A Green Criminological Exploration of Illegal Wildlife Trade in Vietnam

Illegal wildlife trade is a pervasive and destructive crime that is contributing to biodiversity loss and species extinction around the globe. This is particularly true in Vietnam where, it is proposed, the convergence of four factors creates the conditions for the illegal wildlife trade to flourish. The human-centered approach to Vietnam’s diverse ecosystem, historic consumption of wildlife, rapidly developing economy, and embryonic environmental legislation has resulted in the continued degradation of a unique and important environment. Furthermore, until recently criminological research of such green crimes has either been lacking or equally human-centered. This article details the nature and extent of wildlife trafficking in Vietnam and introduces to this context an expanded notion of harm, including the environment and other species, of a green criminological perspective to this exploration. The aim is that, by proposing a new framework in which to evaluate the illegal wildlife trade and other green crimes in Vietnam, new and innovative strategies addressing the convergent factors might be developed that will aid in stopping the illegal wildlife trade and other green crimes

Corruption and wildlife trafficking

Wildlife trafficking is a growing global concern. It takes place in all regions of the world with those nations with high biodiversity being the source and the consumers of the wildlife as well as transit areas and hubs for smuggled wildlife. It is a significant contributor to biodiversity loss and species extinction. Many if not most developing nations are rich in biodiversity and therefore must contend with wildlife trafficking. It is a critical concern for these nations’ environment and economies. It has been documented that corruption is an essential component in the facilitation and perpetration of the illegal wildlife trade, but a comprehensive study into the scale, scope and structure has yet to be undertaken. This U4 Issue paper conducts a meta-study regarding corruption’s role in wildlife trafficking from the available literature, interviews with experts and a case study of Vietnam in an attempt to highlight concerns for bilateral donors in regards to conservation, environment and law enforcement programmes

An Alternative Approach to Classify Illegal Logging: The Case in Vietnam

This article examines the different kinds of illegal logging that takes place in Vietnam, challenging the typical approaches to understanding and classifying the various criminal activities involved. We argue that either overlooking the classification of illegal logging or relying solely on illegal timber volumes and legal descriptions to categorise the crime is not sufficient to comprehend its diverse nature. This leads to inappropriate measures to tackle the crime. Instead, this study suggests that illegal logging should be categorised into three types, which are fundamentally distinctive, not only with regard to the volumes of illicit timber and the legislative definitions of the crime, but also (and more importantly) with reference to the attributes of harvesters, the degree of their involvement and their motivations, and the level of organisation involved in criminal commissions

Timber Trafficking and its Impacts on Human Security in Vietnam

As with other forms of green crime, timber trafficking is frequently overlooked by traditional criminology. This research is an exploratory investigation into the problem of timber trafficking in Vietnam, which aims to obtain a detailed understanding of the typology of, victimisation from, and key factors driving this crime. To achieve this aim, 41 semi-structured interviews with seven different cohorts (environmental police, investigative police, forest protection officers, commune authorities, forest-based inhabitants, timber traders, and green NGO staff) were conducted. Over one hundred pages of official documents (criminal case records, operational reports, and conference papers), and more than two hundred relevant newspapers were collected and analysed to enhance and triangulate the primary data. This research reveals a multifaceted typology of timber trafficking in Vietnam, comprising five different components: harvesting, transporting, trading, supporting, and processing. Each of these components is further constituted by distinctive, parallel forms of illicit operation. There are, for example, three parallel forms of illegal timber harvesting, termed small-scale, medium-scale and large-scale (SSITH, MSITH and LSITH). While having certain overlaps, in general SSITH, MSITH and LSITH are fundamentally distinctive not only in terms of the volumes of illicit timber they produce and the methods of illegally felling trees they employ, as typically identified in the previous studies, but more importantly in terms of the harvesters‘ attributes, their motivations, and the sophistication and security implications of the criminal operations. It is thus argued that the typology of illegal timber harvesting in this research challenges the typical classification in the existing literature, and offers an alternative way of understanding more comprehensively the dynamic of illegal logging. Regarding the victimisation from timber trafficking, due to the employment of a broad conceptual framework of human security, it is revealed that timber trafficking has substantial harmful impacts on all seven elements of human security: economic, food, health, environmental, personal, community, and political. These impacts are closely interconnected, but vary between different groups of victims. These findings culminate in the proposal that there are three main typical characteristics of green victimisation: suffering hierarchy, victim-offender overlap, and multidimensionality. Additionally, the employment of a human security paradigm in this research leads to another proposal that it is highly achievable and productive to integrate perspectives from the field of security studies into the discipline of green criminology, for the purpose of systematically examining green victimisation. Finally, this research offers five solutions to control timber trafficking in the context of Vietnam, by refining the current policy framework of forest governance and improving the efficiency of law enforcement

Effects of Social Media Marketing Activities on Perceived Values, Online Brand Engagement, and Brand Loyalty

This study aims to validate the model on the effects of social media marketing activities on the perceived values of social media marketing activities and the effects of these perceived values on online brand engagement and, consequently, on brand loyalty. The data used in this study were collected through an online self-administered survey of 501 young social media users in Vietnam. Partial Least Squares Algorithm, Bootstrapping, PLSpredict/CVPAT, and Multi-Group Analysis methods embedded in Smart-PLS software were used to validate the measurement model and test the research hypotheses. The findings confirm that the positive effects of social media marketing activities on brand loyalty are transmitted through the perceived values of these activities and online brand engagement. These effects are more substantial for luxury brands compared to non-luxury brands. Importantly, our study offers a new approach to explaining the impact of social media marketing activities on brand loyalty by focusing on the perceived values of these activities and their effects on online brand engagement. To enhance brand loyalty, businesses should prioritize creating hedonic and utilitarian values through their social media marketing activities and use these values and online brand engagement as key performance indicators for planning and controlling their strategies. Doi: 10.28991/ESJ-2024-08-05-017 Full Text: PD

Website Quality and Intention to Use Real Estate Website in Housing Market

The purpose of this study is to operationalize the impact of some factors of real estate website quality on behavioral intention to use in searching information about housing market. Research model is the integration of extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) of Davis and Information Success System of DeLone and McLean. The data of 847 real estate website users from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City was analyzed by Structural Equation Model (SEM) and multiple group analysis. The findings indicate that most of all hypotheses received support from data, specifically, Perceived Enjoyment has the most positive impact on Attitude and Behavioral Intention of real estate website users. Moreover, there is difference in the degree of impact of website quality between the perception of users in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City. Keywords: real estate website, website quality, housing market, searching information DOI: 10.7176/EJBM/13-11-09 Publication date:June 30th 202

Detection of a Sudan dye at low concentrations by surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy using silver nanoparticles

Sudan dyes are red colorants banned from use for food due to their toxic properties. However, because of the cheapness, they are sometimes adulterated into food illegally. Currently surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is emerging as a good method to detect residues (including trace amounts) of Sudan dyes in food. In this report we present the SERS detection of Sudan I (a type of Sudan dyes) to concentrations as low as 1 ppb, using a very simple SERS substrate, which is made from silver nanoparticles chemically deposited on silicon surface

Development of a PC Program for Multivariate Statistical Analysis

This report introduces a new computer program, having been developed initially at the Nuclear Research Institute at Dalat, for the multivariate data analysis techniques. In this preliminary version of the program, the size of a given data set to be analyzed is up to 50 variables and thousand observations, and can be used to perform some of the multivariate data analysis techniques such as principle component analysis, cluster analysis and data standardization. In comparison with other statistical analysis software, the same results are highly reproduced with MSAP

Microfluidic Chip for Trapping Magnetic Nanoparticles and Heating in Terms of Biological Analysis

In this study, we reported the results of the design and the fabrication a planar coil in copper (square, a = 10 mm, 15mm high, 90 turns), these planar coils were integrated in a microfluidic chip for trapping magnetic nanoparticles and local heating applications. A small thermocouple (type K, 1 mm tip size) was put directly on top of the micro-channel in poly(dimethyl-siloxane) in order to measure the temperature inside the channel during applying current. The design of planar coils was based on optimizing the results of the magnetic calculation. The most suitable value of the magnetic field generated by the coil was calculated by ANSYS® software corresponded to the different distances from the coil surface to the micro-channel bottom (magnetic field strength Hmax = 825 A/m). The magnetic filed and heating relationship was balanced in order to manipulating the trapping magnetic nanoparticles and heating process. This design of the microfluidic chip can be used to develop a complex microfluidic chip using magnetic nanoparticles