VietNamNet Bridge – The hunting, trading and trafficking of wildlife in Vietnam remains a serious problem, according a seminar entitled “Protecting wild animals to contribute to the sustainable preservation of natural resources in Vietnam” in Ninh Binh province on August 12.

Wild animals become delicious cuisines

Prof. Dr. Dang Huy Huynh, chairman of the Vietnam Zoology Association, who has 50 years of experience in wildlife preservation and is a member of the compilation board of the Vietnam Red Book, said: “The list of endangered animals is getting longer, from 300 species to nearly 1000.

“If Vietnam had hundreds of thousands of nature reserves, they would be unable to protect wild animals if wild animals were still used as specialties for rich people at luxurious restaurants,” he added.

According to the Vietnam Zoology Association, snakes, iguanas, pangolins, tigers, bears and elephants are the most frequently hunted wild animals in Vietnam and over 66 percent of the illegally hunted volume of wild animals is used as food.

The hunting and trafficking of rare wild animals is alarming. In June and July 2009, the Forest Protection Agency detected one elephant killed for its tusks in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak and five others in the southern province of Dong Nai, including baby elephants. On July 16, police seized a taxi transporting a frozen tiger and two sets of tiger bones.

More seriously, on July 29, customs officers in the coastal city of Hai Phong discovered 511 kilos of elephant tusks imported from Kenya. In December 2008, the customs agency also seized 4.7 tonnes of frozen pangolin and 85 kilos of pangolin scales from Indonesia in Quang Ninh province. In Ninh Binh province, local police have seized nearly 1000 kilos of wild animals since November 2008.

Yet, related agencies say that the cases of trading and trafficking wild animals they have discovered are equivalent to just 20 percent of the total.

Weak legal system

Wild animals are mainly exported to China. It is estimated that total revenue from illegal business of wild animals in Vietnam reaches $66.5 million.

Nguyen The Dong, vice chief of the General Department of Environment, said that the current legal system is insufficient to deter violators.

“It is the custom of a part of the population to eat wild animals. There is demand, so there is supply. If our forest ranger force were increased from 10,000 to 30,000 people, we might not be able to prevent hunters because the profit is super high,” Dong said.

Dr. Dang Van Huynh warned that if this situation is not improved, many rare species will be extinct and Vietnam’s ecological system will be in serious imbalance.

Experts suggested that while Vietnam cannot control hunters, traders and traffickers of wild animals, it is better to create stable means of living for the poor. Once they have stable sources of living, the poor will not have to hunt wild animals anymore.

The Law on Biodiversity, which took effect on July 1, 2009, has paved the way for many people to work and earn their living inside nature reserves. In the past, such activities were banned.

Management boards of national parks and nature reserves are allowed to do business related to exchange, growing and breeding wild animals and wild plants. Breeding some species of wild animals like porcupines, pythons and crocodiles has also expanded.

The Vietnam Zoology Association reported that Vietnam has 21,125 species of wild animals, including 7,750 insect species, 1,100 fresh-water fish species, 2,038 species of sea fish, 162 species of amphibians, 296 species of reptiles, 840 species of birds, 310 species of beasts, 17 species of sea beasts and dozens of thousands of invertebrates.

The latest research work by TRAFFIC, the global network keeping track of the trading of wild animals, shows that 82 percent of Hanoi people have eaten wild animals. Up to 43 percent of them were businessmen and 34 percent were government employees. 

VietNamNet/Lao Dong