Developing and Implementing Solutions to the Nexus between Protected Area Governance, the Snaring Crisis, and the Wild Meat Trade in Vietnam.

Timeframe: 2020 - 2023
Country/Region: Vietnam
Partner: Save Vietnam’s Wildlife (SVW)

Vietnam is globally recognised as a biodiversity hotspot and is often identified as a priority for species conservation. It hosts a third of most critically endangered species of mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian and fish in South-east Asia. However, most of Vietnam’s critically endangered wildlife species are threatened by international trafficking and mainly by national demand for wild meat, traditional medicine, and increasingly for exotic pets.

Save Vietnam’s Wildlife (SVW) seeks to identify and highlight the gaps in enforcement and policy responses to the wild meat trade in a Nghe An province, in northern Vietnam, and develop practical solutions to these challenges. This province is a known ‘hotspot’ in the global illegal wildlife trade and demand for wild meat in this province will increasingly be a main driver of illegal snaring inside National Parks. Tackling this threat will boost ongoing recovery efforts for Sunda Pangolins and Owston’s Civets (read more about our support here) and may as well have the potential to positively impact the conservation status of a number of other globally endangered species that are threatened by the demand for wild meat.

The main objectives of the project are the following:

  • Reduce the illegal wild meat trade in Nghe An province and its impacts on wildlife populations in Pu Mat National Park.
  • Increase awareness amongst the Vietnamese government, local civil society, and wild meat consumers on the links between snaring inside protected areas, wildlife farms, and wild meat consumption, and their impact on wildlife conservation in Vietnam.
  • Increase capacity amongst young Vietnamese professionals in the fields of illegal wildlife trade investigations, international policy development, and on strategies to ensure that snaring and the wild meat trade are considered as priorities by Vietnam’s criminal justice system.