Tropentag, September 14 - 16, 2010 in Zurich "World Food System – A Contribution from Europe"

Vietnamese Animal Genetic Resources Conservation: Achievements and Future Strategy

¹Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Institute of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Germany
²National Institute of Animal Husbandry, Viet Nam

Abstract

Conservation and development of local breeds is important because of their contribution to the livelihoods of farmers and biodiversity as well as their social and cultural importance. In Viet Nam, the convention on biological diversity was adopted in 1994. A total of 97 local breeds are recorded in the FAO's global databank (http://dad.fao.org/). Within the country, the Vietnamese Government has issued a number of policies and decisions to support the management and to promote the development of animal production. Furthermore, national programs on conservation of the Vietnamese domestic animal genetic resources have been initiated under the direction of the National Institute of Animal Sciences (NIAS) since 1990. These policies and national programs have had positive impacts on the use and conservation of farm animal genetic resources. Three different conservation schemes practised in Viet Nam are in situ live conservation, ex situ live conservation and cryo- conservation, with the in situ live conservation including intensive farmer participation being the most common. Almost all of the conservation programs implemented by NIAS have been conducted on farms with farmer participation. Due to the limitation of conservation funds, these programs prioritised conservation of certain local animal breeds. Conservation decisions were made mainly based on only information on population size and population trend of the breeds. Other indicators affecting on extinction probability of the breeds and the contribution of the breeds to total genetic diversity have not been included. Some recent reports on genetic diversity between and within Vietnamese local breeds which were assessed at the molecular level have been published. This information should be combined with extinction probability of the breeds estimated by socio-economic factors to estimate conservation potential for each breed. Furthermore, it is also necessary to maximise efficiency of funding allocation for conservation when the conservation funding is limited as suggested by FAO.

Keywords: Conservation priority, Viet Nam, Vietnamese animal genetic resources

Contact Address: Ngo Thi Kim Cuc, Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Institute of Animal Breeding and Genetics, Albrecht-Thaer-Weg 3, 37075 Göttingen, Germany, e-mail: cngogwdg.de