US Ambassador to Vietnam Ted Osius announced the project at a round-table talk on innovative partnership in fighting illegal wildlife trade held in Hanoi on November 18.
The project will be implemented over five years with the goal of reducing the consumption demand for illegal wildlife products and enhance law enforcement and judgment capacity in dealing with wildlife-related crimes.
It will also help with perfecting Vietnam’s legal framework for fighting wildlife-related crimes.
Global crimes related to wildlife are growing rapidly and have reached crisis level at the moment. At the present rate, many experts predicted that some species such as rhinoceros, elephants and tigers will disappear from the planet in the next decade.
The illegal trade of wildlife species has grown transnational, threatening national security and creating conditions for the spread of infectious diseases.
