Between 2006 and the end of last month, 10 endangered boars were found trapped and killed. Six of them were mature weighing around 500 kilos.

According to rangers, when hunters find evidence of animals in an area, they place homemade traps along extensive lines – with some comprising up to 300 traps. The animals are then sold at communes neighboring the park, which spans more than 71,350 hectares in the Central Highlands Lam Dong Province, and Dong Nai and Binh Phuoc provinces to the east of Ho Chi Minh City.

The setting of traps has become difficult to control along the edge of the park, rangers say. Last month, the rangers cooperated with Dong Nai Province police to seize 286 kilos of wild animal meat being sold in the province’s Tan Phu District.

They also found 11 places that were selling wild meat in Cat Tien and Da Teh districts of Lam Dong Province. However, local authorities and park officials have yet to stamp out the illegal trapping.

Tran Thanh Binh, head of Lam Dong Forest Management, admitted his unit has not been tough enough in cracking down on the illegal trading of wildlife.

The park, which was formed from three sectors in 1998, is home to 40 species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List. But authorities say its location is too close to human dwellings to be safe from poaching, illegal logging and the encroachment of local communities.

Forest rangers in the Central Highlands in February arrested nine gunmen found hunting endangered animals in two national forests in Lam Dong and Dak Lak provinces. They found carcasses of a giant muntjac deer, listed on the international Red List of Threatened Species, and a type of monkey known as douc langur listed on Vietnam’s Red List.

Vietnam banned hunting without a permit in 1975 and has signed several treaties including the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Yet, enforcement of policies is often minimal.

A survey in 2006 by conservation group WWF and wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC found that nearly half of Hanoians had used wildlife products at some point in their lives. Another investigation that same year in HCMC found 15 wild species including deer, snake and turtle on restaurant menus.

Reported by Lam Vien