Posted on May, 19 2022

“WWF strongly supports the Prime Minister’s Directive 04/CT-TTG and considers it as a timely and practical guidance to conserve wild and migratory birds, reverse biodiversity loss and prevent zoonotic disease risks from wildlife trade and consumption,” Dr. Van Ngoc Thinh, Country Director, WWF-Viet Nam stressed.

The Directive is issued in the context of rampant poaching and consuming of wild and migratory birds in many places throughout Viet Nam, decimating wild and migratory bird populations, adversely impacting biodiversity, and the environment, and posing potential risks of infectious diseases to humans and other organisms. Additionally, the situation affects Viet Nam’s international commitment to biodiversity conservation, and the East Asian-Australasian Flyway Partnership Agreement that Viet Nam is a member of.   

Through the Directive, the Prime Minister asks relevant ministries, organisations, press agencies, provincial and municipal People’s Committees, and socio-political organisations to take urgent, drastic tasks and measures to conserve wild and migratory birds.

Some highlighted tasks and measures are: to complete and issue regulations on wild and migratory bird conservation; coordinate with countries, international organisations to strengthen the protection of wild and migratory birds, set up a monitoring and tracking system for important flyways of migratory birds; strengthen patrols, monitor, arrest and strictly handle violations on hunting, poaching, trading and consuming wild birds; disseminate legal information and raise people’s awareness on wild and migratory bird protection; strictly control the advertising of tools for hunting and trapping wild and migratory birds; strengthen the execution of legal regulations on evaluating and identifying wild and migratory birds to be included in the list of endangered, precious, rare species that are prioritised for protection; ask restaurants and wildlife traders to commit not to buy, use, consume, sell, advertise wildlife specimens without legal origins; terminate markets and venues of wild and migratory birds among others.

“In combination with the timely and practical guidance of the Prime Minister, WWF anxiously waits for the drastic involvement of relevant ministries and agencies in executing the urgent tasks and measures requested by the Prime Minister in the Directive. With such synergy, WWF believes that the hunting, poaching, decimating and destroying habitat of wild and migratory birds will be put under control in the time to come,” Dr. Van Ngoc Thinh added.

Collaborative efforts

The issuance of the Prime Minister’s Directive 04 is a testament to remarkable efforts of different stakeholders, including the undeniable contributions of WWF in the fight against the trafficking of wildlife, wild and migratory birds. We would like to reiterate some of those contributions as follows:

WWF initiated and collaborated with 17 Vietnamese and international non-profit organisations working in nature and wildlife conservation to send a petition to the Prime Minister, asking for specific measures taken to conserve wild and migratory birds. In response to the petition, the Prime Minister asked Ministries of Natural Resources and Environment, Agriculture and Rural Development to promptly revise relevant regulations and define wild and migratory birds as wild animals that need to be protected. Accordingly, wild and migratory birds have been included for protection as endangered, precious, rare species as regulated in amended and revised Decree 06/2019/NĐ-CP and Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). Owing to this, wild bird hunting is basically monitored since restaurants and wildlife traders are required to present proof of legal origins for the trading of wild birds.

The amendment of the Decree 06/2019/NĐ-CP laid the foundation for WWF to support the  Forest Protection Department to revise the Decree 35/2019/NĐ-CP on penalties for administrative violations against regulations on forestry. With the revision, any acts relating to illegally hunting, killing, keeping in captivity, storing, transporting, trading, transporting of wild and migratory birds (not endangered, precious and rare species) are fined up to VND 300 million (for individuals). Not only that, the act of illegally advertising for the illegal trade of wild and migratory birds (not endangered, precious and rare species) are fined between VND1 million and VND1,5 million in accordance with the Article 16 of the amended and revised Decree 35. These amendments are important premises for Long An  People’s Committee to come up with a decision of closing Thach Hoa bird market, which for decades has been selling different kinds of wild birds, including rare species protected by law.

WWF took the initiative to form a network of 50 dedicated, wildlife conservation journalists. After joining the network, they are trained in professional skills, updated knowledge about nature and wildlife conservation, shared experiences and learnt from experienced journalists. WWF also supports these journalists to investigate illegal wildlife trade in different cities and provinces across Viet Nam. Recently, in April 2022, a wild bird journalist group published a series of reportages disclosing repeat and rampant extermination of wild birds in the northern provinces of Ha Nam, Bac Ninh, Phu Tho and Vinh Phuc in Viet Nam. Their stories and pictures serve as proof for authorities to inspect and handle violations, while urging policy makers to revise and amend legal documents in alignment with reality.