The Biodiversity Conservation Agency (BCA) under the Vietnam Environment Administration on December 12 held a seminar to seek contributions to a draft communication strategy on reducing illegal consumption of wildlife.

According to Pham Anh Cuong, BCA Director, the strategy consists of a series of communication campaigns targeting specific consumer groups as well as calling for support from senior officials.

Hanoi , a populous city with a large wildlife consuming market - will be a pilot site of the strategy, Cuong said, adding that lessons drawn from the implementation of the strategy in the capital city will then be shared in other hot spots in the country.

The strategy will be divided into two phases. The first one, to commence in 2014, will focus on designing and implementing communication activities and publications for specific targeted groups, while the second phase aims to long-term activities and set up an online forum to promote post-2014 campaigns.

Among the ten countries with the richest biodiversity, Vietnam is home to 10 percent of all popular species in the world, whereas its territory accounts for less than 1 percent of the earth surface.

However, wildlife trading in Vietnam is alarming. Statistic from the Wildlife At Risk (WAR) show that 28 wild and 10 domesticated elephants died in Vietnam during the past four years, while hundreds of rhino horns were traded illegally.-VNA