A Green Criminological Exploration of Illegal Wildlife Trade in Vietnam

Viet Nam harbors a high level of biological diversity in the world. However, Viet Nam is also known as one of the countries having a high demand of biological resource use in Asia. The illegal trade and consumption of wildlife products have become a major threat to the biodiversity. The consequences of unsustainable use in recent decades have led to a rapid population decline many animal and plant species particularly endangered species and many species are now facing extinction. A total of 179 species of animals and 94 species of plants was listed in the governmental decree as endangered and with a high priority of conservation concern.. A number of large mammals or flagship species have become extinct or their populations have been severely declined due to overexploitation and illegal collecting, for example: Javan Rhinoceros (extinct), Indochinese Tiger, Gray Gaur, Wild Buffalo, Golden Deer, and Eld’s Deer. Viet Nam has also known as an important hub and hotspot in Southeast Asia for the consumption of plant and wildlife products, and transit point for the illegal wildlife trade in Asia. Thousands of wildlife animals (more than 20, 000 tons per year) have been exploited and consumed for traditional medicine or trade purposes in Viet Nam. This article focuses on the challenges of prosecution and crimes relating to wildlife trade in Viet Nam. It also provides an analytical framework for assessing the impact of wildlife trade and criminal status relating to wildlife in Viet Nam on conservation and local livelihoods.

Vietnam is home to four species of otters, and while population numbers are unknown, they are thought to be rare and in decline. Studies on the illegal otter trade in Asia have shown Vietnam to be a key end use destination for illegally sourced live otters for the pet trade and otter fur for the fashion industry. This study focused on the otter trade in Vietnam through seizure data analysis and an online survey, revealing the persistent trade of otters in Vietnam in violation of national wildlife laws and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). We found a substantial quantity of otter fur products for sale though CITES permits for such products were lacking, indicating illegal origins. Similarly, all four species of otters are protected in Vietnam, yet they were openly available for sale online in violation of national wildlife laws. Clearly, the online trade of wildlife and wildlife products in Vietnam requires greater monitoring, regulation, and enforcement to prevent the advertising and trade of illicit wildlife. In-depth scrutiny of online sellers and product sourcing is particularly warranted. To support enforcement efforts, revision of policies and laws is needed to hold social media and other online advertising companies accountable for enabling the illegal trade of wildlife.

Use of the internet as a trade platform has resulted in a shift in the illegal wildlife trade. Increased scrutiny of illegal wildlife trade has led to concerns that online trade of wildlife will move onto the dark web. To provide a baseline of illegal wildlife trade on the dark web, we downloaded and archived 9852 items (individual posts) from the dark web, then searched these based on a list of 121 keywords associated with illegal online wildlife trade, including 30 keywords associated with illegally traded elephant ivory on the surface web. Results were compared with items known to be illegally traded on the dark web, specifically cannabis, cocaine, and heroin, to compare the extent of the trade. Of these 121 keywords, 4 resulted in hits, of which only one was potentially linked to illegal wildlife trade. This sole case was the sale and discussion of Echinopsis pachanoi (San Pedro cactus), which has hallucinogenic properties. This negligible level of activity related to the illegal trade of wildlife on the dark web relative to the open and increasing trade on the surface web may indicate a lack of successful enforcement against illegal wildlife trade on the surface web.

Having improved knowledge on global, regional and/or national trends in illegal wildlife trade is required to develop effective combating strategies. In this paper, nine years (2011–2019) data on illegal wildlife trade and trafficking (iwt) seizure records were used to explore trends in iwt activities in Ethiopia and to identify countries involved most in the iwt. Trends of iwt activities were assessed in two indicators: as relative transaction index (ti), and as relative weight index (for ivory [wi]) or as relative number of items for ivory and other wildlife products [ni]. To account for potential yearly variations in seizure rates, proxy variables to law enforcement efforts and effectiveness were used and predictive models that produced bias-adjusted estimates of relative trends in iwt activities were built. To explore the underlying reasons for the trend observed, relevant national officers were also interviewed to assess how well has been wildlife law enforcement working in combatting iwt in the country. Linear or polynomial regressions, where appropriate, were fitted to the seizure data to establish trends in transaction index over the nine years. A total of 842 incidences of iwt seizure instance reports, involving 18 animal species, were recorded in the country during the nine years period. However, the highest seizure (94%) rate was ivory and ivory products. Our results generally showed declining trends in both ti and wi or ni. The observed trend was also supported by the experts’ opinions and likely reflects the positive impacts of the country’s implementation of its wildlife laws. Other interesting findings of this study were that China represented the single most important destination country and Chinese nationalities were the most traffickers. In conclusion, the results provide detailed evidence to inform national and international decision making on key species implicated in the illegal trade. Similar periodic assessment of the situation of iwt within the country is needed to evaluate effectiveness of the country’s past and present measures and to revise its future combatting policies and strategies.

This report provides data on the logistics, scope, and economics of the illegal trade in wildlife in Vietnam. It analyses the main reasons for the rapid growth in this trade and highlights key failures in the country's attempts to control it. This report recommends that the government should strengthen the capacity of the agencies responsible for fighting the trade and raise their budgets. It also highlights the need to use education to encourage Vietnam people to stop consuming illegal wildlife products. The report concludes that given the scale of the problem, a high level of commitment at all levels of government will be needed to significantly affect the illegal wildlife trade in Vietnam.

Key messages Wildlife farming generates significant earnings for many households in many provinces, and creates employment opportunities for the rural workforce. The fact that many households in many provinces depend on wildlife farming as their main source of income also creates major challenges for wildlife conservation and management. Diversifying and developing sustainable local livelihoods and economic growth are essential for local well-being and for effective wildlife conservation and management. Developing a holistic approach is essential for addressing illegal wildlife trading and ensuring sustainable legal wildlife farming. Although research and efforts to document and analyze the economic value of wildlife farming and trading have increased, available data are often outdated and based on small sample sizes from limited numbers of study sites. A well-functioning, transparent and accountable monitoring and evaluation system together with financial support for research on legal and illegal wildlife trading, especially in the context of Covid-19, are essential for effective wildlife conservation in Vietnam.

Humans have been exploiting natural ecosystems and their resources, driving many species to extinction at the expense of global human health, the welfare of wild animals, and the integrity of Earth’s ecosystems. Research has shown that the illegal international wildlife trade is of particular interest because it poses a serious threat to global health, biodiversity, conservation efforts, animal welfare, international relations, and biosecurity due to its clandestine and unregulated nature. Trafficked wild animals and wildlife products are moving between source and demand regions in the Americas, Africa, Asia and Europe. Despite a common misconception that consumers are primarily located in Asian countries, the EU is a major destination for legal and illegal wildlife trade, and certain EU countries function as transit points for illegal wildlife trafficking. Like Europe, the Middle East, including Türkiye, serves as a key transit hub for wildlife trafficking from Africa to Asia, yet no peer-reviewed studies assess Türkiye’s role in these networks. Motivated by the seizure of a baby gorilla at Istanbul Airport on December 22, 2024, this study aims to identify and analyze international illegal wildlife trade involving Türkiye. This study collated publicly available data sources, revealing 55 international wildlife trafficking seizure records involving Türkiye between 2011 and 2022. The seizure records were composed of mammals (64%, 35 records), reptiles (20%, 11 records), birds (7%, 4 records) and other species (9%, 5 records). A total of 34 countries were identified as countries of origin, transit, or destination in wildlife trafficking routes involving seizures where Türkiye served as either an origin, transit, or destination country between 2011 and 2022. The data indicate that international wildlife traffickers use Türkiye predominantly as a transit hub connecting Africa with both Asia and Europe, particularly for the trafficking of ivory, rhino horn and pangolin scales between 2011 and 2022. Total quantities of items trafficked during this period were 3,156 kg and 226 pieces of elephant ivory, 176 kg and 34 rhino horns, and 6,566 kg of pangolin scales. The variety of trafficked items, including live animals such as tortoises and African grey parrots through to rare instances like an infant gorilla, underscores the complexity of the illegal wildlife trade. National authorities’ commitment to law enforcement is evident from the seizures identified. The study offers practical recommendations to disrupt trafficking networks, improve data collection, and curb demand in consumer markets. By guiding policymakers, conservationists, and authorities, the study fosters international cooperation, optimal resource use, and endangered species protection. International wildlife trafficking can occur when detection and law enforcement measures fail in both the countries of origin and destination, and, where relevant, in transit countries, showing the necessity for governments worldwide to make the international illegal wildlife trade a priority.

Over hunting and over trade in wildlife and its products are big challenges to biodiversity conservation throughout the world. Globally, the trade in tiger bone and rhinoceros horn, illegal trade in live wildlife in Southeast Asia, trade in wildlife products in Russian Far East and across Sino Russia border, tropical bush meat hunting and trade, and illegal trade in wildlife products in Himalayan region, are increasingly threatening wildlife resources in the world. Advocating hunting sustainability is one of the approaches to resolving the problems of over hunting and over trade. In models for hunting sustainability, “the model of game refugia” and “the spatial control approach” which suggest to set aside reserves in hunted areas, will have good prospects in conservation practice. The future directions in conservation related to game hunting and wildlife trade include: to understand poaching dynamics and characteristic and its effects on populations of endangered animals, to harmonize relationship between traditional medicine and wildlife conservation, to control illegal hunting and illegal trade in wildlife and its products across border between countries and to apply hunting sustainability models in conservation practice. The over hunting and over trade in wildlife and its products have seriously threatened China′s biodiversity and its sustainable use, but little information related is available. It is needed for establishing the working agency for monitoring wildlife hunting and wildlife trade, and improving legislation and its enforcement for conservation related and management of nature reserves, and strengthening research on wildlife hunting and wildlife trade in China.

China is one of the largest consumer markets in the international legal and illegal wildlife trade. An increasing demand for wildlife and wildlife products is threatening biodiversity, both within China and in other countries where wildlife destined for the Chinese market is being sourced. We analysed official data on legal imports of CITES-listed species in five vertebrate classes (mammals, reptiles, amphibians, birds and fish), and on enforcement seizures of illegally traded wildlife, during 1997–2016. This is the first study that collates and analyses publicly available data on China's legal and illegal wildlife trade and considers a broad range of species. Specifically, we estimated the scale and scope of the legal and illegal wildlife trade, quantified the diversity of species involved, and identified the major trading partners, hotspots and routes associated with illegal trade. Our findings show that substantial quantities of wildlife have been extracted globally for the Chinese market: during 1997–2016 over 11.5 million whole-organism equivalents and 5 million kg of derivatives of legally traded wildlife, plus over 130,000 illegally traded animals (alive and dead) and a substantial amount of animal body parts and products, were imported into China. Although measures to reduce demand and alleviate poverty are crucial to curb unsustainable and illegal wildlife trade in the longer term, China's wildlife regulators and enforcers must take urgent measures to disrupt the supply chains from source to market.

This study looks at the environmental impact of the illegal trade in the world's fourth largest wildlife and aims to combat it. By setting two project objectives, namely strengthening law enforcement and enhancing community economic capacity, with the government as the focus client. In the data processing stage, the government of Vietnam was identified as the target client by assigning weights using the Analytical Hierarchy Processing (AHP) and entropy weighting methods and combining the weights through the Minimum Information Entropy (MIE) and Lagrange Multiplier (LM) methods. In terms of project impact quantification, an intervention analysis model is introduced to establish the ARMI-Intervention-SVR series of models, and the PSO algorithm is used to find the best fitting parameters of the SVR model to improve the model performance. After combining the intervention prediction models, it was concluded that the impact of the Vietnam project on the five-year transaction volume of illegal wildlife trade was 31.22 per cent, 28.87 per cent, 18.25 per cent, 13.77 per cent and 12.31 per cent, respectively. These results provide an important reference for effectively combating illegal wildlife trade and are of practical significance.

International trade in endangered species: the challenges and successes of the 17th conference of parties to the convention on international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora (CITES)

In Indonesia, the value of the illegal trade in wildlife reaches more than US one million per year. Apart from being a source country, Indonesia also has a significantly growing home market for illegally traded wildlife as pets, skins, and medicines.The illegal wildlife trade uses various modus operandi, directed by organized criminal groups and carried out by a variety of perpetrators on the ground, often very poor locals from rural communities. Whilst this trading activity is a transnational crime, that is, across national and continental borders, and may use the same supply routes usually associated with other crimes such as weapons, drugs and people trafficking, it is usually only the poachers on the ground who are caught and prosecuted. In summary, universities and their researchers have a significant role in the fight against the illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade, in monitoring wildlife populations and poaching activity, and in changing people's behavior, so that the activities of hunting, trading, or owning protected wildlife become unattractive and unacceptable to all communities. This role draws on disciplines across the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities, encouraging those interdisciplinary behaviours so important for effective environmental management that delivers for the long-term health and well-being of people.

The Himalayan region of China, with its rich biodiversity, used to be important for hunting and collecting of medicinal plants. In the past decades, conservation attitudes and legislation for wildlife conservation have developed rapidly in China. Increasing numbers of species are listed in the state protection list and local protection lists. In the Himalayan region, the area of natural reserves is high accounting for 70% of total area of natural reserves in China. However, wildlife in Himalayan region is suffering from illegal hunting and trade even after China has enforced the China Wildlife Protection Law (CWPL). The illegal wildlife trade and smuggling across Sino-neighbouring country borders and illegal wildlife trade related to domestic use flourish in the region. Although domestic illegal trade has declined in the past ten years, international illegal trade and smuggling continue, and are even expanding, thereby threatening survival of many endangered species such as the Tibetan antelope (Pantholops hodgsoni), Giant panda (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) and Saker Falcon (Falco cherrug). Illegal wildlife trade in the region is attributed to four factors. First, the CWPL is still imperfect, especially concerning illegal trade and smuggling across borders. Second, CWPL is not fully enforced. Third, infrastructure in many nature reserves is undeveloped and human resources are lacking. Fourth, protection is hampered by differences in the laws of neighbouring countries, differences in penalties and in degrees of protection. Furthermore, national legislation is often not fully enforced in areas that are inhabited mainly by tribal and minority communities.

Implementing community-based approaches to countering illegal wildlife trade is important to not only improve the effectiveness of strategies to protect wildlife, but also to promote equity and justice. We conducted an international exploratory review of interventions that aim to address the illegal trade in wildlife using a variety of community-based approaches. We focused our study on Felidae species in particular, as they factor centrally in the illegal wildlife trade, and have received significant conservation attention due to many being charismatic species. We searched for case studies that have been or are currently being implemented, and that were published between 2012-2022 in scholarly or grey literature databases. We extracted data on 40 case studies across 34 countries, including information on the approaches used, successes, challenges, and recommendations using a Theory of Change framework for community action on illegal wildlife trade. Initiatives to protect Felidae species from illegal trade could consider using multi-pronged approaches, consider historically underrepresented groups within communities - including women - in their design, and should evaluate the social and ecological outcomes to improve future efforts.

As one of the earliest countries in the Southeast Asia region, Vietnam joined the CITES in 1994. However, they have faced several challenges and practical barriers to preventing and combating illegal wildlife trade (IWT) after 35 years. This first study systematically reviews 29 English journal articles between 1994 and 2020 to examine and assess the main trends and patterns of the IWT’s concerns in Vietnam. Findings show (1) slow progress of empirical studies, (2) unbalanced authorship between Vietnamese and non-Vietnamese conducting their projects, (3) weighting of wildlife demand consumptions in Vietnamese communities rather than investigating supply networks with high-profile traffickers, (4) lacking research in green and conservation criminology to assess the inside of the IWT, and (5) need to focus on potential harms of zoonotic transmission between a wild animal and human beings. The article also provides current limitations before proposing further research to fill these future gaps.