Illegal wildlife trade essay

Authorities in Kien Giang told an online meeting with the National Steering Committee for Covid-19 Prevention and Control on Friday there had been days when the province had received up to 10 people returning from Cambodia, with all testing positive for the new coronavirus.

Now, medical centers across the province no longer have the capacity to handle more Covid-19 patients.

The province shares a borderline of 56 kilometers (34.8 miles) and 62,000 square kilometers of sea area with Cambodia.

Daily, thousands of fishing vessels and boats trading oil and seafood operate across this maritime area, with managing entry a hard task, a provincial representative stated.

With the ongoing outbreak in Cambodia, the province suggested the Ministry of Health establishes a field hospital for Covid-19 treatment in the beach town of Ha Tien, Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper reported.

In response to the proposal, Nguyen Trong Khoa, deputy head of the Medical Examination and Treatment Management Department under the Ministry of Health, told the province to set up field hospitals using schools, dormitories or sports centers.

Cambodia imposed a coronavirus lockdown on its capital Phnom Penh on Thursday in a bid to contain a spike in cases. The country recorded 291 new infections on Saturday, pushing its tally to 5,771.

In a voice message posted on his official Facebook page, Prime Minister Hun Sen warned Cambodia was on the brink of “death valley” and urged people to work together to avoid calamity.

Heath Minister Nguyen Thanh Long told an online meeting Friday the border area with Cambodia, including Mekong Delta provinces, are now “major hotspots” at high risk of possible Covid-19 outbreaks.

Vietnam’s border with Cambodia spans 1,137 kilometers, including the four Mekong Delta provinces An Giang, Dong Thap, Kien Giang and Long An. Other Vietnamese provinces bordering Cambodia are Binh Phuoc and Tay Ninh which are near Ho Chi Minh City, and Kon Tum, Gia Lai, Dak Lak, and Dak Nong in the Central Highlands.

On Tuesday, border guards in An Giang Province detected a man and woman breaking into Vietnam illegally from Cambodia.

Both later tested positive, prompting authorities to track down all those that had come into contact with the pair since they set foot in Vietnam.

By Saturday morning, it has been confirmed 12 people who had direct contact with them have tested negative.

Last month, Vietnam had suffered a spate of infections after a group of Vietnamese returned home illegally from Cambodia on a boat trip to Kien Giang’s Phu Quoc Island.

Many Vietnamese reside and do business in Cambodia, with many found infected with the novel coronavirus here over the past months.

While Vietnam has sealed its borders, there are occasional illegal entrants who evade checkpoints to avoid mandatory quarantine.

As per Health Ministry protocol, all those entering the nation from abroad must be quarantined for 14 days, during which they will be tested at least twice.

Vietnam has gone over two months without community transmissions.

He spoke at a press conference on the national online book festival, which will take place from April 17 to May 15, to celebrate the 8th Vietnam Book Day.

According to Nguyen, the national online book festival will be held on website book365 floor.vn with the theme Books for Everyone. As part of the event, the online book copyright festival will be held on April 19-26, also on book365.vn floor, with the participation of many publishers from 32 countries. The opening ceremony of the 8th Vietnam Book Day will be organized on April 18 at Ho Chi Minh City Book Road. Also, many activities will be held throughout the country to celebrate the 8th Vietnam Book Day.

Mr. Nguyen Nguyen, director of the Publishing, Printing and Publishing Department

The online book festival will attract more than 70 domestic publishers and book distributors to the book exchange floor, over 50 domestic and international publishers to the book copyright floor and more than 20,000 book titles, said Nguyen.

For the first time, the national online book festival will have a book copyright transaction floor, emphasized Nguyen. He hoped that this would be a pilot step for domestic publishers to experience this form of copyright transactions with foreign partners.

“In Vietnam, the proportion of foreign books accounts for about 30%, creating a basis for online copyright transaction. So far, publishers from 32 countries have agreed to join this transaction floor. On this floor, copyrights on three types of books – English books, children’s books, technology books – will be traded,” he said.

The organizers have made improvements in the interface as well as technology of book365.vn to enable readers to search and select books and enable connection and transactions among publishers.

Many events, such as seminars, online exchanges between authors, translators, researchers and publishers with readers; programs to encourage readers to buy books; and book discounts, free shipping and presentation of gifts to readers and book sellers and others, will be held during the book fair.

Two ministries jointly promote reading culture

The signing ceremony between representatives of the Publishing, Printing and Publishing Department (Ministry of Information and Communications) and the Vietnam National Library.

The Ministry of Information and Communications and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism on April 15 signed an agreement in the field of publishing and libraries towards the goal of promoting the reading movement and reading culture in the community.

According to Nguyen Ngoc Bao, Deputy Director of the Publishing, Printing and Publishing Department, under this agreement, the two ministries will coordinate to hold book exhibitions, promotion of books and publishing and library activities through the organization of book-related events such as conferences, seminars at home and abroad, activities to respond to the Vietnam Book Day and Reading Culture (April 21), the World Book and Copyright Day (April 23), the National Book Awards; support and transfer the application of information technology to the library system to access digital/electronic publications, and expand information connections, and data share between the two sides; inspect the publication receipt of publishers and organizations licensed to publish non-business documents to submit to the National Library of Vietnam in accordance with the law on publishing; and digitize publications for management.

Tinh Le

A redemptorist monastery with a typical French colonial architecture that is one of the ancient religious buildings in Da Lat.

Most of them were built during the French colonial period after the French founded the city as a resort town to get away from the humid, hot climate in the south.

Monasteries with arched windows and balconies with large glass doors are European in design, but are also in harmony with the gentle rhythm of the city.

Some monasteries are still places of prayer, while the rest have been assigned to state units for maintenance and repair or have been changed to become tourist attractions.

New life

The most typical of these is the Redemptorist monastery, which is now being used as a biological museum managed by the Tay Nguyen (Central Highlands) Biological Institute.

The former monastery, built in 1952, is located in the middle of a pine forest on Tung Lam Hill, seven kilometres from Da Lat.

The building was constructed with the typical symmetrical French architecture. At the centre of the building stands a cross with the Latin inscription “Copiosa Apud Eum Redemptio”, often translated as “With Him is plentiful Redemption”.

The monastery is built of solid stone. Each wall and brick is imprinted with time and from the back of the building, you can see a panoramic view of the city.

At the time of its construction, the monastery was only the second stone Catholic building in the country after Phat Diẹm Church in the northern province of Ninh Binh.

It served as a place for Redemptorists, a Catholic congregation of missionaries, to worship and fulfill their missions.

Walking inside the monastery you can see classrooms arranged side by side along the corridors of the building.

The building consists of five floors with 120 rooms. The second floor now serves as the biology museum, which has seven display rooms and six storage rooms. Each room is divided into areas for displays of stuffed mammals, birds, reptiles, plants and others.

The collection of the museum includes 58 species of animals, including 38 rare species listed in Vietnam’s Red Book.

The former Redemptorist monastery now serves as a biology museum with seven display rooms of stuffed mammals, birds, reptiles, plants and others. VNS Photo Xuan Dang

Thanks to the beauty of the monastery, it imparts a nostalgic and mysterious feeling. It seems that at any angle or location in the monastery is a wonderful scene for a photo.

“This is my first time visiting this place. I’m very impressed with the architecture. I also took some great photos here with my family. It’s good to see that abandoned monasteries like this are maintained and used as a tourist destination,” Phuong Thanh, 21, a tourist from Nha Trang City, told Việt Nam News.

The architecture of the monastery impresses visitors. VNS Photo Xuan Dang

Hidden gem

Some old monasteries in Da Lat with significant architectural values have been repaired to change their purpose of use.

An abandoned monastery located between Tran Quang Dieu and Hung Vuong streets is one.

The dirt path leading to the monastery makes it quite a hidden gem. Located in the north of the city and covering more than seven hectares, the chapel and residential quarters of the Franciscan monastery sit on a hill about 7 kilometres from the city centre.

For years, the iconic chapel has been an inspiration for Vietnamese artists and photographers, appearing in countless works of art.

An abandoned Franciscan monastery is one of the oldest and most valuable religious buildings in Da Lat. Photo Baolamdong.vn

Le Tu, head of Lam Dong Province’s Association of Architects, said that even though the monastery is not classified as a heritage, architects appreciate it for its historic architectural value.

The monastery complex was designed by French architects Alexandre Leonard and Paul Veysseyre in the late 1930s and early 1940s, marking the onset of Benedictine missionaries from the West making their way to Vietnam.

The architectural style of the chapel has a combination of the West and East with an Eastern-style tiled roof, and windows and main door bearing the typical Western Gothic architecture.

In 1954, the missionaries left the complex in the hands of Franciscan nuns before moving to Hue in the central region to set up the Thien An Monastery.

In the following years, the nuns enlisted the help of Vietnamese architect Pham Khanh Chu to design additional classrooms behind the existing complex, known as the Viet Nu Commercial School, in 1969.

In 1979, the seven-hectare complex was handed over to the government. It was eventually abandoned for several years before becoming the campus for the HCM City University of Architecture in Da Lat.

At one point, nearly 20 families illegally occupied the chapel but were eventually moved out by local authorities.

Restoration plan

The complex is now under restoration to become a campus of the HCM City University of Architecture.

The project, co-headed by Huy Hoang Company and the university, started by the end of February.

The former ancient monastery is currently under restoration. VNS Photo Xuan Dang

A representative of HCM City University of Architecture told Tuổi Trẻ (Youth) newspaper that the university has plans to restore the site.

“We see the complex as a meaningful and valuable heritage site. Restoration costs are much more than rebuilding, but we must protect this significant landmark.”

Associate Professor Le Van Thuong, rector of the university, said the chapel area and the dorm for monks will be preserved in their original state. Damaged parts such as doors and the roof will be repaired or replaced but will be consistent with the overall structure.

“We will keep the original architecture and materials of the building as much as possible. Only damaged and deteriorated places will be replaced with new materials. The paint will be the original colours,” Thuong said.

When the work is completed, the chapel will become the university hall, while the dormitory area of ​​the monastery will remain as the residential function. The classroom area will become a lecture hall for students, Thuong said.

Ninh Viet Anh, teacher at HCM City University of Architecture, said that for works with historical architectural significance​, conservation must be carefully considered.

With conservation projects such as these, the city can keep its unique architectural features from the French colonial period and continue to be a popular tourist destination.

VNS

Hanoi (VNA) – Under Vietnam’s fisheries development strategy to 2030 and vision to 2045, the fisheries sector is applying itself to become an important sector in the country, strongly integrate into the world, develop sustainably and responsibly, and proactively adapt to climate change .

Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Phung Duc Tien said that after continually posting rapid growth, the fisheries sector now has considerable production scale and value along with many products earning annual export turnover in excess of 1 billion USD.

Its product structure has changed strongly towards higher proportions of aquaculture and products with high added value, he noted, adding that aquatic products have been exported to about 160 countries and territories, in particular the EU, Japan, the US, the Republic of Korea, and Russia.

The presence of Vietnamese fishing boats and fishermen on the country’s seas has also greatly helped safeguard maritime sovereignty and security. The fisheries sector now provides jobs for about 3.9 million people, thus contributing to agricultural restructuring, according to Tien.

However, he acknowledged, there remain many problems facing the sector, which has yet to fully tap into its potential and advantages.

It is looking to earn 14-16 billion USD from exports and establish itself as a key national sector with sustainable development and proactive adaptation to climate change by 2030. Vietnam also targets becoming one of the three leading fisheries producers and exporters in the world by 2045.

Tran Dinh Luan, General Director of the Directorate of Fisheries, recommended localities re-organise production, exercise sound control over inputs, issue timely warnings on disease in farmed species, and boost technology transfer, which are both short and long-term tasks.

He also called on relevant agencies to immediately pay due regard to the fight against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, noting that the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has requested relevant sectors and localities soon complete steering boards on anti-IUU fishing and send members to the national steering committee so as to take uniform action to carry out recommendations from the European Commission, which has issued a “yellow card” warning on the issue to Vietnam.

Former Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Nguyen Xuan Cuong said that to achieve set targets, the fisheries sector should take concerted solutions such as reducing the number of inshore fishing vessels, increasing offshore fishing fleets, gradually downsizing exploitation, boosting aquaculture, and stepping up the conservation, recovery, and development of fisheries resources./.