On December 13, 2022, the Wildlife Conservation Society - Viet Nam program (WCS Viet Nam) organized a 2022 review meeting, and partnership building and planning for 2023 with the participation of more than 30 delegates, who are representatives from WCS’s partners, including wildlife conservation authorities, law enforcement and judicial agencies, law and financial training and research institutions, and judiciary’s media agencies that have been and will be working closely with WCS Viet Nam in the combat against wildlife trafficking. The meeting was conducted within the framework of the project “Combating Wildlife Trafficking in Viet Nam” funded by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), United States Department of State.
Group photo of all participants at the event, Khanh Hoa, December 2022
With the support and collaboration of those partners, in 2022 (as of November 2022), WCS successfully organized 29 training courses, seminars and workshops with the participation of a total of 1404 officials in different sectors and students coming from 34 provinces across Viet Nam. The content of these events focused on some technical aspects that support the investigation, prosecution and conviction of wildlife crimes, and handling wildlife-related violations, (such as collecting and analyzing open-source intelligence; exploiting and using digital evidence, financial investigation, criminal procedures for handling wildlife cases, developing wildlife case law, etc.). In addition, the activities of WCS in the past year only contributed to expanding the understanding of the partners and relevant stakeholders about the risks of other legal violations associated with illegal wildlife trade activities such as money laundering, illegal wildlife transport on sea routes; law violations in cyberspace; but also promoting cooperation, exchange and sharing of international experiences with a number of countries concerned (Ministry of Public Security and Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of Laos, CITES MA of Nigeria, Attorney General’s Office of Angola and Mozambique, University of Portsmouth, United for Wildlife, South African Anti-Money Laundering Integrated Task Force and Directorate for Investigation of Prioritized Crimes).
WCS and partners discussed on future activities, Khanh Hoa, December 2022
At the partnership meeting, WCS also shared the planning of activities for 2023 as well as listened to ideas and acknowledged contributions from partners to improve and continue to implement collaborative activities with the goal of enhancing the effectiveness of preventing and combating wildlife trade in VietNam.