The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF)- Vietnam has advocated the Fisheries General Department’s claim on temporarily removing Vietnam’s Tra fish from the “Red List” pending reassessment.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (MARD) said the Vietnamese office of the wildlife watchdog has made public its support for the claim but added that it is not sure whether its viewpoint would receive approval from the WWF global.
By putting pangasius or tra fish raised in Vietnam on the red list of its consumer guide-2010, a compendium of various seafood guides published in several European countries, WWF has received strong protests across Vietnam.
Deputy Head of the Fisheries General Department Pham Anh Tuan said his agency would hold dialogues with WWF on the reason why it put Vietnam ’s tra fish on its red list and work to the last grasp to reach a common conclusion.
Tuan said if WWF is unable to provide accurate ground for its decision it has to make public its correction. In case WWF’s assessment was prompted from the lack of information the Fisheries General Department is ready to work together in an effort to have a more accurate conclusion.
He emphasised that the WWF’s evaluation is extremely absurd as any assessment could be applicable just to a certain farm so far but not to a product of a nation.
“To assess a national product, it requires a huge statistic data,” the fisheries senior official concluded.
MARD has also asked the WWF-Vietnam, a member of the WWF community, to provide concrete criteria on which the WWF was based to put Vietnam’s tra fish on the red list of its seafood consumer guide as soon as possible.
Mark Powell, head of the global seafood programme, is due to arrive in Vietnam in the week beginning December 13 to answer questions on technical measures and process that led to the action of putting Vietnam’s tra fish on the red list./.
By putting pangasius or tra fish raised in Vietnam on the red list of its consumer guide-2010, a compendium of various seafood guides published in several European countries, WWF has received strong protests across Vietnam.
Deputy Head of the Fisheries General Department Pham Anh Tuan said his agency would hold dialogues with WWF on the reason why it put Vietnam ’s tra fish on its red list and work to the last grasp to reach a common conclusion.
Tuan said if WWF is unable to provide accurate ground for its decision it has to make public its correction. In case WWF’s assessment was prompted from the lack of information the Fisheries General Department is ready to work together in an effort to have a more accurate conclusion.
He emphasised that the WWF’s evaluation is extremely absurd as any assessment could be applicable just to a certain farm so far but not to a product of a nation.
“To assess a national product, it requires a huge statistic data,” the fisheries senior official concluded.
MARD has also asked the WWF-Vietnam, a member of the WWF community, to provide concrete criteria on which the WWF was based to put Vietnam’s tra fish on the red list of its seafood consumer guide as soon as possible.
Mark Powell, head of the global seafood programme, is due to arrive in Vietnam in the week beginning December 13 to answer questions on technical measures and process that led to the action of putting Vietnam’s tra fish on the red list./.
