Vietnam has banned the import of wildlife and wildlife products to reduce the risk of new pandemics.

Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc issued a directive which bans the import of live wild animals and wildlife products, eliminates wildlife markets, and enforces prohibition on illegal hunting and trade of wild animals including online sales. “The prime minister orders the suspension of imports of wildlife - dead or alive - their eggs…parts or derivatives” said the order released on the Vietnamese government website.

Vietnam is an important destination in Asia for illegal wildlife products, such as pangolin scales, tiger parts and elephant ivory. There have also been previous seizures of rhino horns, believed to have medicinal value. Many wildlife markets operate freely in the Southeast Asian country with existing laws poorly enforced by national authorities. There has also been a rise in online wildlife trade, with images of different animal species uploaded and posted on popular social media platforms such as Facebook and Youtube.

The announcement has been welcomed by conservation groups, who have previously accused the Vietnamese government of failing to stop the flourishing trade in endangered species. The trade in wildlife - both illegal and ‘legal’- is thought to be a billion-dollar industry, with animals purchased not only for food and traditional medicinal, but also as pets or status symbols.

Phuong Tham, country director for the Humane Society International Vietnam commented on the directive: -

“The existence of wildlife markets in many locations has been a big problem in Vietnam for a long time…This rapacious appetite for wildlife is endangering not just these species’ survival, but as we have seen with the coronavirus outbreak, it is endangering people’s lives too. So this ban can’t come soon enough.”

However, Nguyen Van Thai, director of Save Vietnam’s Wildlife believes that the ban does not go far enough: -

“The wildlife consumption ban mentioned in the directive is insufficient as some uses of wildlife such as medicinal use or wild animals being kept as pets are not covered.”

The origins of the current Covid-19 pandemic are thought to lie in the wildlife trade, with the disease emerging in bats and jumping to people via an intermediary source, yet to be identified, which could include rats, civet cats and pangolins. The United Nation’s biodiversity chief, Elizabeth Maruma Mrema, has called for countries to ban wildlife markets, which are seen by many to be a driver of zoonotic diseases.

Main resource: BBC