About Us
Our mission: is to inspire, motivate and empower society and individuals to engage in the science-based conservation of threatened species and ecosystem
About us: We are a local conservation not-for profit organisation based in Vietnam, established in 2015. There is a lack of capacity in conservation in Vietnam, and increasing this capacity has been identified as key to conserving natural resources. Meanwhile, mid-level and senior positions within wildlife conservation organizations in Vietnam are routinely occupied by male expatriates, reflecting Vietnam’s sub-optimal capacity in both providing suitably qualified and experienced candidates, and in offering career opportunities for young and female Vietnamese conservation leaders. Understanding the needs to develop a capacity building program within Vietnam to improve the country’s performance with regards to biodiversity conservation, our work aims to empower society and individuals, especially women and young people to conserve at-risk ecosystem.
ASAP Species That We Work On
What We Do
Our three main programs are:
NATIONAL CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAM: Effective conservation interventions in Vietnam are hampered by lack of local capacity for monitoring the trade of endangered wildlife and identifying at risk species. We are working with the University of Vinh in Nghe An province, to produce the first ever master’s course in combating illegal wildlife trade.
This project is no doubt add crucial value to the regional and global efforts in combating illegal trade of wildlife products in the long term, especially when Vietnam is still considered as one of the largest illegal trade hubs, transit and consumer countries.
WILD LIBRARY PROGRAM: Vietnam’s protected areas are home to globally important threatened biodiversity. These areas are typically adjacent to impoverished communities whose livelihoods depend on healthy ecosystems.
Through the establishment of local libraries and a mobile conservation exhibition, this project will raise awareness among local communities to value and care for their environment. Through tailor-made educational activities and capacity building we will empower entire communities to become more engaged with sustainability. Evaluation of programme effectiveness will be a critical component of this project, ensuring that lessons about the importance of conservation education are learned and shared among the wider conservation community.
EMPOWERING WOMEN IN CONSERVATION: Workplace gender inequality undermines conservation's ability to achieve its key goals of biodiversity protection and ecological stewardship, and this challenge in Vietnam may prove career-limiting: research demonstrates that female scientists are more likely to resign than women in other professions, especially when they are having to work in unfair, unsafe working environments due to gender-based violence (GBV) issues such as sexual harassment.
We aim to establish a baseline and develop workplace safety materials regarding GBV for women in conservation, with specific reference to the social and cultural context of Vietnam, that both organizations and government agencies can adopt. This project’s long-term goal is to empower local women, leaders, organizations and society to address challenges of gender inequality, harassment and unsafe working environments that women face in wildlife conservation and other research sectors.
Photo Credits
Featured image: Wildlife Reserves Singapore