Bio-diversity

Vietnam is an agricultural country where animal breeding plays a very important role. In 2005, the value of livestock products accounted for 23% of the total value of agricultural products. Domestic animals are a valuable part of biodiversity but under the effects of nature and pressure of the market economy, they are gradually becoming less important. With the import of foreign varieties for cross breeding and the impact of new technologies such as artificial insemination, a number of traditional species that can not meet the production requirements are gradually being narrowed, even at risk of disappearance. This happened to many local animals which, though have low productivity, have many good characteristics such as: delicious products, acquaintance with poor land, adaptability to ecological conditions. Local pigs in mountainous Vietnam In Vietnam, breeding pigs has taken a leading role in its economy with high rate of meat consumption in comparison with the total amount of available meat(76%) so far. Domestic pigs of our country are diverse, adaptable to tropical humid hot weather and have a high capacity of disease resistance . Among those pigs is a breed of mountainous little pig living in Dac Lac, Quang Tri, Son La, etc, areas with a low literacy level, hard living conditions and out of date techniques of feeding animals. This breed of mountainous pig is a scarce and precious fund of gene that needs to be saved and protected to diversify breeding genes. Currently, some domestic breeds of pigs are being conserved but some are not, one of which is little mountainous pig. There is a need to raise awareness of people about the role of authorities in the conservation of domestic animals in general and little mountainous pig in particular. There is a need for solutions and budgets to invest in saving the little mountainous pigs in their living areas as well as in genes conservation camps. Exploitation of this mountainous pig for any economic purposes needs researching. Traditional knowledge of people, villages and communities that has been in existence and development needs researching in an effort to make use of animal resources in general and this little mountainous pigs in particular. The activities of collecting and documenting traditional knowledge related to feeding little mountainous pigs are urgent and necessary. Long-term target of the project. Contributing to the preservation and sustainable use of animal genes in Vietnam Particular objectives: 1) Identifying the priority problems and areas for collecting and documenting traditional knowledge for conservation and sustainable use of gene resource of mountainous little pigs in Vietnam 2) Raising awareness and understanding about the importance of conserving the traditional knowledge in the conservation of biodiversity of domestic animals, building capacity of collecting and documenting the knowledge for the three localities participating in the project. 3)Contributing to preserving gene resource of little mountainous pigs in Vietnam. Main activities: -Researching and reporting on priority problems and areas in collecting and documenting traditional knowledge for the activities of preserving and sustainable use of gene fund of little mountainous pigs in Vietnam. -Training of 60 staff with skills of collecting and documenting traditional knowledge and delivering technical documents. - Collecting and documenting traditional knowledge for preserving and using gene fund of little mountainous pigs in Hoa Binh, Quang Tri and Dac Lac provinces. -Informing farmer magazines and science magazines on traditional knowledge in preserving and using gene fund of little mountainous pigs -Making scientific reports on growth prosperity, meat supply and productivity of this pigs. -Implementing the pilot model: feeding 45 pigs of this type and making report on the results.

Vietnam