Wild animal breeders profit amid concerns over illegal trafficking

HCM CITY — Breeding wildlife for meat in the Central Highlands province of Dak Lak has taken off with the support of local authorities, despite potential implications for the illegal wildlife trade.

Dak Lak's capital Buon Ma Thuot City has 250 farms that are breeding wildlife including snakes, porcupines, civets, deer and monkeys for meat, according to a provincial official who warned that the farms could cause problems for wildlife conservation.

Do Ngoc Dung, head of the province's Forest Guard Station's conservation division told Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper if the registration of farmed wild animals wasn't done properly unscrupulous wildlife traders could claim that animals they had caught in the forest were bred on legitimate farms.

In Viet Nam it is illegal to trade in wild animals that are hunted in the forest, but it is legal to farm them if they are not listed in the Red Book. Hoang Manh Cuong, who owns a 2,000-square metre farm in Buon Me Thuot City with more than 1,000 snakes, porcupines, civets, stags, tortoises, and monkeys said he started the business in 2005.

Van Duong started his farm in the city in 2007 and now it has more than 1,100 snakes, civets, and iguanas.

The province's districts of Ea Kar and Krong Pak has many such farms. One of which that belongs to Nguyen Ngoc Hieu, supplies thousands of wild piglets to market a year and is gearing up to breed civets, cobras and wild chickens.

The number of farms that register to breed wild animals every year is increasing, Dung said

"Breeding wild animals is a new trend that earns high profits so we encourage farmers to develop the model," Dung said.

Ngo Nhan, deputy director of Dak Lak Cultivation Promotion Centre said breeding wild animals is profitable, but investors take big risks.

"Huge investments are needed to build farms and buy young animals to grow. Farmers need to understand how to feed and care for them or they will incur big losses."

Dung said, "None of the farmers have been trained how to breed wild animals, they just learned how to do it from others."

According to Cuong, the risks can be reduced if farmers start off small and breed easy species before they attempt to breed wild animals that are more difficult to farm.

He added that each farm should focus on quality to build their trademark.

Cuong wants the authorities to set up an association of wildlife farmers so they help each other.

Many people believe the business helps conserve animals in the wild, because it reduces the demand for hunting, but Dung said there would be problems unless farmed animals could be properly registered. —VNS