Proceedings of the International Cyanide Detection Testing Workshop

in Vietnam now and requires more effort and
resources to resolve.
At the district/local level, sub-offices of
DAREP placed in local areas can be active in
the fi eld. However, these offi ces have limited
human resources and enforcement capacity.
At the provincial level, fi shery inspectors are
the key law enforcers, however most of them
are educated in terms of technical domain but
lack an understanding of law enforcement.
Additionally human resources are limited,
with each province commonly allocated 5-10
fi sheries inspectors. The equipment/vehicles
supporting enforcement process are poor and
less invested (only 1-2 boats per province for
fi shery enforcement). Patrol boats are mostly
improved fi shing vessels with weak engine
meanwhile violators’ boats are quite speedy
and mobile. The fi eld allowance for fi sheries
inspectors, paid on top of salary for work in
the fi eld is quite low (range 10,000-15,000
VND/inspector/day (less than $1 USD)).
Fines associated with the illegal use of
destructive fi shing methods, declared in 2005,
are detailed in Table 1. Despite these fi nes,
cyanide fi shing remains a widespread problem
in Vietnam, where the laws have been diffi cult
to enforce (Burke et al., 2002), as is the case
elsewhere is south-east Asia.
The fi nes related to destructive fi shing are not
in line with the authority of inspectors and are
impractical to apply in the fi eld. The lowest
fine likely to be applied to cyanide fi shing
is 3 million VND but at the local/district
level fishery inspectors are limited to issue
a maximum fi ne of 200,000 VND (Article
38 of Ordinance 44/2002/PL-UBTVQH10
). That means that only the provincial level
inspectors, engaged specifically in
management and political fi eld, are capable
of issuing the full scope of fi nes. Inspectors
in some cases do not follow the correct rate
of fi nes or procedures in fi ning. The fi nes and
cases may also not be reported.
There is a lack of awareness of fi shers who
largely have a poor education, pressures from
increasing subsistence and poor access to
alternative livelihoods.
During dialogues with community members
in MCD’s project sites in the Red River Delta
Table 1: Fines associated with illegal destructive fi shing practises in Vietnam promulgated in 2005
Violation Fine (VND) Fine (USD) Article*
Use of a net with mesh smaller than
regulation
200,000 - 300,000 6 – 20 10.2(b)
Chemical fi shing (or storing chemicals
onboard a fi shing vessel)
3,000,000 - 5,000,000 200 - 300 10.5(a)
Electro fi shing
1,000,000 - 6,000,000
depending on engine capacity
60 - 375 10.6(a) – (c)
Explosive fi shing (or storing explosives on
board a fi shing vessel)
5,000,000 - 10,000,000 300 - 625 10.9
Additional sanctions include the confi scation of gear, catch and the destruction of equipment. 11
* Decree No. 128/20051ND-CP of October 11, 2005, Providing for sanctioning of administrative violations in
the fi sheries domain.
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