The CITES Management Agency and the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) jointly held a seminar in Hanoi on October 19 to introduce regulations on the management of wildlife samples.

The seminar’s results will serve as the basis for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) Management Agency to put forth measures to solve difficulties in this field at the 16 th meeting of CITES member countries in Thailand in 2013.

According to Do Quang Tung, Deputy Director of the CITES Vietnam Management Agency, authorised agencies have recently seized many samples of rare species such as elephant tusks and rhino horns originating from foreign countries.

The handling of these samples must comply with Vietnamese regulations, international law and inter-governmental commitments that Vietnam has joined, he said, adding that the work still faces difficulties as some regulations are not really clear.

Participants at the seminar learned about regulations on the trade of elephant husks and made several recommendations on how to better protect elephants in Vietnam.-VNA