WildAct
WildAct is a not-for-profit organisation in Vietnam providing conservation education to motivate and engage local people in protecting threatened species from illegal trade and consumption.
At A Glance
- Programme: Asian Species
- Years Funded: 2022
- Ecosystem Focus: Tropical Forest
- Geographic Focus: Vietnam
- Website: http://www.wildact-vn.org/
WildAct, a local Vietnamese charity, focuses on saving national and international biodiversity from wildlife trafficking. Vietnam’s biodiversity has fallen victim to the wildlife trade, where species such as pangolins, birds, fish, and reptiles like the Chinese three-striped box turtles are being trafficked.
WildAct uses three main programmes, education, community conservation, and workplace gender inequality programmes. To create a new generation of Vietnamese wildlife conservationists partaking in the science-based conservation of threatened species and ecosystems in Hanoi, Vietnam.
Setting up a camera trap. Image: WildAct
Its education programme involves working with local Vietnamese universities to develop a Master’s course in wildlife conservation. This aims to increase the local and national capacity for monitoring trade of endangered wildlife and identifying at-risk species. WildAct also works in local schools in rural communities near nature reserves to offer outdoor education activities and provide books to develop and nurture children’s love for nature. Parents are also engaged in these conservation activities.
WildAct’s second programme, community conservation, aims to actively form a Community Conservation Committee (CCC) and Community Conservation Team (CCT). This is made up of the local community which participate in planning, managing, and implementing conservation projects in areas with threatened biodiversity. This is significant for poorer communities adjacent to that area to have livelihoods which depend on healthy ecosystems, as it is estimated that over twelve million traps are set every year to hunt wildlife in Cambodia, Vietnam, and Lao People’s Democratic Republic (PDR). The CCT and CCC aim to combat this issue in the near future.
A workshop on sexual harassment and response. Image: WildAct
The third program is related to workplace gender inequality. WildAct hopes to develop workplace safety materials regarding gender-based violence for women in conservation as research and empower local women, leaders, organisations and, other members of society to address challenges of gender inequality commonly faced by women in research or wildlife conservation sectors.