![\"Ivory](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/Ivory-bracelets-sold-in-Laos-Golden-Triangle-Special-Economic-Zone.jpg\")
<\/div>Vietnam banned trade in ivory in 1992, but selling specimens produced before this date remained legal, allowing some shopkeepers to pass off recently carved ivory as old stock<\/a>. Meanwhile, much illegal trade continues with impunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During Hong\u2019s visit to Mong Cai, many shoppers appeared to be escorted by guides. \u201cIt was happening in broad daylight right under the noses of the police,\u201d says Hong. The illegal wildlife trade within the tourism industry has \u201cbeen there forever and everyone knows about it,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Although improved policing means arrests<\/a> related to wildlife crime are on the rise in Vietnam, the country\u2019s reputation for patchy law enforcement endures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Mong Cai, for example, is a notorious transit point for moving contraband across the border. After their 2018 trip, CHANGE and WildAid put up billboards and posters in the city, warning that buying, selling or possessing ivory carries a penalty of up to 15 years\u2019 imprisonment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201c[But] it\u2019s not just in the border town of Mong Cai,\u201d says Hong. Wherever tourists flock, the black market in wildlife thrives. \u201cIt\u2019s in Halong Bay, it\u2019s in Nha Trang, it\u2019s everywhere [in Vietnam]. We just don\u2019t have a good chunk of money that we can dedicate to conduct a decent survey,\u201d she adds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Until recently there has been little data on the scale of tourist sector complicity in the illegal wildlife trade in Southeast Asia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Last year, WWF commissioned a survey<\/a> on the ivory consumption of 3,000 Chinese travellers abroad. Respondents answered questions about their pre-pandemic trips to seven countries and territories, including Vietnam and Thailand, between August 2019 and January 2020. Of those who reported having visited a shop which sold ivory, 60% said they were referred there via a local guide, while 37% said tourist information centres had sent them there. In total, 6.8% ended up purchasing an ivory product. More than half (57%) of all respondents who visited an ivory retailer said the salesperson spoke Chinese. The smaller the item, the more convenient it is for a tourist with a limited baggage allowance to travel with, and the more likely a seller will close a deal. Shipping companies and postal services also play a role by facilitating delivery, with 44%<\/a> of customers having their purchase sent to them at home in China by mail, the WWF survey found.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople are smuggling small pieces and customs are basically overlooking it,\u201d said Yoganand Kandasamy, regional lead for wildlife and wildlife crime at WWF Greater Mekong. \u201cIn fact, that\u2019s what shops are marketing: when they sell an object to customers they say \u2018You know, a small piece and nobody will bother you when you\u2019re crossing the border.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He adds: \u201cAn individual buying an item weighing no more than 100 grams doesn\u2019t sound like much. The problem is that we have something like 100 million travellers from mainland China coming to the region (Southeast Asia, as well as Hong Kong and Japan), even if it\u2019s just 10% of visitors buying these products, it adds up.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Many unsuspecting tourists will inevitably be targeted by tour operators and tour guides in Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam. These people work with black-market traders, who are trained to sniff out potential buyers, not least to try and recover earnings lost to Covid lockdowns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cPeople believe that ivory is bought by collectors. The reality is that most ivory is bought by tourists, by travellers \u2013 and it\u2019s being pushed by the tourism industry,\u201d said Wander Meijer, Asia Pacific director at GlobeScan, who conducted the survey on behalf of WWF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It is not just ivory that is marketed to tourists. \u201cItems such as marine turtle combs and fans, small and popular as souvenirs … have always [been] primarily targeted [at] tourists,\u201d said Douglas Hendrie, enforcement director at Education for Nature Vietnam<\/a> (ENV), a non-governmental organisation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n E-commerce and social media help sell illegal wildlife products to tourists in Southeast Asia. Increasingly, tourist-focused businesses across the region are using these platforms to advertise and sell animal parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In the Laos capital of Vientiane, for example, illegal wildlife products are on open display in Sanjiang market, but much of the actual selling takes place online. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey have QR codes you scan to friend them on WeChat. That opens up a whole album of products, which you can buy online through WeChat Pay and they arrange the delivery to your address in China,\u201d says Debbie Banks, tigers and wildlife crime campaign lead for the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA). EIA have documented ivory bracelets, tiger teeth, tiger bone wine, helmeted hornbill casques (\u201cred ivory\u201d), bear bile pills, and rhino horn trinkets for sale in the market. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Digitally savvy sellers have been able to withstand the in-person sales slump caused by Covid-19 better than most.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Hendrie, daily successes in suppressing wildlife crime are not keeping up with sales growth. \u201cWe are essentially throwing sand at an internet tide of sales,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Vietnam, the sale and advertising of tiger parts and products is prohibited by law, but tiger bone \u201cglue\u201d \u2013 a thick paste made by boiling tiger bones with other ingredients \u2013 remains stubbornly popular, marketed as a cure for joint problems and a virility booster. <\/p>\n\n\n\n This too is marketed directly to tourists in Southeast Asia. In a report<\/a> published last year, EIA reproduced adverts from a tour operator and shipping specialist promoting tiger bone glue on its website<\/a> to Vietnamese visitors to Thailand, making clear the operator could organise delivery for buyers. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Another operator advertised<\/a> the opportunity to buy tiger bone glue as a reason to visit a \u201cbutterfly garden\u201d near Bangkok. In a 2019 investigation, EIA documented<\/a> how tourists visiting a retail park in Thailand were presented with sales pitches marketing tiger bone glue. Salespersons told coachloads of tourists, mostly from China and Vietnam, that \u201cGoing to Thailand without buying tiger bone glue is like you haven\u2019t gone [to Thailand]\u201d. This ignores the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna) ban on all international commercial trade in tigers and tiger parts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe know that Thailand caters to Vietnamese tour groups looking to purchase tiger bone traditional medicine. That\u2019s part of the appeal \u2014 the opportunity to purchase \u2018exotic\u2019 products,\u201d says Hendrie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Banks, appetite for tiger products is increasingly endangering other cat species too: \u201cAfrican lion bone, teeth and claws are being sold as tiger; likewise jaguar teeth and claws.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Southeast Asia\u2019s special economic zones, such as the Golden Triangle where the borders of Laos, Myanmar and Thailand meet, and which are popular with tourists, remain \u201ckey hotspots for the illegal wildlife trade\u201d, according to a survey by NGO TRAFFIC<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Certain restaurants have long been known to cater to tourists in search of exotic wild meat, according to Nguyen Van Thai, founding director of Save Vietnam\u2019s Wildlife and recipient<\/a> of this year\u2019s Goldman Environmental Prize for his work to protect pangolins. \u201cWhen people are travelling to remote places, near forests, they want to eat something special from that region, and that often involves bushmeat,\u201d Nguyen told China Dialogue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hong agrees. \u201cBushmeat is a huge issue we are dealing with, with tourists,\u201d she says. \u201cFrom government officials travelling to [rural] provinces on business, to tourists eating civets, pangolins and porcupines, people don\u2019t understand that they are supporting the illegal wildlife trade by consuming these protected species.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Even well-meaning travel guides and websites contribute to the problem by writing about animal-infused wines and other \u201cexotic\u201d local delicacies as a \u201cmust-try\u201d experience for any seasoned world traveller. In many cases, they make no mention of the steep cost to locally endangered wildlife of such experiences. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Could ongoing public health concerns related to the link between zoonotic diseases and wildlife trade offer a chance to change consumer behaviour? Nguyen isn\u2019t convinced: \u201cPeople have been concerned about the health issues regarding eating wild meat since Covid, but people were also concerned before. Sars, HIV, avian influenza \u2013 it\u2019s all related to wildlife consumption.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n There were some promising developments last year. Twenty-one Chinese entities signed a pledge with WWF and the Global Sustainable Tourism Council<\/a> to tackle the interconnected issues of wildlife trafficking, plastic waste and food waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then, in December, 30 representatives from Vietnam\u2019s travel industry committed<\/a> to supporting responsible tourism, including by protecting wildlife. They had been brought together by People and Nature Reconciliation, a Vietnamese NGO, and Vietnam\u2019s Responsible Travel Club.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIvory still draws tourists<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Ivory is also popular among Thai<\/a> and Vietnamese<\/a> consumers. For some middle-class people with growing disposable income, ivory projects wealth and social status. Spiritual beliefs<\/a> also play a part in its appeal. <\/p>\n\n\n\nOnline sales<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Trade in tiger products \u2018out of control\u2019<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"wildlife](\"https:\/\/dialogue.earth\/content\/uploads\/2021\/09\/wildlife-trade-Animal-bone-glue.jpg\")
<\/div>Wildlife restaurants<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
People don\u2019t understand that they are supporting the illegal wildlife trade by consuming these protected species.<\/blockquote>Van Thai, founding director of Save Vietnam\u2019s Wildlife<\/em><\/cite><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
Signs for the future<\/h2>\n\n\n\n