The Viet Nam Central Committee of Communications and Education strengthens the country’s role in wildlife protection
Ha Noi, 19 June 2015 – Continuing their strategic partnership, the Central Committee of Communications and Education (CCCE) and TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network, signed a strategic Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) today to reduce demand for illegally traded wildlife products in Viet Nam through training and awareness raising activities for officers, business people, and the public.
“With the responsibility to advise the Communist Party of Viet Nam (CPV) in directing communications activities to implement CPV’s resolutions, CCCE wishes to inform Vietnamese people and international communities of Viet Nam’s role in wildlife protection,” said Mr. Bui The Duc, Deputy Director of CCCE. “By addressing illegal and unsustainable wildlife trade and consumption through the implementation of joint activities, CCCE and TRAFFIC will contribute to the conservation of nature for the sustainable development of Viet Nam.”
TRAFFIC will organize exhibitions and training sessions to disseminate messages about reducing demand for illegal wildlife products such as rhino horn. These training sessions will build capacity for communications officers from different cities and provinces in behaviour change and awareness raising techniques.
CCCE will liaise with the Ministry of Transport to roll out a number of communications initiatives in Noi Bai Airport to encourage passengers to renounce the consumption of products from endangered wildlife species through messages presented in exhibition centers, billboards, LCD and posters.
“One of Viet Nam’s busiest airports, Noi Bai is a major transit site for illegal wildlife products, as we have seen with the large number of seizures by Customs officials,” said Ms. Madelon Willemsen, Head of Office for TRAFFIC in Viet Nam. “With the high volume of visitors and these kinds of goods moving through this airport, it is an opportune place to prevent illegal wildlife trade through both law enforcement and public education designed to change travelers’ behaviour and attitudes about rhino horn consumption.”
The initiatives in this joint campaign are aligned with TRAFFIC’s on-going “Strength of Will” campaign, which is based on the Vietnamese concept of “Chi,” the power that lies within. The Chi Campaign promotes the idea that success, respect and good fortune flow from an individual’s internal strength of will, not from a piece of horn.
Notes:
Update: A key output will be a highly-targeted social marketing campaign about illegal wildlife trafficking to be rolled out in Ha Noi's Noi Bai International Airport. It was given the go-ahead by the Minister of Transport the same week as the MoU signing was completed.
