Key messages

• Biodiversity and wildlife in Vietnam are under increasing pressure from deforestation and illegal wildlife trading.
• A large number of wildlife conservation policies and projects are already in place. However, their effectiveness is hampered by unclear and inconsistent policies; weak law enforcement, monitoring and evaluation; insufficient funding; challenges in achieving the dual goal of conservation and development; environmental and social justice issues; and problems addressing the drivers of deforestation and degradation.
• Despite the persistence of these challenges, Vietnam has new opportunities to address them by moving away from sectoral silos and promoting One Health and landscape approaches; promoting cross-sectoral and cross-border collaboration in addressing the illegal wildlife trade; adopting timely responses to newly emerging issues such as Covid-19 with mixed policy instruments; embedding wildlife conservation policies in green living and consumption behaviour; and tapping into international, regional and national financial initiatives to close finance gaps.
• Sustainable wildlife conservation in Vietnam requires strengthened transboundary and inter-sectoral stakeholder engagement; a holistic and cross-sectoral approach to addressing underlying drivers of deforestation and degradation; sufficient and sustainable funding; and changing consumers’ behaviour in buying and using wildlife products.

Authors: Pham, T.T.; Phạm, V.T.; Trịnh, T.M.; Cao, N.L.; Nguyễn Thị, T.A.; Nguyễn Thị, V.A.; Tăng Thị, K.H.; Nguyễn, V.T.

Subjects: biodiversity, wildlife conservation, trade, illegal practices, law enforcement, landscape conservation

Publication type: Brief, Publication

Year: 2021

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17528/cifor/008298