Vietnam
has abandoned plans to close a bear sanctuary at the heart of a land dispute in
one of its national parks.
Prime
Minister Nguyen Tan Dung said the centre could stay to pursue plans to expand,
and warned that any violations would be severely punished.
The
sanctuary was told last year to move for "national security reasons".
But
campaigners said plans to develop parkland lay behind moves to shut the centre,
home to about 100 bears rescued mainly from the bile trade.
Animals
Asia, the charity which runs the Vietnam Bear Rescue Centre in Tam Dao National
Park, mounted a high-profile campaign to save the sanctuary, recruiting Ricky
Gervais and other celebrities to its cause.
Tuan
Bendixsen, the charity's Vietnam director, welcomed the government
announcement.
"We
thank the PM very much for his decision. We are really glad to be able to carry
on our activities and responsibilities," he told BBC Vietnamese.
Animal
rights campaigners have long attacked the bile farming industry as barbaric,
and it is banned in Vietnam.
Digestive
bile is forcibly extracted from the gall bladders of bears, to be sold on the
black market for use in traditional medicine.
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