Vietnam replaces park director who tried to take over moon bear sanctuary

From ANIMAL PEOPLE,  May/June 2013:

HANOI––Longtime Tam Dao National Park director Do Dinh Tien on April 30,  2013 lost his job,  after losing a two-year effort to evict the Vietnam Bear Rescue Centre from park property and redevelop the site as a “bear rescue and breeding center” open to the public,  adjacent to a hotel and other tourist accommodations and attractions.  The facilities were to be developed by the Truong Giang Tam Dao Joint Stock Company,  which listed Do Dinh Tien’s daughter Do Thi Ngan as one of four investors. The Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture & Rural Development on May 1,  2013 named former Tam Dao National Park deputy director Ha Cong Khai to succeed Do Dinh Tien,  reported An Dien of Thanh Nien News.

Do Dien Tien moved to take over the Vietnam Bear Rescue Centre in April 2011,  after the Animals Asia Foundation had invested six years and $2 million in site improvements,  housing 104 rescued bears.  Refusing to leave, the Animals Asia Foundation in July 2012 received an eviction notice asserting that the site had become critically important to the Ministry of Defense.  Founder Jill Robinson fought back with an international publicity campaign.

The October 2012 edition of ANIMAL PEOPLE helped to expose the confrontation––and exposed some of Do Dinh Tien’s other dealings,  including helping to form the Vietnam Carbon Exchange.  This was a scheme to sell conservation credits to Australian companies whose industrial processes produce greenhouse gases.  The companies were to be credited with protecting the trees already growing in Tam Dao National Park,  instead of being asked to fund planting new forest to increase the global carbon absorption capacity.