Vietnam halfway there to curbing illegal bear trade

On the side-lines of the Hanoi Conference on Illegal Wldlife Trade, Madelon Willemsen, head of TRAFFIC in Vietnam, talked to VIR about the survey’s results and implications and what the government may do to minimise illegal bear trade.

Do you have specific data on the trading activities around fresh bear bile and bear gall bladder?

The most common form of bear bile products available is raw bile, reportedly sourced from Vietnamese bear farms. Powdered, pills or flake products were uncommon in the surveyed outlets. In 2012, the majority of these outlets and bear farms reported a stable or decreasing trade in bear bile products.

Despite all this, while the price of farmed raw bear bile decreased in 2012 in comparison with the 2010-2011 TRAFFIC survey, the price went up again in 2016 in spite of consumers considering this product to be low quality and or fake, and showing low demand.

Bear parts and bear bile products, including raw bear bile of a purportedly wild origin, carry a significant premium. It is likely that the trade in these products is increasingly lucrative. Wild bear parts and products were reportedly obtained from the Lao PDR, Russia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

How does bear farming threaten the population of wild bears?

Bear farming in Vietnam is very likely to have exacerbated the threats to wild bear populations in Southeast Asia, creating a network of facilities where it is relatively easy to launder bears caught in the wild.

With the apparently limited demand for farmed raw bear bile in Vietnam, bear farmers are very likely turn to trading bear parts from both farmed and wild sources, such as paws and bones and whole gall bladders, as these are considerably more profitable.

In support of the evidence collected during this investigation, the Vietnamese media are reporting that bears on farms are being deliberately neglected or killed off, to have their body parts sold.

Bear farms, while facilitating the trade in live wild bears, are now also acting as a source for the illegal trade in bear parts. With 1,000+ bears still in captivity on Vietnamese bile farms, this is a significant wildlife trade issue and is an urgent threat that needs addressing.

Improved monitoring of farms, as well as the prompt confiscation of live bears from owners found in violation of national laws, specifically Decision No.95 QD/2008/BNN-KL, needs to be urgently implemented. Stricter and more publicised supervision of the disposal of bears that perish on bear farms is needed to kepp their parts from entering the trade.

Do you have specific recommendations on the supporting policies that you would like passed on to the state management agencies?

Currently, the Vietnam Administration of Forestry and Animals Asia are drafting an MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) outlining a road map” to end all bear farming in Vietnam by 2020. This road map should provide a plan of action to close the gaps in the legal and policy frameworks as they exist at the moment. To this end, the following items should be considered by the Vietnamese government and its NGO partners:

First, as a signatory to CITES, Vietnam has an obligation to implement CITES Resolution Conf. 10.8 on the Conservation of and Trade in Bears. Key recommendations in the resolution call for the improvement of legislation and enforcement of control over illegal export and import activities of bear parts and derivatives.

Second, the Ministry of Health and the Administration of Traditional Medicine Management should provide leadership and issue a directive abolishing the use of bears and other endangered species, their parts, and derivatives in traditional medicine. All references to bear products and other endangered species in the Traditional Medicine Pharmacopeia authorised by the Vietnamese government need to be deleted in accordance with national and international laws and regulations.

Vietnam’s bear keeping regulation (Decision No.95 QD/2008/BNN-KL) should be amended to include tenets on the welfare of farm bears. If bear farm owners can no longer afford to keep their animals because of the declining market for raw bear bile, then these animals should be transferred to rescue centres as soon as possible and the welfare of the animals in the interim monitored closely. This is to avoid situations where owners leave their bears to die through neglect and then illegally sell off the parts.

Other countries within the ranges of the Asiatic Black Bear and Sun Bear are currently expanding or establishing bear farms. Some of these wildlife farming initiatives receive backing from national governments and are incorporated into the policy and strategy documents of government departments mandated to conserve wildlife.

Both non-governmental and governmental stakeholders who are engaged in developing national policies and legislation should recognise that wildlife farming in Asia does not support conservation and should be actively discouraging it.

As a key player in the ASEAN bloc, Vietnam has a clear role to dissuade its regional partners from adopting bear farming as a conservation strategy by disseminating information and publishing reports on the on-going efforts to restrict illegal trade in the country.