Help End the Illegal Wildlife Trade in Vietnam

We have made it through the third quarter of 2021, and are pleased to announce the many successes that have been achieved towards ending Vietnam’s illegal wildlife trade. Through the Wildlife Crime Unit’s collaboration with authorities, we have tackled wildlife crime head-on, while our Communication Department have continued to educate the public on wildlife protection. We want to extend our gratitude to you for making this progress possible over the past nine months!

Between January 2021 and September 2021, we have documented 2,658 cases, showing a surge of over 1,000 cases in just these past three months. This is a great indicator of increasing public awareness around ENV’s work, our Wildlife Crime Hotline, and the motivation to work together to protect wildlife. Across all cases, ENV is averaging a 69% success rate across three quarters of 2021. These successes have included more than 538 live animals being rescued via 444 confiscations and 94 voluntary transfers. These live animals were either taken to a suitable wildlife facility or returned to the wild, safely removed from the cycle of illegal trading. The species rescued included bears, snakes, macaques, pangolins, lorises, gibbons, sea turtles, otters, birds of prey, freshwater turtles and tortoises, a spotted linsang and a caracal, among others.

The biggest case we had this last quarter was the 24 live tigers seized in Nghe An, a notorious trafficking hotspot in north-central Vietnam. ENV had been pushing the authorities to take firm and effective action against traffickers for years through investigations, arrests, and prosecutions. At last, great strides have been made in the right direction, with Nghe An Environmental Police seizing seven live tiger cubs on the 1^st of August, 2021 and 17 live tigers during a raid of residential basements on the 4^th of August, 2021.

In the first case, the cubs were relocated to Pu Mat National Park, with two subjects arrested in connection to the crime. In the second case, four men were arrested, but sadly, eight of the tigers died during their transfer due to being in poor health and facing unforeseen complications. While deeply saddened by this outcome, the seizure of these 17 tigers out of the illegal wildlife trade still remains a considerable achievement. These criminals had been killing tigers for years to sell them and their products into the illegal trade, and they can no longer carry out this illegal breeding, farming and slaughtering of tigers. We hope this acts as a deterrent to future tiger crimes, and are grateful to the Nghe An authorities for taking firm action against these criminals.

Other notable cases this quarter have included three arrests resulting from the rescue of a live Asiatic black bear in Dien Bien, the seizure of 400 g of pangolin scales and the confiscation of 200 vials of bear bile and other wildlife products. In the first case, the subject was arrested for trafficking the young 31 kg black bear by motorbike and is now facing 1 to 5 years in prison according to Vietnamese law. The pangolin scale seller was caught after advertising pangolin scales on social media and was arrested by Tuy Hoa city of Phu Yen province. In the last case, the Wildlife Crime Unit was conducting an internet campaign, searching for endangered species products being advertised on social media and other websites. This research discovered the subject selling 200 vials of bear bile, as well as bear gallbladders, ivory, tiger claws, tiger teeth, tiger bone glue, and other products. We are pleased that these cases were taken seriously by authorities and that these criminals are facing prosecution.

We released our ENV Wildlife Crime Bulletin of 2021 in August, which included wildlife crime cases and wildlife criminal prosecutions from the second half of 2020. There are also wildlife trade alerts for law enforcement authorities in Vietnam, encouraging them to strengthen their response to Vietnam’s illegal wildlife trade. We also released our ENV September Newsletter: Wildlife Watch, with the latest updates on what’s been going on at ENV across all our departments. Look out for our October Newsletter, which is soon to be released!

Our Public Awareness Team has released two new Public Service Announcements, including Pangolin Crime = Jail Time in Vietnam which highlights various cases where trafficking pangolins or their scales resulted in prison sentences, and Pagodas in Vietnam are no place for wildlife explaining how ‘releasing’ wild animals in pagodas is harmful and how ‘releasing’ exotic species is detrimental to local wildlife.

Thank you for your continued support. The progress we’ve made in fighting the illegal wildlife trade would not be possible without you!