“The owners of groves that are bird habitats are catching young birds to sell for food during the breeding season while others trap adults all year round,” said park ranger Mai Thanh Truong.
Tran Quoc Hung, vice head of the Phuoc Long District Agriculture and Rural Development Division, said an average of 400 wild birds are openly sold every day in the district.
Bac Lieu has seven large groves that are home to wild birds, the leading number of such habitats in the Mekong Delta. These groves attract a variety of tropical water birds including egrets, storks, cormorants and other species.
Although it is illegal to hunt and trade in protected bird species in Vietnam, many bird grove owners have long depended on selling the birds to earn a living, which has made it difficult for local agencies to enforce the ban.
Nguyen Van Thiet, owner of a grove in Phuoc Long District, admitted he has been selling around 200 wild birds a day to restaurants and traders recently, including young birds he caught from nests in his grove.
A young bird fetched between VND10,000 (US$0.54) and VND22,000 ($1.2) depending on the species, he added.
Thiet said his family’s main source of income was selling birds from his six-hectare grove, at around VND100 million ($5,400) a year, and that he has seen no ban enforced by local authorities.
Phan Duy Tuyen, director of the Bac Lieu Department of Science and Technology, said the department has prepared a plan to survey and protect birds in the province.
However, there has been no plan so far to invest in private groves that are bird habitats and to create other income-generating opportunities for their owners in a bid to end their illegal poaching, Tuyen admitted.