Vietnamese officials have announced that some 1,000 bears will be rescued from illegal bile farms across the country by the year 2020.

On Wednesday, Vietnam’s Administration of Forestry and the non-profit group Animals Asia signed an agreement to shut down all notorious bear bile farms and free the remaining 1,000 bears over the next three years.

Bear bile farming has been outlawed in Vietnam since 1992, but many bile farms use a legal loophole allowing them to raise the animals as so called pets.

Today, there are about 1,200 bears in captivity in Vietnam — down from more than 4,000 in 2005.