Vietnam is called to abandon of wildlife trade

Leaders of the 14 non-profit nature and wildlife conservation organizations - the World Wildlife Fund (WFF), Animals Asia Foundation, TRAFFIC, Save Vietnam Wildlife, Wildlife Conservation Society, and Pan Nature - collectively urged the government to "identify and close markets and other locations where illegal wildlife is on sale" in an open letter to Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Sunday.

"The lesson from SARS and now Covid-19 are clear: new viruses will continue to move from wildlife to people while illegal wildlife trade and wildlife consumption continue," the collective said.

In addition to closing markets, environmentalists are also asking the government to ban all restaurants that illegally serve wild-meat dishes and oblige all e-commerce platforms, social networks, and online newspapers to “track and remove advertisements for illegal products.”

Trinh Le Nguyen, director of Pan Nature, said the statement had garnered positive response on social media. 

"We hope the government would consider our request and turn it into action, give specific directives to relevant departments to get rid of wildlife trade in Vietnam for good and reduce the risk of spreading disease in future," Nguyen said.