One of the challenges in Vietnam’s efforts to combat wildlife trafficking is the weak coordination among relevant enforcement agencies at the provincial level. To help address this, the USAID Saving Species project supported Lao Cai province, which borders China and is on a commonly used route for illegal wildlife trafficking, to develop and launch a provincial inter-agency protocol for coordination of wildlife law enforcement agencies. Right after the protocol launch in June, the inter-agency coordination between rangers, police, and the provincial court resulted in the discovery and prosecution of four cases of trafficked forestry products.

Over the last five years, USAID’s Emerging Pandemic Threats program has collaborated with Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) in Dong Nai Province to identify and mitigate infectious disease threats that arise in animal populations and can spillover to humans. Dong Nai Province has about 1,000 wildlife farms, which poses significant risks of spillover. With USAID support, WCS trained animal health staff in surveillance and laboratory identification of viral threats, and worked with communities and wildlife farmers to reduce exposure risks. WCS also developed tools for predicting the risk of viral spillover, protocols, and training to standardize and increase national capacity in high-quality laboratory testing.