ENVIRONMENT-VIETNAM: Measures Sought to Shield Rare Species

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Tran Dinh Thanh Lam

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, Mar 24 2004 (IPS) - Environmentalists have urged the government to ramp up efforts to protect rare and endangered animals, warning that failure to do so could result in extinction for some species within a decade.

More than 200 bird species and 120 other wild animals have become extinct in the last four decades and 103 more species are threatened with extinction, said Nguyen Van Song, a professor at Hanoi Agriculture University.

Vietnam has enacted 21 different laws regulating the trade of wild animals since 1989, and the hunting of endangered animals has been strictly banned since 1995. However, illegal hunting continues to increase. Illegal sales of protected wildlife are estimated to be worth 67 million U.S. dollars per year, second in value only to the heroin trade.

Each year, over 4,000 tonnes of wild animals are hunted in Vietnam, about two third of them making their way onto plates and into cups in restaurants in Vietnam, China and other countries where they are eaten as delicacies and used in traditional medicines. The rest are dried or stuffed, and then sold to tourists at souvenir shops.

”The rapid development of the domestic economy and of the world in general is increasing demand for endangered animals,” said Song.

Environmentalists, in a series of recent seminars, said ramped up protection of animals in the wild had to be coupled with tougher law enforcement aimed at curbing consumer demand for the animals.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) this month highlighted the case of sea turtles, saying trade in them was booming. In 2002 alone, researchers had catalogued more than 30,000 marine turtle products available on the Vietnamese market.

In February, WWF Indochina and the Social Forestry and Nature Conservation Project in Nghe An Province warned that the antelope-like Saola could be extinct in 10 years from hunting and continued destruction of its forest habitat.

The Saola was discovered in central Vietnam in 1992 and became the first large mammal to be discovered in more than half a century. Scientists are not sure how many Saola are left, but they have said they are certain that their number is decreasing.

”The Saola population is decreasing because of hunting, habitat loss and disturbance,” said Tony Whitten, senior biodiversity specialist at the World Bank.

Of the many factors causing Vietnam’s wildlife stocks to dwindle, illegal hunting and trafficking appear to be the most harmful and show no sign of abating.

Saola are not the target of intensive hunting because they have little economic value. Rather, they often are snared in traps laid for more highly prized species including wild bear, wild pigs and porcupines. The most endangered animals in Vietnam include pangolins, iguanas, tortoises, cobras, pythons, tigers and bears. A rare type of tortoise reportedly trades at 2,500 dollars per kilogramme.

Government forest protection budgets are meager compared to the profits generated by the illegal trade.

Vietnam has established 58 forest protection departments employing 8,200 officials. Each official has to manage an average of 1,870 hectares of forest but for those in outlying provinces such as Kon Tun or Ha Giang, the number is closer to 4,000 hectares. With a salary of 18 dollars per month, it is a lot of work for little money.

”The traffickers are using many different measures to fight police and forestry protection officials, including intimidation and bribery,” Song said.

Traffickers also resort to violence. From 1995 to 2000, 12 forestry officials were killed and another 490 were injured.

Even so, police in the central province of Danang earlier this month confiscated nearly 1.2 tons of smuggled turtles, scaly anteaters and iguanas en route to China. In the first seven months of 2003, foresters seized 33 tons of wild animals nationwide. The Forestry Management Department has said that from 2000 to 2002, foresters seized an average of 92 tons a year.

For the most part, however, the traffickers are not hunters. Instead, they hire local poachers.

”Only in around three percent of cases are traffickers caught and prosecuted by police, although many would like to believe the percentage is higher,” Song said.

As demand is driving the whole process, Song added, cutting it should help to stamp out wild animal hunting and trafficking. But so far, government measures to decrease demand – including increased fines, awareness campaigns, and police raids on restaurants serving dishes made from endangered animals – seem not to have been very successful.

In part, this is because the government has yet to issue an official definition of ”wild animals” and set in place a comprehensive national plan to manage them and their habitats.

As a result, people living in forest reserves or national parks continue to disturb and even poach wild animals, experts said at recent talks on wildlife management. In addition, a lack of comprehensive regulation allows infrastructure to harm wildlife, they said, adding that the Ho Chi Minh Road in central Nghe An Province has disrupted and could destroy the Saola’s habitat.

Thus, the government has begun to fine-tune its 2001-2010 strategy. National Action Plan director To Dinh Mai said the programme would give priority to a number of issues, including raising awareness, securing a government decree on wild plants and animal management, and cooperating with neighbouring countries in fighting wildlife trafficking.

Training courses will be given to foresters, market watch officials, customs officers, police and nature reserve workers to help them identify wild plants and animals smuggled in the market, Mai said.