Gems As09 Vietnam 118/119 Final Report
Vietnam is now a major hub for the wildlife trade, supplying domestic and international markets with a variety of live animals, animal parts and medicinal plants (Mott, 2006). It functions as a destination and transit country. Vietnam is also a voracious importer of illegal timber from neighboring countries and a destination for illegally traded specimens, and parts thereof, of plants and animals. The magnitude of the illegal wildlife trade is such that Vietnam ranked first in World Wildlife Fund's (WWF) Wildlife Crime Scorecard.