(VN) TRAFFIC conducts wildife enforcement training in Viet Nam

[Guest guest]

*http://vietnamnews.vnagency.com.vn/showarticle.php?num=02ENV251109*

*Environmental conference aims to protect rare species*

 

(25-11-2009)

 

HA NOI — More than two dozens of Viet Nam’s environmental police gather this

week in Ha Noi for four days of training on wildlife trade enforcement.

 

The training, led by German CITES experts, will focus on the regulations,

implementation and enforcement of CITES (the Convention on International

Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), the primary

international agreement regulating trade in wildlife and wildlife products.

 

The workshop is one of two being conducted by the Greater Mekong office of

TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, in co-operation with the

German CITES Management Authority.

 

The training will be held in Ha Noi for environmental officers from northern

Viet Nam, while the second will take place on November 30 to December 3 in

HCM City for officers from southern provinces.

 

Both workshops are sponsored by the German Ministry for Environment and the

Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BFN) and will include a field trip

to nearby wildlife centres and farms to give trainees hands-on experience in

animal identification and CITES compliance.

 

In Viet Nam, as in other parts of Southeast Asia, the illicit wildlife trade

has pushed species such as tigers, Asian elephants, Javan rhinoceros and

hawksbill turtles to the brink of extinction, and caused a sharp decline in

wild populations of many others.

 

Although relatively new, the Department of Environmental Police has shown an

ever-increasing commitment to ending wildlife trafficking since its

inception in 2007. It has expanded to a force of nearly 1,000 officers

stationed around the country, and has been increasingly more active in

investigating and seizing illegal wildlife products.

 

The growing frequency of wildlife seizures by authorities indicates an

improved understanding of illegal trafficking and CITES regulations, thanks

in part to two previous training sessions conducted by TRAFFIC in 2008.

 

According to Nguyen Dao Ngoc Van, senior project officer with TRAFFIC

Greater Mekong Programme, such results are encouraging for Viet Nam’s CITES

enforcement efforts.

 

" When the environmental police were first created, officers didn’t know

which plants and animals were protected. Now we see the evidence of the

effectiveness of the training in providing the technical skills and

knowledge necessary to monitor and confiscate illegal wildlife, " said Van.

 

The training takes place over the next two weeks and will include an element

of capacity building for the environmental police. A selection of the 50

workshop participants will be taught how to lead their own training sessions

for other officers in their units, thereby ensure the long-term

sustainability of CITES enforcement in Viet Nam.

 

" It is the quickest way for Viet Nam’s environmental police to familiarise

its officers with basic CITES knowledge, " said lead trainer Franz Bohmer,

who has more than two decades experience conducting CITES training. — VNS