A Tuoi Tre newspaper investigation caught provincial forest rangers in Dong Nai Province negotiating supplies and prices for illegal wildlife products in uniform. Ranger Mai Ngoc Dat got right to the point during a meeting with P. from neighboring Ho Chi Minh City. "What do you want?" Dat asked. Then he assured P. that he had access to all kinds of "stable" supply of farmed and wild animals from the Central Highlands province of Lam Dong and the protected Nam Cat Tien Fores t -- a part of the world biosphere reserve Cat Tien that's concentrated in Dong Nai. "There's nothing that we don't have," Dat said. Then he picked up his cell phone to confirm as much with his supplier. P. asked for bear bile, an illegal but highly sought-after health tonic in Vietnam, Dat said one milliliter costs around VND500,000 (US$24), but the wild one can cost ten times more. The next night, P. met with a forest ranger named Le Quoc Van, according to the name tag on his uniform, to buy five milliliters of … [Read more...] about Newspaper catches Vietnam’s forest rangers trading wildlife in uniform
Wildlife
Northern province sells rescued wildlife to restaurants, angers environmentalists
Conservationists are voicing their concerns after the northern province of Bac Ninh chose to sell 42 pangolins seized from poachers, warning that such a move would only encourage wildlife trade. The endangered animals, all alive, were seized by local police and then handed to forest rangers on February 1, local media reported. After asking the poachers to pay fines, officials in the province sold the pangolins to local restaurants at the street price of VND1.2 million (US$56) a kilo. The animals, which weighed 201 kilograms in total, brought the province around $11,300. Members of Education for Nature-Vietnam, an environmental group in Hanoi, have strongly criticized the decision, calling it a "failure" in deterring wildlife trade. The group said by selling the pangolins, the authorities have become “a link” of the trading of the animals, and as such sanctioning illegal wildlife trade. It said the pangolins seized are of the Sunda Pangolin (Manis javanica) … [Read more...] about Northern province sells rescued wildlife to restaurants, angers environmentalists
Rhinos to macaws seen at risk in $10 billion wildlife trade
Wildlife crime worth as much as $10 billion annually threatens the existence of mammals, birds and trees ranging from rhinos to Spix’s macaws and rosewood, the United Nations said. “Wildlife and forest crime is one of the fastly growing forms of transnational crime,” Yury Fedotov, executive director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, said in an interview on Monday. “It’s not just a crime against flora and fauna, it’s a crime against people” that sometimes connects to terrorism and is usually supported by corruption and money laundering, he said. Poaching of African elephants for ivory, which is reducing the population of the animals faster than they can reproduce, is worth $165 million to $188 million a year when the products are sold in Asia, while the rhino-horn trade last year was valued at between $63 million and $192 million, the UN Congress on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora figures show. … [Read more...] about Rhinos to macaws seen at risk in $10 billion wildlife trade
Vietnam urged to take stronger legal action against wildlife smuggling
Experts have called for stricter regulations to deter the smuggling of wildlife in Vietnam, especially the trade in ivory and rhino horn, after many cases were detected at airports and border gates in recent years. “There is no specific guidance for dealing with different levels of violation,” said Duong Ngoc Hai, deputy director of Ho Chi Minh City Prosecutors’ Office. “Prosecution agencies can only impose relatively small penalties that cannot prevent future violations,” he said at a conference in Ninh Thuan Province during the weekend. According to the Supreme People’s Procuracy, the highest prosecutors’ office in the country, there have been 33 criminal cases involving 26 traffickers from 2010-2015. Wildlife and relevant products have mostly been smuggled through Hanoi, HCMC, Quang Ninh and Hai Phong. The authorities conceded that they have difficulties in handling these cases because of a lack of facilities and human resources. Nguyen … [Read more...] about Vietnam urged to take stronger legal action against wildlife smuggling
Improved transport, law loopholes exacerbate Vietnam wildlife smuggling: experts
Nearly four tons of elephant tusks have been seized at Da Nang’s Tien Sa Port in separate cases busted by customs officers over the past few weeks. Authorities have also found more than 8,000 kg of pangolin scales and 142 kg of rhino horns smuggled through the central port. In Hanoi’s Noi Bai Airport and Ho Chi Minh City’s Tan Son Nhat Airport, more than 100 kg of ivory and rhino horns have been seized since August alone. Vietnam has become a major link in the global illegal wildlife trade, and strict action is not taken against violators due to loopholes in the law and poor enforcement, experts said. Nguyen Ngoc Tuan, deputy director of customs’ anti-smuggling and investigation department, said wildlife smuggling has become sophisticated. Only about 20 Indochinese tigers and less than 100 Asiatic elephants remain in the wild. “Wildlife smugglers have become more daring and smuggle by road, sea and air,” he said at a conference on the issue held in … [Read more...] about Improved transport, law loopholes exacerbate Vietnam wildlife smuggling: experts