prime Minister Sonxay Siphandone; the UK’s Duke of Cambridge, Prince William Arthur Philip Louis; and Deputy Secretary General of the UN Yury Fedotov.
The conference attacted the participation of 47 countries, the European Union, 7 international organisations and over 40 inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations.
Speaking at the conference, Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh stressed that Vietnam has paid special attention to preserving bio-diversity and protecting wildlife, particularly endangered species.
Vietnam set up its first nature reserves in the 1960s, she added.
The country now owns a system of national parks, nature reserves and reserves dedicated to specific endangered species, with a total area of more than 2.2 million hectares, according to the Vice President.
She highlighted the fact that during the globalization process, the illegal trade of wildlife is no longer limited to any single country, but has expanded to global scale.
Vice President Thinh emphasised
that wildlife protection is a global issue, and no single country or agency can effectively address it without a comprehensive cooperative mechanism and high-level commitment to action.
She called on the international community to take a multi-faceted approach to the issue, focused on implementing synchronous measures from completing legal regulations and institutions, enhancing law enforcement to eliminating illegal wildlife markets, launching campaigns to reduce demand for wildlife products and developing sustainable livelihoods for communities living in nature reserves, while boosting international cooperation and coordination in those efforts.
Countries must turn commitments into actions and an effective mechanism is needed to monitor the illegal trade of wildlife, Thinh said.
Prince William noted despite commitments and efforts made by countries, many challenges remain ahead, the illegal hunt of pangolin, rhino and elephant still continues.
The question is whether countries, businesses and NGOs have done enough to realise their pledges, he said.
Prince William stressed that better measures and stronger actions are needed to fight crimes of this kind, bring those criminals to justice, including corrupted persons who allow those crimes to take place. Young people should be involved in the fight, for the future of later generations.
The conference is slated to adopt a Hanoi Declaration, decrying the illegal trade of endangered species as a serious crime and lining out measures and actions to strengthen law enforcement and promote international cooperation on the fight against illegal wildlife trade.
Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh speaks at the conference.
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The conference attacted the participation of 47 countries, the European Union, 7 international organisations and over 40 inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations.
Speaking at the conference, Vice President Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh stressed that Vietnam has paid special attention to preserving bio-diversity and protecting wildlife, particularly endangered species.
Vietnam set up its first nature reserves in the 1960s, she added.
The country now owns a system of national parks, nature reserves and reserves dedicated to specific endangered species, with a total area of more than 2.2 million hectares, according to the Vice President.
She highlighted the fact that during the globalization process, the illegal trade of wildlife is no longer limited to any single country, but has expanded to global scale.
Vice President Thinh emphasised
that wildlife protection is a global issue, and no single country or agency can effectively address it without a comprehensive cooperative mechanism and high-level commitment to action.
She called on the international community to take a multi-faceted approach to the issue, focused on implementing synchronous measures from completing legal regulations and institutions, enhancing law enforcement to eliminating illegal wildlife markets, launching campaigns to reduce demand for wildlife products and developing sustainable livelihoods for communities living in nature reserves, while boosting international cooperation and coordination in those efforts.
Countries must turn commitments into actions and an effective mechanism is needed to monitor the illegal trade of wildlife, Thinh said.
Prince William noted despite commitments and efforts made by countries, many challenges remain ahead, the illegal hunt of pangolin, rhino and elephant still continues.
The question is whether countries, businesses and NGOs have done enough to realise their pledges, he said.
Prince William stressed that better measures and stronger actions are needed to fight crimes of this kind, bring those criminals to justice, including corrupted persons who allow those crimes to take place. Young people should be involved in the fight, for the future of later generations.
The conference is slated to adopt a Hanoi Declaration, decrying the illegal trade of endangered species as a serious crime and lining out measures and actions to strengthen law enforcement and promote international cooperation on the fight against illegal wildlife trade.
