Network launched to protect wildlife
HA NOI — The Vietnamese Government and ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN) launched the inter-agency executive committee for Viet Nam Wildlife Enforcement yesterday in Ha Noi. Viet Nam is the sixth ASEAN country to form its national network under the regional ASEAN-WEN, the world's largest wildlife law enforcement network that involves police, customs and environment agencies of all 10 ASEAN countries.
The move aimed to strengthen co-operation between national and international agencies in preventing and fighting wildlife crimes, including illegal hunting, trafficking and trading wildlife and their products, said Deputy Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development Hua Duc Nhi, who is also Viet Nam's network chairman.
Nhi said experts warned that about 13-42 per cent of wild fauna and flora in Southeast Asia faced the risk of extinction in the next decade if drastic action was not taken.
A senior officer of the ASEAN-WEN co-ordination unit, Manop Lauprasert, said that the establishment of the Viet Nam-WEN demonstrated ASEAN member countries' commitment and collaboration to fighting the illegal wildlife trade which was robbing the region of irreplaceable flora and fauna. In the last 18 months, Vietnamese authorities had cracked down on wildlife trafficking and trading, confiscating 15 tonnes of ivory and 30 tonnes of pangolin, (scaly anteaters, a popular form of bush food).
USAID mission director Francis Donovan said people must work together nationally, regionally and globally to disrupt criminal networks that were damaging the Earth's biodiversity.
The Customs of Viet Nam's northern port city of Hai Phong received an international award for confiscating 7 tonnes of ivory in March, a record for trafficked ivory. The award was made by the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.
The five other ASEAN countries that formed the Wildlife Enforcement Network are Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Thailand. — VNS