Help 30 Women Fight Wildlife Crime in Vietnam

In the midst of the most severe outbreak of Covid-19 in Vietnam, ENV's team of nearly 30 women have continued to fight for wildlife in the last few months. These sustained efforts to tackle wildlife trafficking are detailed below, and possible thanks to your support.

Wildlife Crime Stats for 2021:

At a Glance

• 2,666 new wildlife crime cases in 2021, comprised of
• 7,295 violations
• 66.5% of cases result in confiscation/arrest
• 538 live wild animals confiscated or transferred following reports to the ENV Wildlife Crime Hotline
• 1,686 new cases reported by the public to ENV each year
• 9.8 new cases reported by the public to ENV each day
• 1,802 internet crime cases documented in 2021, comprised of
• 6,113 individual violations
• 87% of all internet crimes reported to ENV result in a successful outcome

Big Picture

• 20,980 wildlife crime cases comprised of
• 56,684 violations have been logged since 2005

Notable wildlife crime cases:

• In August 2021, 17 tigers were confiscated from two underground illegal tiger farms in Nghe An province! The owners confessed they had smuggled the tigers into Vietnam from Laos as cubs and were breeding and keeping them illegally for the tiger trade, which is rampant in the province.
  
  In 2019, ENV initiated a strategic campaign to address tiger trafficking in Nghe An, providing central and provincial agencies with key information and heavily advocating with authorities to crack down on the tiger traffickers operationing in the province. The seizure of these tigers and the arrest of the owners is a great start in the right direction. Now, ENV is focusing on supporting the placement of the tigers as well as the police investigation to ensure  the seizures result in prosecutions and imprisonment.
  
  
• In September 2021, after the extended lockdown began to be lifted, the ENV Wildlife Crime Unit was able to carry out three sting operations with police resulting in the arrest of three wildlife traders! These stings also led to the confiscation of a live Asiatic black bear cub as it was being trafficked, the seizure of 200 vials of suspected bear bile, and 400 grams of African pangolin scales confiscated, among many other live wild animals rescued throughout September.
  
  
• In October 2021, ENV secured the first-ever confiscation of a caracal from Vietnam's illegal wildlife trade! Caracals are medium-sized carnivorous wild cats indigenous to central Asia and Africa. This caracal was being kept as an illegal exotic "pet" in Hanoi when it was reported to ENV's Wildlife Crime Hotline. After we alerted police, the wild cat was confiscated from the owner who illegally purchased it from the black-market. The same day the wild animal was relocated to Hanoi Wildlife Rescue Center.

Ending bear bile farming:
This week, ENV celebrates 3 more Asiatic black bears being transferred from a bile farm in Long An province to Cat Tien Bear Rescue Center! For years ENV has been communicating directly with this bear owner in efforts to convince him to give up his bears. These efforts included phone calls, postcards, brochures of the bear sanctuary, and collaborating with Long An Forest Protection Department and Cat Tien Rescue Center who also communicated with the bear owner on why he should give up his bears and let them live a better life at a rescue center. These are 3 of the last 4 bears in Long An province, meaning there is just 1 bear left in Long An! Following this transfer, ENV has called and sent a convincing package to the last bear owner in the province to motivate him to give up his bear. We have also reached out to the local authorities for their support motivating the owner to transfer the last bear in the province.

Upholding wildlife protection laws:
In addition to the many successes in the Wildlife Crime Unit, the Policy & Legsilation Team has had their fair share of achievements as well. In July, the team secured a 6 year prison sentence for a wildlife trafficker who was arrested with 4 dead Sunda pangolins and 4 sun bear paws in Nghe An province, while a wildlife trader caught with 14 otters and a number of other wildlife was sentenced to 11 years in prison at the end of September. These sentences are among many others that ENV has monitored and intervened in, requesting courts uphold the law and hand out strict sentences for wildlife crime. 

It's not just prison sentences that can deter wildlife crime, hefty fines will do the trick as well. A great example is the VND 500,000,000 (roughly USD $22,000) fine that was given to a subject who had advertised otters for sale on TikTok. The case began in June 2021 after ENV carried out the first-ever successful sting operation from a wildlife case reported on TikTok. ENV's sting operation let to 2 Oriental small-clawed otters being rescued and the seller arrested and fined.

Educating the public:
Last but not least, the Public Awareness Team has continued to spread the word not to exploit wildlife to millions across Vietnam. In July 2021, ENV released our latest public service announcement (PSA), When Rhinos Lose Their Face, Consumers Lose Face Too, a short film that emphasizes how respect is earned through honorable acts, not by trying to impress others with rhino horn. By the end of September, the film was broadcast by 58 TV channels across Vietnam!

In the last few months, ENV has also continued to air monthly shows on Voice of Vietnam (VOV), the country’s primary radio channel, reaching all 63 provinces across Vietnam. Each monthly show is approximately seven minutes and discusses different topics that promote wildlife protection messages to the public. The last few topics included news about tiger crimes in Vietnam and to report any tiger violations to ENV; how public reporting of wildlife crime has helped combat the illegal wildlife trade in Vietnam and saved the lives of many endangered species, referencing the number of successful publicly reported cases; and progress to end the rhino horn trade in Vietnam, seen in the number of rhino horn traffickers arrested and sentenced to prison (the average prison sentence for rhino horn-related crimes is about 6 years, higher than the average prison sentence for crime involving any other wildlife species).

In addition to the monthly radio show on VOV, ENV also aired 108 advertisements during primetime, mainly on VOV1. These advertisements were aimed at creating deterrence against participation in the illegal wildlife trade by educating the public on the application of the Penal Code, which prescribes up to 15 years in prison for wildlife crimes.

On top of the PSA and radio ads, 7 media statements were released by ENV recently, generating 81 articles published in newspapers and 2 TV segments conveying wildlife protection messages. And finally, a total of 3,865,582 people were reached by dozens of deterrence advertisements that were created by ENV and promoted on social media to inform the public about punishments for violations involving ivory, rhino horn, bear paws, and sea turtles, among others.

Friends and Supporters, these achievements to educate the public, rescue live wildlife, arrest wildlife traffickers, and sentence wildlife criminals to prison could not be possible without your continued support. Thank you for making these achievements possible. We cannot wait to update you on what we're able to achieve in the coming months thanks to you and your support!

Links:

• A Thorough Look at Progress to End Wildlife Trafficking
• Law Enforcement Responsiveness Report to Wildlife Crime
• Prosecution Review of Wildlife Criminals in Vietnam

Dear Friends,

Since March 2021, ENV's team of 30 women have made huge strides in protecting wildlife by addressing wildlife crime in Vietnam and further educating the public to protect wildlife. The following achievements could not have been possible without you, our loyal supporters!

From the beginning of April 2021 to the end of June 2021, ENV's all female Wildlife Crime Unit successfully resolved more than 700 wildlife crime cases! From these public reports of wildlife violations to ENV's Wildlife Crime Hotline, our team facilitated the safe rescue of 362 live wild animals from Vietnam's illegal wildlife trade. The species that have been confiscated and transferred to rescue centers or released back into the wild include bears, pangolins, lorises, otters, sea turtles, gibbons, birds of prey, macaques, snakes, freshwater turtles and tortoises, and even a spotted linsang, among others. Additionally from April to June, ENV helped law enforcement arrest more than 10 wildlife traffickers by setting up sting operations in cooperation with police. 

One of the most notable recent cases was the largest takedown of a pangolin scale trafficking network in Vietnam! From January to March 2021, ENV investigated the network, working with local authorities to carry out a sting operation which saw the arrest of 4 pangolin scale traffickers and the confiscation of 984 kg of African pangolin scales. Sadly, this seizure is equal to 3,936 pangolins, however, ENV's Policy & Legislation Team will continue to follow the prosecution of the case to ensure appropriate prison sentences are handed out. 

Speaking of, ENV's all female Policy & Legislation Team has secured many landmark sentences in multiple wildlife criminal cases recently. For example, in June 2021, ENV's team ensured the first-ever prison sentence in Vietnam for possession of African pangolin scales! Since 2018, ENV has been working with the court to ensure this case went to trial, overcoming multiple obstacles such as lack of legal protection for non-native species, and needing an official valuation of the pangolin scales which proved difficult due to the scales being black-market goods. Through persistence and determination of the ENV team, the trafficker was finally sentenced to 5 years and 3 months in prison for possession of 780 kg of African pangolin scales.

Another prosecution success includes the longest prison sentences ever in Vietnam's history for marine turtle trafficking, 12 and 10 years in prison for 2 traffickers arrested with 39 critically endangered hawksbill sea turtle "trophies" after ENV investigated the case for 7 years and finally set up a successful sting operation.

For more news on the legal team's progress to secure effective responses from the criminal justice system in dealing with wildlife crime, you're invited to read the annual Wildlife Criminal Prosecution Review.

In further news, the progress to end bear bile farming in Vietnam has made headway, with 7 more bears transferred to rescue centers in June 2021 and an illegal bear confiscated from a bile farm in April 2021. Furthermore, in June, Lang Son province became the 40th bear-farm free province in Vietnam! Currently, ENV continues to work with authorities to get the remaining ~340 bile bears rescued from bile farms and safely relocated to bear sanctuaries. 

And finally, ENV's Public Awareness Team released 2 Public Service Announcements (PSA) in recent months and will be releasing a third in July 2021. The first PSA of 2021 was titled "Safer with Science" and was aimed at steering the public away from wildlife rememdies, and to choose modern medicine instead. The PSA was very popular amongst the Vietnamese public as it used comedy to reach the audience. The second PSA was titled "Bear Karma" and personified the experience bears endure when being exploited for their bile. By utilizing the concept of karma, which is a deep rooted belief in Vietnam, we aimed to reach more people in a way they can understand and empathize with the message. Both of these PSAs were aired on dozens of TV channels in provinces across Vietnam, and distributed virally through online articles about the PSAs and ENV's social media which reaches more than 12 million people in Vietnam each year.

The Public Awareness Team also continued to run daily ads on Vietnam's most listened to radio station, Voice of Vietnam (VOV), and aired monthly shows on VOV about different wildlife trade topics such as the movement to end bear bile farming, exotic species in Vietnam's wildlife trade, and one of ENV's newest wildlife trade reports, Consumer Wildlife Crime Reduction Campaign 2019 – 2020.

Friends, this critical work to protect wildlife across the globe from Vietnam's illegal wildlife trade could not be possible without you and your continued support. Thank you, from all of us at ENV, for protecting wildlife and making sure long-term change is possible, safeguarding a sustainable future for Earth's endangered species.