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HCM CITY — Protecting endangered wildlife in the (Central Highlands) Tay Nguyen is a tough job.

Many of the animals confiscated from illegal traffickers either die or end up on the menu at gourmet restaurants.

The animals are often badly injured by poachers or by the awful conditions in which they are transported, said Tran Van Thieu, deputy director of the Forest Protection Branch (FPB) in the Central Highlands province of Gia Lai.

"We simply don’t have the resources and skills to treat the injuries or look after them properly," he told Viet Nam News.

If the confiscated animals are in good health, the FPB releases them back into the forest.

Those that are wounded or weak are sent to nearby national parks or nature reserves to live in cages.

Once they are fully recovered they can be released back into the wild, he said.

Some species have a higher chance of survival: snakes, tortoises and turtles are quick on the rebound.

But bears, langurs, gaurs, weasels or civets, all of which are hunted heavily, have slimmer chances of seeing life in the wild again.

Thieu believes the problem will not be resolved until a rescue centre is established in the region, providing a semi-wild environment and skilled staff.

The Central Highlands is rich in bio-diversity, with 13 national parks and nature reserves.

It is home to more than 718 fauna species: 105 mammals; 94 reptiles; 48 primates and 375 species of bird. It also has many endangered species.

Local people have already been banned from carrying out slash and burn farming, in a bid to protect the region’s wildlife.

But many of those who don’t own land have just switched to hunting wild animals to sell to illegal traders.

Forest protection officers in Dac Lac Province, which adjoins Gia Lai, have seized more than 3 tonnes of meat and close to 1,000 wild animals since the beginning of this year.

This is more than their entire haul last year.

Elsewhere in the central region, the FPB branch in Nghe An Province has had to deal with six bears seized from hunters since last December.

The bears, two of which were badly injured, were raised at the branch’s Centre for Natural Resources and Environmental Protection.

Branch director Nguyen Tuat Du told Viet Nam News he might have to ask local families to look after four small bears until they are fully grown.

Once they reach maturity they will be released into the Pu Mat Nature Reserve or another suitable environment.

But critics say asking local families to look after endangered species is not the best way forward.

Many families have no idea of how to look after the bears properly, not to mention the problems the bears will face adapting to their natural habitat when they are finally released.

Some observers even fear that the bears will end up as traditional medicine or on the dinner table.

Funding and staffing squeeze

Pham Nhu Bich director of the Soc Son Wildlife Rescue Centre, the only one in Viet Nam, has called for more sustainable and constructive solutions to the problem.

"Ideally, each national park or nature reserve should have a wildlife rescue centre.

"If that is not possible then we need three wildlife rescue centres across the country: one in the north, one in the centre and one in the south."

His rescue centre, about 30km west of Ha Noi, was founded five years ago by the Ha Noi Forest Protection Branch.

With just a vet, a breeder, a biologist and 15 support staff, the centre was quickly overloaded with injured animals sent in from other provinces.

It has an annual budget of just VND300 million (US$20,000) from the Ha Noi Forest Protection Branch, but Bich and the other staff try their best.

The centre is currently looking after 100 turtles rescued from a swamp in the southern province of Ca Mau.

"If we had the money we would have taken the turtles back to Ca Mau, because it is the right environment for them.

"But our colleagues in Ca Mau have been reluctant to come to Ha Noi and collect them."

In the south, HCM City faces its own wildlife trafficking problems.

The city received the green light from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development back in late 1999 to establish a rescue centre.

But a local FPB officer predicted it would not be operational for another five years because of paperwork and land allocation.

Nguyen Van Cuong, deputy director of the Forest Protection Department (FPD) in Ha Noi, which controls the provincial branches, claims the problem of animal protection remains complex.

"It’s not a simple matter to resolve. Two years from now we will be in a position to consider a rescue centre for the Central Highlands. Right now, we still lack both the money and the staff to establish such a facility," he said.

It is a race against time for the animals and those who seek to protect them.

As some conservationists have pointed out, by the time the FPD gets around to funding the centre there may not be any animals left to protect.

The appalling rate of poaching and the animals’ dismal post-confiscation survival rates do not bode well.

Until the protection of these species is given adequate attention and resources, the poor animals will continue to die by the chef’s knife or spend their lives in poorly-equipped rescue centres. — VNS

www.ecologyasia.com

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