VZCZCXRO6510
OO RUEHAST RUEHDT RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHPB RUEHPOD RUEHTM
DE RUEHHM #1099/01 3650532
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O P 300532Z DEC 08
FM AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 5258
INFO RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC PRIORITY 0103
RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI PRIORITY 3499
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY PRIORITY 5488
RUCNARF/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE
RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE
RUEHC/DEPT OF INTERIOR WASHINGTON DC
RHMFIUU/DEPT OF JUSTICE WASHINGTON DC
RUEAEPA/HQ EPA WASHINGTON DC
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHINGTON DC
RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHINGTON DC

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 HO CHI MINH CITY 001099 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
STATE FOR EAP/MLS, USAID/ANE, EEB/TPP/BTA/ANA, OES/STC, OES/ENRC (SCASWELL AND 
HSUMMERS) 
INTERIOR FOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS (KWASHBURN AND KSENHADJI) 
JUSTICE FOR ENVIRONMENT AND NATURAL RESOURCES (JWEBB) 
USDOC FOR 4431/MAC/AP/OPB/VLC/HPPHO 
USTR FOR BISBEE 
TREASURY FOR CHUN 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ECON ETRD EAGR EIND SENV SOCI PGOV PREL VM
SUBJECT: U.S.-VIETNAM RELATIONS EXPAND TO WILDLIFE PROTECTION AND 
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 
 
REF: A. HANOI 1370  B. HCMC 156  C. HANOI 1402  D. 07 HANOI 1763 
 
HO CHI MIN 00001099  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
¶1. (SBU) Summary.  Wildlife trafficking, the fate of Vietnam's 
premier national park and sustainable development comprised the 
agenda of Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans, Environment 
and Science (OES) Claudia A. McMurray's November 18-22 visit to 
southern Vietnam.  Officials responsible for combating wildlife 
trafficking in Ho Chi Minh City and surrounding provinces told 
Assistant Secretary McMurray that a lack of training, corruption 
and low public awareness hindered enforcement, and acknowledged 
international wildlife NGOs as vital partners in anti-wildlife 
trafficking efforts.  Cat Tien National Park officials described 
the international assistance and public private partnerships 
enlisted to control the logging, poaching, and economic 
development that threatens the park's unique biodiversity.  Lam 
Dong provincial officials praised a United States Agency for 
International Development (USAID)-supported project that trains 
residents of the national park's buffer zone to grow, harvest, 
and then work bamboo into furniture and handicrafts for export, 
reducing both poverty and illegal exploitation of the park's 
resources.  In all her meetings, Assistant Secretary McMurray 
affirmed the USG's commitment to combat wildlife trafficking and 
to strengthen bilateral cooperation to reduce both the demand 
and supply of illegal wildlife products.  (Assistant Secretary 
McMurray's participation in the commencement of the Delta 
Research and Global Observation Network (DRAGON) climate change 
Institute at Can Tho University on November 20 is reported in 
ref A.)  End Summary. 
 
Wildlife on the menu instead of in Customs Bureau database 
--------------------------------------------- ------------- 
¶2. (SBU) In a faded French colonial building on the city's 
waterfront, Assistant Secretary McMurray, accompanied by 
Ambassador Michael Michalak and Consul General Ken Fairfax told 
HCMC Customs Bureau officials that the United States was the 
second largest (after China) consumer of illegal wildlife 
products and that traffickers who exported such products to the 
United States broke both U.S. and Vietnamese laws.  The Bureau 
chief explained that they lack photos or field guides of 
protected wildlife, making seizure of such contraband extremely 
difficult for the Bureau's 1900 personnel.  Training of line 
agents and compilation of an illustrated database of illegally 
trade species are top priorities.  Wryly commenting on both the 
high number of wild game restaurants in the city as well as 
their clientele, he noted that government officials had no 
problems identifying trafficked wildlife, because "all they had 
to do was look down at their plates." 
 
Officials Team up with local NGO to Protect Wildlife 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
¶3. (SBU) HCMC Forest Protection Department (FPD) officials, 
responsible for area forests and wildlife, described their 
limited enforcement powers to Assistant Secretary McMurray and 
highlighted their collaboration with local NGO Wildlife at Risk 
(WAR) as their most successful wildlife protection effort (ref 
B).  The NGO tags (with microchips) and monitors HCMC's over 400 
privately held bears to limit their exploitation for bile or 
other 'bear products', a program the national FPD is taking 
nation wide.  (Comment: However, ref C describes FPD's recent 
reluctance to confiscate illegally held bears in northern 
Vietnam.)  They likewise noted a need for more training for FPD 
rangers and increased public outreach to stem demand for illegal 
wildlife products 
 
¶4. (SBU) Assistant Secretary McMurray agreed on the value of 
public private partnerships (PPPs) and described the 
U.S.-initiated Coalition Against Wildlife Trafficking (CAWT) 
which brings together like-minded governments and NGOs in the 
international fight against wildlife trafficking.  She also 
described a recent OES-sponsored anti-wildlife trafficking 
public service announcement featuring film celebrity Harrison 
Ford, which she offered to share with HCMC officials. 
 
A Haven of Biodiversity at Risk 
------------------------------------- 
¶5. (SBU) Only four hours by car, but a world away from the 
 
HO CHI MIN 00001099  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
polluted congestion of HCMC, Cat Tien National Park (NP) is home 
to some of Vietnam's rarest wildlife, including Siamese 
crocodiles and the world's last five Vietnamese rhinos.  But 
with Vietnam's inflation driving up prices by 30 percent over 
last year, and a poached sambar deer fetching over $100 in wild 
game markets, officials described a park under pressure from 
impoverished residents in surrounding communities.  The park's 
120 FPD rangers combat illegal logging, grazing, and poaching, 
in the process destroying three to four thousand illegal 
wildlife traps and snares in a typical month.  Ironically, 
provincial economic development projects intended to facilitate 
mainstream employment often locate roads, dams and power lines 
in and around the park in ways that harm biodiversity by 
bisecting and flooding wildlife habitat and altering wetland 
hydrology.  While an improved website and better facilities 
attract increasing numbers of foreign tourists to the park, 
outreach efforts to local schoolchildren, vital to the park's 
long term future, falter for lack of funds. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Recently returned from a U.S. Forest Service Protected 
Area Management Seminar at Yellowstone National Park, Park 
Director Tran Van Thanh told the Assistant Secretary he is 
leveraging bureaucratic reforms, international assistance, and 
the expertise of local and international NGOs and wildlife 
researchers to turn the tide.  Recent GVN reforms that placed 
Cat Tien NP (and five more of Vietnam's 27 national parks) 
directly under FPD control have reduced poaching, and the 
prestige of potential UNESCO World Heritage Status for the park 
has increased cooperation from local authorities.  Earlier as 
well as ongoing projects funded by the Netherlands and French 
governments, the World Bank, USAID and the U.S. Fish and 
Wildlife Service have reduced poaching, reforested logged areas, 
and improved habitat for endangered rhinos and wild buffalo. 
 
Public-Private Partnerships Crucial to Park's Survival 
--------------------------------------------- --------- 
¶7. (SBU) Major international environmental organizations such as 
the World Wildlife Fund have supported rhino and primate 
projects in the park, while local and regional NGOs work in the 
park full-time.  WAR has established a bear sanctuary near park 
headquarters and the Endangered Asian Species Trust runs a 
gibbon rehabilitation center where primates rescued from the 
animal trade are prepared for release back into the wild.  Both 
groups plan educational outreach programs at their facilities, 
Assistant Secretary McMurray heard from local officials.  The 
Director of the gibbon center noted that since they began 
collaborating, the FPD have become more assertive in their 
anti-wildlife trafficking efforts, to the point where they now 
"confiscate more trafficked primates than we can accept".  The 
park also hosts international researchers and feeds their 
findings back into resource management.  Currently, a University 
of Colorado Fulbright researcher studying endangered primates 
advises both NGOs and park management on primate preservation 
efforts. So far these various efforts are paying off, and the 
park is holding its own:  while most of Vietnam's national parks 
suffer from 'silent forest syndrome' (ref D), the Assistant 
Secretary spotted various species of deer, wild boar and civet 
cat on a night time jeep safari. 
 
Sustainable Development Reduces Poverty and Poaching 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
¶8. (SBU) In poverty-stricken Lam Dong province adjacent to Cat 
Tien National Park, Assistant Secretary McMurray toured the Hong 
Nhung bamboo furniture and handicrafts factory, one of only two 
larger-scale manufacturing facilities in the 45,000 person Da 
Teh District.  Here 45 workers trained by the U.S. NGO Winrock 
International, many of them former poachers according to the 
factory's owner, fashioned raw bamboo into vases, dishes, and 
furniture for export, including to the U.S. retailer Target. 
Prior to training the workers, the USAID-supported project 
determined the commercial feasibility of bamboo handicrafts 
export, and then provided seed, fertilizer and training to over 
2,000 local residents to grow bamboo, lemon grass and high-value 
hardwoods.  The Da Teh District People's Committee Chairman was 
an enthusiastic convert to sustainable development, noting that 
 
HO CHI MIN 00001099  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
the annual income of $120 per hectare of lemon grass or the $90 
monthly wage paid by the bamboo manufacturer were a lifeline out 
of poverty for the District's forest-dwelling communities. 
 
Comment: 
------- 
¶9. (SBU) A/S McMurray's agenda of wildlife protection and 
sustainable development illustrates the continuing evolution of 
U.S.-Vietnam relations from political and commercial to 
environmental, law enforcement and quality of life issues.  The 
enthusiasm of Da Teh district officials for environmentally 
sustainable development indicates that well-conceived, 
economically viable 'green' projects are feasible even in 
remote, economically-depressed areas not known for progressive 
attitudes.  Continued targeted assistance in wildlife protection 
and sustainable development could have great impact.  Providing 
more working level officials South East Asian Nations Wildlife 
Enforcement Network training would strengthen rule of law and 
increase regional cooperation.  Similarly, public outreach 
grants to the demonstrably capable administration of Cat Tien NP 
would build a local constituency for the park's long-term 
survival.  End Comment. 
 
¶10. (U) This cable was coordinated with Embassy Hanoi. 
FAIRFAX