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In 5 years, not a single person behind tons of wildlife trafficking has been caught

On May 10, Education for Nature (ENV) held a seminar on the topic “Handling wildlife crimes in Vietnam: Achievements and challenges” in Ho Chi Minh City.

10 urgent actions

According to ENV, Ho Chi Minh City is one of the localities that recorded the largest violation of wildlife consumption in the country.

This is a place with a favorable geographical position, with a large seaport and international airport, so it is often used by objects to illegally transport wildlife from other countries to Vietnam.

During the past 5 years, not a single person behind tons of wildlife trafficking has been caught - Photo 1.

Tens of tons of ivory, rhino horn, pangolin scales… are discovered every year. Photo: ENV

However, although the work of dealing with wildlife crimes in the area has been strengthened over the years, the effect has not been achieved as expected. Thereby, it is required to pay attention and invest more resources to be able to thoroughly handle wildlife violations in the city as well as prevent criminal networks from continuing to transport wildlife illegally. pass here.

Accordingly, ENV made 10 recommendations for urgent action to prevent illegal wildlife trade in Vietnam. These include: Strictly punish those who lead illegal wildlife trade lines; Strengthen the management of conservation facilities and facilities for raising endangered, precious and rare wildlife for non-commercial purposes; Elimination of corruption (granting licenses to establish commercial wildlife farming establishments to act as a legal cover for wildlife smuggling activities, lining up at customs gates, running money to reduce penalties…); Completely put an end to bear farming and confinement in Vietnam; Improve the effectiveness of deterrence and prevention of wildlife crimes; Strictly regulate and manage the activities of facilities that raise wildlife for commercial purposes; Reducing the risk of future pandemic outbreaks due to wildlife consumption and trade habits; Strengthen the responsibility of local authorities in handling wildlife violations; All forms of trading in endangered, precious and rare wildlife are strictly prohibited; Strengthen the fight against wildlife crime on the Internet.

During the past 5 years, not a single person behind tons of wildlife trafficking has been caught - Photo 2.

Otters were caught for sale in Bao Loc, Lam Dong. Photo: VL

ENV statistics show that, in the past 5 years, there have been 9,239 wildlife violations in Vietnam, including nearly 25,000 individual violations, ranging from less serious violations such as keeping wildlife as pets or advertising products made from ivory on the Internet, to seizures of large quantities of rhino horn, pangolin scales, tigers and other wildlife or products of high value.

Currently, the 2015 Penal Code, amended and supplemented in 2017, has many tough measures against wildlife crimes. Instead of the maximum fine of 500 million dong and 7 years in prison, the new law stipulates a maximum fine of 2 billion and a maximum prison term of 15 years… But many people for profit still defy it.

In our country, the maximum sentence related to wildlife is 14 years in prison. This is the sentence for Do Minh Toan for illegally transporting 55 pieces of rhino horn weighing 126.5 kg smuggled from Dubai to Vietnam via Noi Bai international airport.

Big question mark for those behind the huge package

In Ho Chi Minh City, from 2018 to the end of March 2022, only 16 cases were brought to trial, including 10 cases with subjects receiving prison sentences and the declared prison sentence of 486 months.

ENV said that from 2018 to now, 42,369 kg of rhino scales and 15,785 kg of ivory have been discovered in seaports.

In which, in October 2021, authorities discovered and confiscated 56.3kg of tiger bones, 17kg of lion bones, 0.5kg of bear hooves, 505kg of dried seahorses, 6.5kg of bear fangs and many other wildlife products. another at Cat Lai port (HCMC). On January 11, 2022, 456kg of ivory and 6.2 tons of pangolin scales smuggled from Nigeria were discovered at Tien Sa port, Ho Chi Minh City. Danang.

During the past 5 years, not a single person behind tons of wildlife trafficking has been caught - Photo 3.

Many subjects transporting, trading and possessing wild animals have been arrested, but the leaders and behind are still question marks. Photo: ENV

However, it is worth mentioning that none of the subjects behind the arrests of a “huge” amount of wildlife at seaports from 2018 to now have been brought to trial and examined for criminal liability.

“A consignment must go through many stages to get to Vietnam. It is impossible for it to return naturally. However, no one behind these shipments has ever been brought to trial. This is a case. It’s a big problem that the authorities need to pay attention to, and make more efforts to investigate both domestically and internationally to handle it” – EVN representative emphasized.

Exchange with Vietnamese peopleMs. Nguyen Thi Phuong Dung, Deputy Director of ENV Education Center for Nature, said that, in addition to focusing on three strategic areas of activity, which is coordinating with policy makers to strengthen institutions, close legal gaps and encourage effective enforcement of wildlife protection policies; Strengthen law enforcement efforts by directly assisting authorities in preventing and combating wildlife violations; Reducing demand for wildlife products through long-term, sustainable campaigns to influence public awareness and action as well as encourage people to participate in wildlife protection by reporting relevant violations.

For customers, who consume products from wildlife, Ms. Dung said that ENV is currently making efforts to communicate, propagate and encourage people not to consume and use products from wild animals. People’s awareness is very important, but at present, many people are not aware of this.

During the process of collecting opinions from people in Buon Ma Thuot, when collecting opinions from hundreds of people about the consumption of wildlife products such as jewelry with fangs, claws, bracelets, rings… made of ivory, Some of them don’t feel like it’s a big deal. According to them, these products are from elephants in Africa, not elephants in Dak Lak. This means they are not aware that using ivory products is indirectly killing elephants in Africa.

“Awareness is an indispensable activity, but ENV’s orientation needs to do urgent and stronger things, which is law enforcement. We need a policy institution to apply that,” Ms. Dung said.

According to this leader, in the near future, ENV will release a film and broadcast to talk about issues related to people consuming products from wildlife, such as people entering restaurants to eat dishes. specialties” from wildlife, buy products from wildlife such as tiger fangs, ivory, pangolin scales…

ENV also hopes that the relevant authorities will have appropriate policies and apply sanctions to the behavior of using products from wildlife.

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