Not many know about the underground world of wildlife hunters who flit like ghosts through a protected forest in southern Binh Phuoc Province.
The illegal hunters hunt and trap animals in the Tay Cat Tien (Western Cat Tien) forest, slipping the animal out of the wilderness and into the lucrative wildlife market and traditional medicine market.
Tay Cat Tien primeval forest is part of Cat Tien National Park, a biosphere reserve recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 1998.
The 720-square-kilometer park, approximately 150 kilometers north of Ho Chi Minh City, spreads across Dong Nai, Binh Phuoc and Lam Dong provinces. The park protects one of the largest areas of lowland tropical rainforests left in Vietnam.
The Cat Tien National Park is home to a diverse range of plants and animals, including endangered species such as the Javan rhinoceros, the gaur, the wild Asian water buffalo, the white-winged duck and the silvery langur.
A hunter with seven years of experience in the illegal wildlife business said Dong Xoai Market in Dong Xoai, the capital of Binh Phuoc Province, was the southeastern region’s trap trading center.
The hunter, who did not wish to be identified, said he usually tells his fellow poachers to go to the market and buy traps, guns and other devices before going on a poaching trip.
Hunters usually follow the tracks of wild animals. When they find traces of animals, they set traps every 50 meters, avoiding traps already laid by other hunters. The sheer number of traps laid is why even a 60 kilogram wild boar cannot escape.
Every few days forest wardens arrest hunters, confiscate their poaching devices and fine them. Some hunters even face criminal charges.
But after the poachers are released, they go back to hunting, unable to resist the money that can be made.
“We know it is illegal but we do it for the money,” one hunter said. “It’s just a way to make a living.”
Poachers said most of the animals they trap are sold to wildlife magnates in nearby communes.
According to Cat Tien National Park rangers, they find an average 2,000 traps each month and arrest 150 to 170 poachers each year.
In March alone, forestry protection forces seized more than 280 kilograms of live animals and animal meat during a two-day raid of a Dong Nai Province commune.
The forestry protection officers also discovered dozens of illegal wildlife shops, which have existed for many years, in several communes in Lam Dong Province.
This article is one of the entries submitted to Tuoi Tre newspaper’s “Reportage-Chronicles 2008-2009 Contest”, which is open to all readers, contributors and journalists (except for Tuoi Tre reporters) in Vietnam.
The competition encourages articles on topics that affect people’s lives, such as economics, society, culture and education, unique or interesting human characters or new trends and new events.
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