HÀ NỘI – Government officials and behavioural experts working on wildlife campaigns in Việt Nam called for more efforts in raising public awareness, and changing behaviour to curb wildlife consumption in the country.
US Ambassador to Việt Nam Ted Osius spoke in Vietnamese at the seminar on efforts to reduce the demand on wildlife organised by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and Freeland – a frontline counter-trafficking organisation working for a world that is free of wildlife trafficking and human slavery.
Osius said that the US was committed to be with Việt Nam in its fight against wildlife trafficking and consumption.
He also called on strengthening law enforcement, investigation, detection and punishment for wildlife violations.
In 2015, Việt Nam and the United States teamed up in Operation Game Change (OGC), an alliance aimed at ending wildlife crime, especially rhino horn trafficking.
Daniel Lindgren, founder of Bangkok-based RapidAsia – a behavioural change evaluation firm, said that it was like a journey to change someone’s behaviour and the communication campaign was expected to intervene and speed up the process.
The behavioural change journey concept begins with people unaware about something, then they know, believe, change attitude, and pay attention, and finally change behaviour, he said.
Daniel shared a story about law enforcers who reached residents’ houses, and asked them to take fire preventive measures. When asked how many fires they prevented in a year, they said, “We cannot prove that what we prevent would have happened if we did not.”
Daniel said that it was similar to the role of communication campaigns in reducing wildlife demands, and added that such campaigns were necessary despite the difficulty in understanding their effects.
Read the full article at Vietnam News : Communication helps change behaviour, saves wildlife consumption