Wildlife trafficking in Viet Nam: WCS responses Scott Roberton Ph.D Wildlife Conservation Society sroberton@wcs.org / @owstons

Vietnamese citizens are a major part of the problem Vietnamese citizens play a significant role in the illegal trade of rhino horn from Africa into Asia: Hunters-Transporters-Traders-Consumers This is undeniable, based on seizures, arrests, investigations and surveys Vietnamese citizens are a major part of the problem

Elephants are being poached across Africa – leaving the continent from one of the major ports on the east coast, transiting in SEA en route to major demand markets in China and also Thailand

Syndicates exploiting weak land borders as a back-door to China Over 800kg 100-800kg Less 100kg Criminal syndicates exploiting weak land borders as a back-door to China Since 2009 almost 25,000kg Ivory has been seized in NE Vietnam en route to China This is also the point where large shipments of Pangolins from Sumatra and Kalimantan are being intercepted Tigers from illegal breeding farms in lao and Thailand are also being shipped through VN to China at this point The Ch authorities are also finding this is an important entry point for white rhino horns being shipped form Africa, through Laos – and Vietnam en route to Chiense buyers Thai Binh

Monitoring cross-border vehicle traffic Surveillance at six border crossings: Bac Luan International Border Gate Ka Long and Luc Lam Customs Clearance Points ‘Vang Lay’, ‘Co Ngong’, ‘Km1’ Smuggling points All vehicles by hour and vehicle type counted Four trips of non-stop 36-hour surveillance sessions Monitoring cross-border vehicle traffic 33,703 two-way shipments counted International Border Gate: 760, 2% Customs clearance points: 7472, 22% Smuggling points: 25,471, 76%

Brokers trading wildlife are involved in other crimes Article 103 Article 233, 234 Article 190 Article 104 Article 153, 154, 155, 273, 274, 275 Article 251 Article 289 Article 161 Wildlife trader A Regularly smuggles CITES-listed, Decree 32-listed species via an illegal crossing point from Vietnam to China Wildlife trader A and people working for him has threatened law enforcement officers working on the border. His gang uses, transports guns, grenades and tear gas Himself and his employees have beaten up journalists investigating cross-border smuggling at that point that he controls Facilitates the smuggling of women, drugs, petrol, foreign currency, and e-waste Does not pay his taxes Uses money obtained through his smuggling activities to buy property and conduct other business activities Bribes border police officers at KM1

Criminal justice system not effectively addressing the criminal groups in Asia yet 2008-2013 19 rhino horn arrests 1 person jailed Some small fines Many cases still open No additional arrests following interrogation For example, in Vn, WCS has been working with the authorities to promote exactly that, something we are expanding across our programs in Asia. where the limited people actually being arrested are rarely facing a fine or jail term More Vietnamese people are in jail in SA for Rhino horn than in Vietnam There needs to be transparency and objective reporting of this sort of data to allow IOs and govts to analyse enforcement effectiveness Moving past reporting seizures and arrests in reports to measures that inform on enf effectiveness and guide strategies and resource allocations

Is wildlife trade treated as a serious crime? Death Life 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 6mth 3mth Illegal narcotic trade, storage, transport Rape and murder Manufacture/trade of fake medicinal products Cross-border smuggling (non-wildlife) Procuring prostitutes Trafficking in women Particpating in illegal motorbike/car racing Disseminating debauched cultural products Receiving bribe – 500,000 – 10 million Creating computer virus Wildlife trade Tax evasion Org. gambling Gambling Bigamy

Geographic focus: (i) Indo-Burma Trafficking Network Central VN-China Border (ii) Mondulkuri – HCMC Trafficking Network (iii) Policy level

Strengthen national commitments and enforcement capacity to address wildlife trafficking

Strengthen inter-governmental and inter-agency approaches to degrade, disrupt, and dismantle transnational criminal networks Outcome 2a. National mechanisms for collating, analyzing, and sharing information are in place Outcome 2b. Identification of key individuals and trafficking routes and methods Outcome 2c. Agencies legally mandated, sufficiently trained, and empowered to share information and actionable intelligence at multilateral scales Outcome 2d. Multilateral enforcement operations result in the arrest, successful prosecution, and conviction of targeted wildlife criminals along the supply chain and the application of deterrent penalties that degrade trafficking networks

Ensure enabling environment exists at the international policy level to promote and support anti-trafficking objectives Outcome 3a. CITES resolutions, decisions, and listings help reduce trafficking of target species and the illegal wildlife trade more generally Outcome 3b. Multilateral and intergovernmental organizations raise the profile of and take actions to combat wildlife trafficking and the illegal wildlife trade more generally Outcome 3c. Advocacy with key governments results in political attention directed at, funding for, and actions taken to combat wildlife trafficking and the illegal wildlife trace more generally