Seminar: The Fate of Tigers and the Status of Endangered Species Conservation in Vietnam

On the occasion of International Tiger Conservation Day (29/7), People and Nature Reconciliation (PanNature) in cooperation with WCS organized the seminar “The Fate of Tigers and the Status of Endangered Species Conservation in Vietnam” in order to review and discuss on-going wildlife conservation efforts in Vietnam and to identify constraints, challenges, prospects and opportunities for the future.

The panelist, Ms. Nguyen Thi Van Anh (Department of Biodiversity Conservation, MONRE), Dr. Le Xuan Canh (Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology), Ms. Sarah Baker Ferguson (TRAFFIC in Vietnam), Dr. Benjamin Rawson (WWF in Vietnam), Mr. Tran Le Tra (GIZ) have shared and commented on the current status and the conservation of tigers and endangered species in Vietnam as well as solutions to preserve these species in the future.

The experts warned about the extinction of tigers in wild-nature in Vietnam. Although the Vietnamese government has made efforts to conserve tigers, its resources are limited and the investment is not enough to make the conservation unrealistic and ineffective. In addition, law enforcement is not strong enough to eliminate wildlife trade, including trade of tigers and tiger parts. The habitat of tigers and other endangered wild species are severely degraded, making it difficult to conserve those species as well as finding suitable places to reintroduce tigers into the wild.

At the event, Traffic shared their briefing paper on tiger product consumption to guide demand reduction efforts in Viet Nam. The paper brings together the results of two research initiatives of Traffic — a survey on the online market availability of tiger products and a comprehensive tiger product consumer survey—to provide a detailed picture of the use of tiger products in the country. The paper also presents the results of focus group testing with key tiger product consumer groups, revealing which images and messages would be most impactful in a campaign to change consumer behaviour. 

At the seminar, Mr. Koen Duchateau, Head of Cooperation and Development, Delegation of the European Union to Vietnam held a speech highlighting the EU’s commitment on environment protection and wildlife conservation in the framework of bilateral cooperation between EU and Viet Nam.

In addition, WCS formally launched the new project Partners against Wildlife Crime. Funded by the European Union (EU), the project is implemented in 7 countries in the region including China, Malaysia, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia, Myanmar and Viet Nam and aims to support and strengthen government actions to combat wildlife trafficking and forest crime by leveraging partnerships with non-governmental entities in the disruption of illicit supply chains. PanNature is the project implementation partner of WCS in Vietnam.

The seminar was attended by more than 60 delegates from state management agencies, national and international research and conservation organizations and representatives of many media agencies.

Some pictures from the event: