Vietnam consumer demand reduction

Education for Nature Vietnam (ENV)

ENV’s public awareness campaigns aim to reduce consumption of wildlife by influencing public attitudes and encouraging the public to become actively involved in wildlife protection. ENV also administered species-specific demand reduction programs targeting consumers of bears, tigers, rhinos, pangolins, marine turtles, and endangered primates. For example, one consumer crime campaign initiated in late 2013 (ongoing in 2017) has reduced the advertising and sale of wildlife by an average of 62% at restaurants, traditional medicine shops, bars, and other retail establishments in six major cities of Vietnam. ENV uses a variety of tools to reach the public including producing and airing more than 50 public service announcements for television and radio, hosting high profile events, and working in partnership with our network of more than 638 journalists to get our message out through TV, radio, newspaper, and viral news channels. An ENV Mobile Wildlife Awareness team tours the country undertaking awareness activities to deliver messages directly to stakeholder groups, ranging from university students and urban residents and communities bordering protected areas, to customs officers, police and provincial government leaders. Examples of ENV public service announcements starring celebrities or promoting the reporting of wildlife crime are the following:

· rhino horn – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsw3ED4M4Nk

· bear bile – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FJocBCycWwU

· pangolin crime – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW9RKV_uFTM

Environmental Investigation Agency, UK (EIA)

EIA investigative products on the trade in tigers and their parts and derivatives, profiling individuals and networks involved in this trade, combined with EIA’s analysis of open source information, assists stakeholders to identify relevant consumer groups and to further target their campaigns to reduce consumer demand – see above description in the law enforcement support section.

Freeland

Freelandteams up with Vietnamese government organizations, NGOs, and media companies to conduct social behavior change campaigns to reduce consumption of elephant ivory, pangolin, rhino horn, and big cats in Vietnam. Campaigns are usually conducted with the use of KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) and with the support of local advertising and social media marketing companies to achieve maximum reach and impact. “Fin Free” and “iTHINK” have been run in Vietnam since 2013. iTHINK is a campaign support platform that provides financial and technical assistance to local partner campaigns that strategically engage the audience to join and grow the conversation about wildlife crime, building social pressure on and around the consumer.

Humane Society International (HSI)

HSI has supported the Vietnam CITES Management Authority (VN CITES MA) since 2013 on a government-led rhino horn demand reduction campaign which has reached nearly 35 million people in Vietnam with targeted outreach and engagement efforts in six major cities. In the first three years, the campaign focused on five stakeholder groups: primary school students, university students, the Vietnam Women’s Union, the business community, and the Vietnam Union of Science and Technology Associations. The project is now in its second phase with a focus on high school-aged students. HSI also partnered with the VN CITES MA on producing a series of children’s books and animated cartoon videos that were aimed at reducing demand for parts and products of rhinoceros, elephant, tiger and pangolin in Vietnam. A 16-page book entitled I’m a Little Rhino was written for school children and distributed to 1.5 million school children through cooperation with provincial Departments of Education and Training. Three additional books were created: I’m a Little Pangolin, I’m a Little Elephant, and I’m a Little Tiger. This child-focused element of the campaign takes advantage of the fact that 67.1% of Vietnam households contain a child. The concept is that by educating one child other people in that child’s life will be touched by the campaign messages, and by educating children we ensure that future Vietnamese adults will reject rhino horn trade and use. Cartoon video versions of these books were created and aired on national Vietnamese television at least 100 times each over a four-month period reaching at least 2.6 million people (or approximately 2.74% of the national population), according to the results of a Nielsen survey. In the survey, 100% of those who saw one or more of the videos said that they have no intention of purchasing products derived from the species focused on in the video. Finally, in 2017, HSI, the VN CITES MA, and the Ministry of Education and Training have begun a three-year project to develop and implement a national primary school program on conservation education focused on threatened species, with the goal of reducing demand for illegally traded wild animals.

TRAFFIC

TRAFFIC has been helping improve policies and legislation at the national level, engage public-private partnerships, and drive a suite of interventions to catalyze behavior change efforts with partners to reduce demand in major consumer markets in Southeast Asia and China. TRAFFIC hosts the Wildlife Consumer Behaviour Change Toolkit www.changewildlifeconsumers.org and provides a suite of services for the ‘Demand Reduction Community of Practice’ that uses the Toolkit as an information and coordination hub – services include an element of Webinars, learning and experience exchange events, Expert Roundtables on key topics and Good Practice Guidelines on measuring the impact of behavioral change.

TRAFFIC leads the delivery of the ‘Chi’ initiative, a social marketing campaign aimed at reducing demand for rhino horn in Vietnam.

TRAFFIC is an implementing partner of the USAID Saving Species initiative in Vietnam, and will work to reduce consumer demand for and consumption of illegal wildlife and wildlife products.

United for Wildlife (UfW)

UfW has grown a large and engaged social media community through a variety of digital campaigns and activities aimed at young people across the world. With a growing online community to share news with and raise awareness of illegal wildlife trade, United for Wildlife shares unique content and activities enabling young people to engage with the issue of illegal wildlife trade while learning more about conservation in general.

United for Wildlife has also developed a platform for the delivery of online learning material and provides online courses that enable self-paced learning on a number of general and specialized topics relevant to conservation, including a short course focusing on illegal wildlife trade. At the end of 2016 over 8,500 people from 196 countries had registered on the platform and more than 170,000 people follow the course and its content on social media with marketing focused on the priority countries identified by UfW in regards to consumer markets. The platform won a highly regarded Learning Technologies award in 2016. This course now has Vietnamese translations for the content on illegal wildlife trade.

United for Wildlife further works with the online gaming sector to expand the audience of conservation messaging, with 100,000 downloads of the UfW “We Are The Rangers” Minecraft map, and over 2.6 million YouTube play-throughs. This included content created by popular Minecraft YouTubers in Thailand and initial player generated map events submitted from Vietnam.

UfW also focused specifically on raising awareness of the consequences of the illegal trade in rhino horn amongst consumers in Vietnam. The Duke of Cambridge attended the Hanoi Illegal Wildlife Trade conference in November 2016 and visited the traditional medicine street to engage with practitioners and stakeholders.

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)

The UNDP-supported, GEF-financed project titled “Mainstreaming Natural Resource Management and Biodiversity Conservation objectives into socio-economic development planning and management of Biosphere Reserve in Viet Nam” will include a component on consumer demand reduction. This project will develop and implement awareness raising campaigns on behalf of Biosphere Reserves (BRs), including campaigns at the national level and at the pilot BRs focused on the benefits provided by Biosphere Reserves and their biodiversity and ecosystem services values, and the importance of indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage in natural resource management and socio-economic development; as well as a campaign targeting local communities, the tourism sector, and local decision makers and institutional authorities, on the need for changes in consumption behavior to reduce pressures on biodiversity and ecosystem functions, including the exploitation, use, trade, and transport of wild plants and animals and their products.

United Nations Environment Programme (UN Environment)

UN Environment is helping to coordinate the global ‘Wild For Life Campaign’, including with partners in Vietnam.

USAID Wildlife Asia

USAID Wildlife Asia will reduce consumer demand for wildlife parts and products by communicating, mobilizing and advocating ways to change behaviors and build new social norms around the use of wildlife. Planned activities include communication campaigns using proven social and behavior change communication (SBCC) approaches and technical assistance to strengthen capacity of organizations to use SBCC in planning and implementing demand reduction campaigns. Year 1 activities include conduct of a situational analysis to identify priority consumer segments, demand drivers and influencing factors underlying the purchase and use of wildlife products in China, Thailand and Vietnam; development and preparation for implementation of new campaigns in these three countries; as well as providing support to align existing campaigns with USAID Wildlife Asia messages, and SBCC capacity building of organizations involved in wildlife communication. The USAID Wildlife Asia Activity is implemented by the International Resources Group (IRG) – which is owned by RTI International – with a consortium of organizations and companies including FHI 360, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Freeland and Integra.

WildAid

WildAid conducts consumer demand campaigns targeting rhino horn (commenced 2013) and pangolins (commenced 2016), and will commence an ivory campaign in 2017. The target audience for the campaigns includes medium to high income consumers, business leaders, government officials and policy makers, media influencers. The existing campaigns address the lack of awareness on the trade in rhino horn and pangolins, and the associated poaching crisis; build more pro-conservation attitudes; persuade consumers not to buy the wildlife products, and to support government enforcement efforts. These campaigns use a combination of strategies including press/media outreach/education, celebrity-driven media campaigns (TV PSAs, billboards, print), online and social media campaigns, and briefings and consultations with relevant government agencies. The rhino horn and pangolin campaigns include sub-campaigns involving a wide range of international and Vietnamese celebrities; and the rhino horn initiative has also included prominent doctors and traditional medicine practitioners, and with a substantive communications partnership with the Ho Chi Minh City Health Department. These campaigns will continue their messaging in 2017 and their ongoing activities include for rhino horn a documentary film with national broadcaster VTV featuring popular TV host Phan Anh, and new TV PSAs covering media reports on poaching/ reduced demand, as well as the anticipated new wildlife crime article/ regulations/ offenses/ sentences in the new penal code. This campaign will also assist law enforcement agencies as they communicate seizures, arrests, prosecutions and sentences to highlight the wildlife crime aspect of the rhino horn trade and government enforcement efforts. The pangolin campaign will include a TV PSA and billboard campaign with Jackie Chan, new TV PSAs, billboards/print, media reports on poaching/reduced demand, online and social media, and cooperation with government agencies to strengthen enforcement efforts through increased media exposure and case tracking. The ivory campaign will be initiated in 2017 with new TV PSAs, billboards/print, a documentary film on VTV, online and social media campaigns, and briefings and consultations with relevant government agencies. It will also assist law enforcement agencies as they communicate seizures, arrests, prosecutions and sentences to highlight the wildlife crime aspect of the ivory trade and government enforcement efforts.

World Wildlife Fund (WWF)

WWF Vietnam is leading behavior change efforts in central Vietnam to reduce the consumption of wild meat and other wildlife products. Collaborative work with TRAFFIC has focused on engaging corporates and transportation logistic companies in activities to endorse a culture of zero-tolerance to wildlife consumption, particularly for rhino horn in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City.