Improving protection of highly threatened sun bears: community-based conservation in Vietnam

In June 2020, camera trapping efforts in Vietnam recorded pictures of an individual sun bear, suffering injury from snare traps in its front leg. This is the first time in almost 20 years, sun bear was recorded on camera traps in Vietnam, confirming its existence in the Lang Biang forest complex.

This project long-term goal is to recover the population of the Vietnamese sun bear and ensure their survival by strengthening law enforcement efforts to prevent poaching of the threatened sun bear through community engagement.

This project aims to:

• improve enforcement effectiveness for laws pertaining to hunting, trade and use of sun bears and their parts;
• monitor and investigate the illegal hunting of sun bears to enable law enforcement actions,
• and collect baseline information to evaluate action taken to reduce hunting and trade of sun bear.