Competent Vietnamese and Cambodian agencies jointly opened a workshop in the southern province of Tay Ninh on April 27 to share information and discuss measures to combat illegal trade in wildlife in border areas between the two countries.
 |
The two-day event is part of the “Tiger Future: Integrating Conservation into Landscapes” project funded by the World Bank through the Global Environment Fund.
“The workshop will support a number of mechanisms for regional cooperation that are already in place, and strengthen these existing processes to detect and prosecute violations,” said Sulma Warne, Coorinator of the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC’s Greater Mekong Programme.
Two similar workshops will be held for law enforcement officials in Vietnam and Laos in late May.
According to Dr. Ha Cong Tuan, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Administration of Forestry, the illegal wildlife trade is increasingly becoming a regional challenge, requiring countries to work more closely together.
Although both Vietnam and Cambodia have made efforts to halt illegal trade in wildlife on their side of the border, coordination between the two countries has been limited, he stressed.
The most important regional cooperation mechanism in fighting illegal wildlife trade to date is the ASEAN Wildlife Enforcement Network (ASEAN-WEN) with the participation of 10 member states, including Vietnam and Cambodia.
