One of the challenges in Vietnam’s efforts to combat wildlife trafficking is weak coordination among relevant enforcement agencies at the provincial level. To help address this, in 2019, 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 interagency protocol for coordination of wildlife law enforcement agencies. On October 27, USAID Saving Species organized a one-year review of its implementation, which was attended by 68 representatives from Lao Cai Department of Agriculture and Rural Development, USAID, Vietnam CITES Management Authority, and related provincial enforcement agencies. Since the protocol’s approval in June 2019, out of the 140 cases detected by various legal enforcement agencies in Lao Cai, they collaborated on 12 wildlife crime cases, which led to the rescue of 48 wildlife animals and their release back into the forest or transfer to a wildlife rescue center in Lao Cai’s Hoang Lien National Park.

So What? Lao Cai’s USAID-supported provincial interagency protocol for effective coordination on wildlife crime supports Vietnam’s journey to self-reliance by improving its regulatory frameworks to reduce and prosecute transnational environmental crimes, and aligns with the Indo-Pacific Vision.