The South Africa – Viet Nam Rhino Horn Trade Nexus (PDF ... - WWF

situation at the end-use market: viet nam
rEguLATIoN, LAw ENforcEMENT ANd rhINo horN sEIzurEs IN
VIET NAM
Since 2003, the only legal trade in rhino horns coming into Viet Nam has been directly from South
Africa as legitimate sport hunted trophies. According to South African CITES export data, 657 rhino
horns have been legally exported to Viet Nam as hunting trophies from 2003 through 2010. Viet Nam’s
CITES import data acknowledge the import of only 170 rhino horns, indicating that 74% of South
Africa’s total went undeclared at the time of importation (Table 9).
Year No. of rhino horns
imported by Viet
Nam from
South Africa
(Viet Nam CAWT
presentation data)
No. of rhino horns
imported by Viet
Nam from
South Africa
(CITES annual
report data)
No. of rhino horns
exported from
South Africa to Viet
Nam (CITES annual
report data)
Percentage of
South African
exports represented
in Vietnamese
import data (Viet
Nam CAWT presentation
data)
Percentage of
South African
exports represented
in Vietnamese
import data
(CITES annual
report data)
2003 6 10 20 0.30 0.50
2004 0 0 6 0.00 0.00
2005 7 8 24 0.29 0.33
2006 8 12 98 0.08 0.12
2007 42 26 146 0.29 0.18
2008 22 60 96 0.23 0.63
2009 14 26 136 0.10 0.19
2010 20 28 131 0.15 0.21
2011 24 - - - -
Total 143 170 657 0.22 0.26
Table 9 Comparison of South African exports and Viet Nam imports of rhino horns, 2003-2011 (CITES Annual
Report data and Vietnamese government data)
An earlier assessment of CITES annual report data in the TRAFFIC/IUCN rhino report to CITES CoP15,
addressing the period 2006 through 2009, first pointed out the large discrepancy between reported South
African exports of rhino horn trophies to Viet Nam and reported Vietnamese imports of the same commodity,
stating “Viet Nam has received only 38 rhino horns since 2006, indicating that 87% of the South
African trade apparently went undeclared at the time of importation” (Milliken et al., 2009b). It appears that
since that revelation, and despite a range of bilateral rhino initiatives following CITES CoP15, only marginal
improvement has occurred with respect to the Viet Nam government’s tracking of rhino horn
trophies at the time of importation into the country. The most recent data in 2010 suggest that only one
out of five legally exported rhino horns is currently being declared upon importation (Table 9).
The failure to adequately account for legal rhino horn trophies is a serious issue and serves to foster a
legal channel of trade into an otherwise illegal market for rhino horn. Under the CITES provisions that
govern the export of White Rhino C. s. simum trophies, legitimate rhino horn trophies are not eligible
for commercial trade and are to remain non-commercial “personal effects” in perpetuity. To be effective,
however, this condition requires the government of Viet Nam to account for such trophies at the
point of importation and, thereafter, have a mechanism to monitor their ownership once they are
within their country. At CITES CoP15, in March 2010, the government of Viet Nam addressed this issue
in an information document they produced for distribution to the CITES Parties, seeking guidance on
how to regulate sport hunted trophies internally:
Viet Nam would like to suggest to the Secretariat, and to the Parties, the following elements with the
intention of improved management of legal rhino horn trade, and improving law enforcement of any illegal
rhino horn trade:
• Clear guidance or recommendation for Parties regarding management of trophies acquired through legal
trophy-hunting after the trophy arrives in the country of import; without guidance on an appropriate
legal mechanism from CITES, it is difficult for Viet Nam to interpret or formulate appropriate national
regulations;
• The Management Authority of the exporting country should advise the Management Authority of the
importing country the identity of the person who applies for any hunting permit before issuing a hunting
permit, and any resultant export permit. As soon as possible following the issuance of the export
permit, the Management Authority in the country of export should inform the Management Authority
of the designated country of import (CITES, 2010b).
Since then officials from Viet Nam’s CITES Management Authority have outlined procedures for
legally importing rhino horn trophies into the country, including the submission of CITES export
permits, hunting documents, copies of passports and residence certificates (Tung, 2011; see section
Legislation regulating wildlife trade in Viet Nam). These procedures also reportedly stipulate that hunting
trophies are not allowed for sale and legal importation results in taxation at the rate of three per
cent of the trophy’s value calculated at USD25 000 per kg (Tung, 2011). As shown in Table 9, Viet
Nam’s CITES import data suggests that rhino horn importers are failing to declare most legal rhino
horns moving into the country, thus calling the effective implementation of this policy into question.
Further, it suggests that the government is losing millions of dollars in tax revenues each year.
For example, if the 657 rhino horns that have been legally exported from South Africa each weighed
4.0 kg per horn, an average horn weight figure commonly used for White Rhino (Martin, 1983), and
were all declared and taxed, the Vietnamese government would have earned nearly USD2 million in
tax revenue over this period. The amount of tax revenue actually generated in Viet Nam from rhino
horn trophies since this policy took effect remains unknown, but it is certainly a small fraction of
this figure.
Further, little is known about what actually happens to rhino horn trophies once they are imported
into Viet Nam. Addressing the second bullet point above, South Africa’s CITES Management
Authority has, since 2010, instigated a policy to send their Vietnamese counterparts the information
contained in all CITES export permits which have been issued for rhino horn exports to Viet Nam.
That said, there is little evidence to suggest that the Viet Nam government has moved forward to
develop a coherent monitoring protocol and regulatory framework for ensuring strict compliance
with the CITES requirement for legitimate rhino horn trophies to remain beyond the reach of commercial
markets. In September 2011, one Forest Protection Department official described to TRAFFIC
their first attempt to track a single rhino horn trophy that had previously been imported from South
Africa to an address in Ho Chi Minh City. Apparently the importer was duly located at the address on
the import document but was unable to produce the rhino horns in question, claiming that it had
been taken to another family home in a province hundreds of kilometres to the north. It was then
reported that, at considerable expense, Forest Protection Department officials subsequently made a
follow-on attempt to visit this new location and view the horn trophy, only to be told upon arrival
that it had been removed to yet another location in the custody of a sick uncle. The described “wild
goose chase” scenario apparently never resulted in the rhino horn trophy being produced and was
offered as an example of Viet Nam’s difficulties in monitoring the possession of rhino horns once
they have been legally imported into the country.
At this time, it is not clear whether any of the responsible Vietnamese authorities have made any additional
attempts to track the existence of previously imported rhino horns into their country, although
it is evident that South African authorities are periodically providing permit information concerning
the importers of legal rhino horn trophies to Viet Nam’s CITES Management Authority. South Africa’s
Minister of Water and Environmental Affairs Edna Molewa addressed this issue in a Minister’s statement
to the press on 29 March 2012 stating:
In January, we indicated that the Department of Environmental Affairs will pursue a halt to the issuance
of hunting permits to hunters coming from countries that do not have appropriate legislation to
monitor whether the trophy is used for the purpose as reflected on the permits. In tandem with that decision
and as part of our wider engagement with other countries, the Department of Environmental Affairs
is in engagement with the Vietnamese Department of Agriculture and Rural Development on collaborations
aimed at addressing the issue of hunting permits and measures to stop possible abuse of the system.
We have also asked the Vietnamese Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development if they could
conduct inspections and verify that the White Rhinoceros trophies exported from South Africa to
Vietnam are still in the possession of the hunters (Modise, 2012).
138 the south africa – viet nam rhino horn trade nexus TRAFFIC 139