Illustrative photo (Source: VNA) According to the Biodiversity Conservation Agency, Vietnam has been tougheron violators of wildlife and biodiversity conservation rules.
Wildlife-related crimes are considered serious, with convicted criminalsnow facing higher penalties and longer prison sentences in accordance withamendments to the 2015 Penal Code adopted by the National Assembly in 2017. Violatorsmay face up to 15 years in prison and fines of up to 15 billion VND (650,000USD), with penalties rising in line with the quantity of wildlife trafficked.
In July last year, Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc issued Directive No 29on urgent measures to restrict wildlife trade and consumption, banning the importationof live wild animals and wildlife products, strictly eliminating wildlifemarkets, and prohibiting the hunting, transporting, slaughtering, selling,buying, storing, consuming, or advertising of wildlife, including online sales.
Vietnam is among the signatories to the Convention on BiologicalDiversity, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of WildFauna and Flora, the 1989 Convention on Wetlands of International Importance,and the UN Convention to Combat Desertification. The country has also steppedup bilateral and multilateral cooperation on wildlife conservation, for examplesigning an agreement with South Africa in 2012 to put an end to the illegaltrade of rhinoceros horn.
Between 2015 and 2020, about 73 percent of wildlife trafficking caseswere brought to trial. The 2015 Penal Code resulted in an increase in averageprison sentences for wildlife crime in subsequent years, to 5.29 years in 2018and 4.49 years in the first half of 2020 compared to just 1.25 years in 2017.
In 2019, a man from the northern province of Quang Ninh was sentenced to13 years in prison for illegally possessing and trading 145 Java pangolins, 7kg of pangolin scales, and 71.4 kg of elephant skin. Three other people fromHanoi received up to 12 years for similar offences.
Deputy Director of the Biodiversity Conservation Agency Nguyen Xuan Dungsaid Vietnam has developed and enforced a number of programmes and action planson the urgent conservation of endangered species, such as tigers, elephants,primates, and turtles.
Projects monitoring wildlife populations have been carried out in QuangBinh province’s Phong Nha - Ke Bang National Park, Hai Phong city’s Cat BaNational Park, Ninh Binh province’s Van Long Nature Reserve, Tuyen Quang province’sNa Hang and Cham Chu Nature Reserves, Nam Dinh province’s Xuan Thuy NationalPark, and others.
Other projects building biodiversity corridors in the central provincesof Quang Nam, Quang Tri, and Thua Thien-Hue have contributed to maintaining andprotecting the habitats of endangered species, including the buffed-cheekedgibbon, Edwards’s pheasant, red-shanked douc, Annamite striped rabbit, andAnnamite muntjac.
Vietnam is now home to 173 wildlife conservation zones, comprising 33national parks, 66 nature reserves, and 18 species and habitat reserves. Theycover a total area of more than 2.5 million ha, which is expected to rise toover 3 million ha by 2030./.
VNA
