从丛林到餐桌 越南非法野生动物贸易调查

U MINH, Vietnam — Luc Van Ho slips through a tangled thicket of jungle, graceful as a dancer. A blanket of dried bamboo and melaleuca leaves on the forest floor barely crackles beneath his bare feet. Only the smell of cigarette smoke betrays his presence.

越南幽明县——陆云虎(Luc Van Ho)穿过一从纠缠交错的丛林植被，动作如舞者一样轻盈。林地上厚厚地铺着一层干枯的竹叶和千层树叶，在他的光脚下几乎没有发出声响。只有烟味暴露着他的踪迹。

A hunter, Mr. Luc, 45, set out at dawn from his family’s bamboo-thatched home in Vietnam’s U Minh forest to check a half dozen homemade traps rigged along animal trails in the underbrush and on canal banks frequented by snakes and turtles.

现年45岁的陆云虎是一名狩猎者，住在越南乌明森林的一栋竹屋里。他一大早就从家中出发，去查看自己布下的六个陷阱。这些陷阱分布在有动物经过的下层灌木底下，以及经常有蛇和乌龟出没的运河河岸。

He stops at a snare trap made of wood and bicycle brake wire, nearly invisible beneath leaves. The trap is empty, not unusual.

他走到了一个用木头和自行车闸线做成的陷阱，埋在叶子下面的装置几乎没人能发现。陷阱里空空如也，这种情况并不少见。

“Before, this forest was very different,” Mr. Luc said. “Now, the animals are so few that most hunters are changing their jobs.”

“这片森林以前可不是这样，”陆云虎说。“现在动物太少了，多数猎人都改了行。”

Still, in the previous two weeks, Mr. Luc had caught nine Southeast Asian box turtles and Malayan snail-eating turtles, five elephant trunk snakes, a handful of water birds and two rare Himalayan griffon vultures. For safekeeping, Mr. Luc stashed the vultures in his brother’s house, leaving them tethered in the bedroom until he can figure out what to do with them.

尽管如此，在过去的两个星期，陆云虎还是捕获了九只马来闭壳龟和马来食螺龟、五条象鼻蛇、少量水鸟，以及两只稀有的高山兀鹫。为了妥善保管这两只兀鹫，陆云虎把它们存放在了兄弟的房子里。在想出处理它们的办法之前，暂时把它们拴在了卧室里。

In the past, Mr. Luc’s hunting trips often yielded wildlife bonanzas, including prized pangolins. Also known as scaly anteaters, they are among the most trafficked mammals in the world. Mr. Luc works with traders willing to buy live pangolins for $60 a pound.

过去，陆云虎的狩猎之行常常会有大量斩获，包括名贵的穿山甲。这是全世界走私最严重的哺乳动物之一。与陆云虎合作的商人愿意以每磅60美元（约合370元人民币）的价格收购活穿山甲。

Although he caught just two pangolins last year, that price makes it well worth the effort to keep seeking them out. He knows, however, that this lucrative resource is finite.

虽说陆云虎过去一年中只捕获过两只穿山甲，这个价格让他觉得，继续寻找穿山甲是值得的。然而他知道，这个丰厚的收入来源不会永远存在。

“Pangolins will be extinct soon,” he said. Still, he expresses no plans to retire.

“穿山甲很快就会灭绝了，”他说。不过，他并没有打算金盆洗手。

Mr. Luc is one of thousands of illegal hunters draining Vietnam, one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, of its animals. Its rhinoceroses have already gone extinct, and conservationists estimate that just a couple of its tigers, if any, remain. Even lesser known species like soft-shell turtles and civets are sought out for traditional medicines, food, trophies and pets.

像陆云虎这样的成千上万的非法捕猎者，正在让越南的动物资源走向枯竭。越南是世界上最具生物多样性的国家之一。越南的犀牛已经灭绝。动物保护人士估计，这里的老虎即使没灭绝，可能也不多了。一些人们不太熟悉的物种，比如中华鳖和灵猫，也是捕猎的对象，它们被用来制作传统药材和食物，或是当做纪念品和宠物。

Illegal wildlife is one of the world’s largest contraband trades, netting an estimated $19 billion a year, not including illegal fisheries and timber. While all Southeast Asian countries and many others outside of the region are involved, Vietnam plays a paramount role. The country is a major thoroughfare for wildlife goods bound for China, which arrive overland from Cambodia, Thailand and Laos; by ship from Malaysia and Indonesia; or by air from Africa.

非法野生动物贸易是世界上规模最大的违禁贸易之一，每年的规模约为190亿美元，这还不包括非法的渔业和木材贸易。尽管东南亚国家和该地区以外的许多国家都卷入了这场贸易，越南扮演着独一无二的重要角色。该国是野生动物商品进入中国的主要渠道，这些商品从柬埔寨、泰国和老挝经陆路、从马来西亚和印度尼西亚经水路，从非洲经空运抵达越南，然后流入中国。

“After China, Vietnam is the next port of call in terms of where to look to figure out what’s going on with wildlife trade,” said Dan Challender, a co-chairman of the pangolin specialist group at the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

“要弄清楚野生动物贸易的状况，除了中国之外，越南是第二个值得关注的地方，”国际自然保护联盟(International Union for Conservation of Nature)穿山甲保护专项小组的联席主席丹·查兰德(Dan Challender)说。

Vietnam is also a significant consumer of wildlife, especially those yielding the ingredients for traditional medicine, such as rhino horn, which is used to treat everything from cancer to hangovers. The exotic meats of rare animals are seen as luxuries by a rising middle class eager to advertise its prosperity.

越南也是野生动物产品重要的消费国，特别是那些能够用来制造传统药材的动物产品，比如犀牛角。犀牛角被用来治疗从癌症到宿醉的各种疾病。此外，日益庞大的中产阶级也把稀有动物的肉看做能够彰显自身财富的奢侈商品。

“Pangolin is frequently the most expensive item on the menu, so ordering it is an obvious way to show off to friends and colleagues,” Dr. Challender said. “The fact that it’s illegal isn’t played down and is even attractive, because it adds this element that you live beyond the law.”

“穿山甲常常是菜单上最贵的菜，因此点一道穿山甲显然是对朋友同事进行炫耀的一种方式，”查兰德说。“他们不掩饰食用穿山甲属非法行为的事实，反而觉得更有吸引力，因为它为这种行为增加了刺激元素，仿佛你可以逍遥法外。”

International concern about the trade have never been greater, but conferences, new enforcement strategies and ivory crushes have yet to make a dent.

国际上对这种贸易的担忧已经达到了前所未有的程度，不过，相关的会议、新的执法策略以及销毁象牙制品的行动还没有产生什么效果。

In February, the Obama administration issued a plan to curb illegal wildlife trade by strengthening enforcement, reducing demand and sending a handful of agents abroad. The United States is the second-largest market for illegal wildlife products, but only an estimated 10 percent of traffickers are caught because of inadequate resources supporting enforcement, as well as legal loopholes pertaining to certain products, such as ivory.

今年2月，奥巴马政府推出了一项通过加强执法、减少需求和派遣少数工作人员到海外的方法来遏制野生动物贸易的方案。美国是非法野生动物商品的第二大市场，但由于用于执法的资源不足，而且涉及特定产品，比如象牙，又存在法律漏洞，只有10%的走私者落网。

“Wildlife trade is higher profile now than it’s ever been, and that’s great,” said Chris Shepherd, regional director in Southeast Asia of Traffic, a wildlife trade monitoring network. “But all of the talk about this issue by world leaders is not trickling down to the ground yet.”

“野生动物贸易获得了前所未有的关注，”监测野生动物贸易的组织Traffic的东南亚地区主任克里斯·谢泼德(Chris Shepherd)说。“但所有关于该问题的讨论并没有落到实处。”

In January of this year, officials intercepted more than 7,500 protected pig-nosed turtles in Indonesia, a frozen tiger in Vietnam and 190 endangered black pond turtles in Singapore. As wildlife disappears in Southeast Asia, poachers increasingly turn to Africa.

今年1月，有关部门在印度尼西亚截获了超过7500头猪鼻龟，在越南截获了一头被冷藏的老虎，在新加坡则是190只濒危的黑池龟。随着东南亚野生动物的不断消失，越来越多的偷猎者把目光转向了非洲。

More than 1,500 pounds of ivory and two tons of pangolin skins were intercepted in Uganda in January. Last year in South Africa alone, a record 1,215 rhinos were killed for their horns.

今年1月，乌干达截获了超过1500吨象牙和两吨穿山甲皮。去年，只在南非，偷猎者为了获得犀牛角猎杀了1215头犀牛，这个数字创下了历年之最。

The illegal wildlife products that officials manage to interdict account for an estimated 10 to 20 percent of the total trafficked.

官员们截获的非法野生动物产品相当于全部走私规模的10%到20%。

“We may be disrupting criminal networks, but we’re certainly not dismantling any of them,” said Scott Roberton, Vietnam country representative and regional coordinator for wildlife trafficking programs for the Wildlife Conservation Society. “The situation is going to get worse before it gets better.”

“我们或许干扰了犯罪集团，但我们毫无疑问没有消灭其中的任何一个，”国际野生生物保护学会(Wildlife Conservation Society)越南国家代表和野生动物走私项目地区协调员斯科特·罗伯森(Scott Roberton)说。“在情况有所改善之前，还会进一步恶化。”

While China recently increased its arrests and prosecutions for wildlife crimes, those caught trafficking wildlife in Vietnam or other transit countries almost always escape punishment. Dealing in protected species is a criminal offense under Vietnamese law, as is selling wild-caught animals of any kind.

虽然中国近期在野生动物犯罪方面加强了拘捕与诉讼工作，但那些在越南等中转国抓获的野生动物走私者几乎总能逃脱惩罚。按照越南法律的规定，交易保护物种或销售任何种类的野外捕获的动物均属犯罪行为。

But even when trafficking kingpins are taken into custody, prosecution often depends on finding unrelated charges that are taken more seriously than wildlife crime, such as car smuggling. Poachers like Mr. Luc — who says he has never run into legal trouble — are rarely reprimanded, and punishment, if any, usually entails a small fine.

不过，就算走私活动主犯遭到扣押，要想进行诉讼也往往有赖于找到比野生动物犯罪更严重的不相干罪名，比如走私汽车。陆云虎表示，自己从未遭遇法律问题。像他这样的偷猎者很少受到责难，即使面临惩处，也常常是一小笔罚款了事。

“Very few criminals caught for major violations like tiger or rhino horn possession ever do a day in prison,” said Douglas Hendrie, chief technical adviser for Education for Nature-Vietnam, a nonprofit organization based in Vietnam.

“因为持有虎制品或犀牛角这种重大违法行为而被抓获的犯罪分子中，几乎没有人在监狱里待过哪怕一天，”越南保护自然教育组织(Education for Nature-Vietnam)的首席技术顾问道格拉斯·亨德里(Douglas Hendrie)说。这是一家设在越南当地的非营利机构。

Wild-caught and protected animal products are easily procured in Vietnamese cities. “It’s not an enforcement priority yet, largely due to corruption, collusion and an absolute lack of concern,” Dr. Shepherd said. “People just do not care.”

在越南的各大城市，很容易弄到野外捕获及受保护动物的制品。“这还不是执法的重点，而其中的主要原因是腐败、串谋，以及漠不关心，”谢泼德说。“大家完全不在乎。”

Thien Vuong Tuu (“The Alcohol of the Gods”), a fancy restaurant in Ho Chi Minh City, advertises pangolin, bear, porcupine, bat and more on its illustrated menu. Customers interested in pangolin — sold for $150 a pound — must order it two to three hours in advance and place a deposit based on its weight.

胡志明市的一家高档餐厅“天王酒家”(Thien Vuong Tuu)在配了图片的菜单上宣传自己供应穿山甲、熊、豪猪和蝙蝠等菜品。穿山甲的售价为每磅150美元（约合每公斤2000元人民币）。有意品尝的顾客必须提前两三小时预订，并按照份量交一笔预付款。

When the customer returns for dinner, the manager presents the live pangolin to the table, then slices its throat on the spot to prove that the meat is fresh and has not been substituted.

当客人回来吃晚餐的时候，经理会把活的穿山甲拿到餐桌前来展示，然后当场割喉，证明肉质新鲜，没有被掉包。

“Pangolin is very popular with customers, because it treats a lot of sicknesses,” said Quoc Trung, the restaurant manager. His staff will also dry and package pangolin scales left over from dinner — a popular ingredient in traditional medicines that are still covered by Vietnamese health insurance.

“穿山甲在顾客当中非常受欢迎，因为它能治很多病，”餐厅经理国征说。他手下的员工还会将餐桌上剩下的穿山甲鳞片晾干后包装起来——这是一种流行的传统药物成分，至今仍为越南医疗保险所接纳。

On a Sunday night, families with young children and groups of middle-aged men fill the restaurant. At one table, two French-speaking men order a cobra to the delight of their female companions. Two young servers bring out a large, writhing snake, its mouth bound tightly shut with plastic twine.

一个周日的晚上，这家餐厅里满是带着小孩的家庭顾客和一群群的中年男性。在一张桌子上，两名说法语的男士点了条眼镜蛇，讨得了他们女伴的欢心。两个年轻的服务员端出一条身躯扭动的大蛇，它的嘴部被塑料绳牢牢绑住。

As the customers film with their smartphones, one server holds the snake taut. The other carefully feels along the animal’s abdomen until he locates the heart, then opens it up with a pair of scissors and removes the beating organ with his bare fingers.

客人用智能手机拍摄的同时，一名服务员紧紧抓住蛇身，另一人则在它的腹部摸索，确定了心脏的位置之后，再用一把剪刀剖开，徒手取出这颗还在跳动的脏器。

As the servers wring out the animal, the blood drips into a ceramic bowl to be mixed later with alcohol and drunk.

服务员沥出蛇血，滴到一个瓷碗中，准备拿去兑酒供客人饮用。

“The government doesn’t allow exotic meat, but we have our sources and good connections with the police,” Mr. Quoc said after the show concluded. “The demand is so high for these things, so we have to supply them.”

“政府不许用稀有肉类，不过我们有货源，跟警察关系好，”这番表演结束后，国征说。“这些东西需求特别大，我们一定要供应。”

Given the widespread lack of enforcement, grass-roots conservation organizations in Vietnam increasingly find themselves on the front lines. Education for Nature-Vietnam recently conducted a survey of restaurants, hotels and shops in 12 districts in Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, recording each violation of wildlife laws and insisting that authorities follow up.

由于执法的普遍缺失，越南的草根保护组织越来越多地感到自己身处第一线。越南保护自然教育组织近期对河内和胡志明市12个区的餐厅、酒店和商铺进行了调查，记录下违反野生动物法规的每项行为，并且坚决要求相关机构予以跟进。

Several months later, the group repeated the survey and found the availability of illegal products ranging from snake “wine” to bear bile had fallen by nearly 60 percent in eight of the districts. “When authorities put us out of work by doing their job effectively and consistently, then we’ll no longer have to do this,” Mr. Hendrie said.

几个月后，该组织再次进行了调查，发现在其中八个区弄到蛇酒和熊胆等非法制品的可能性降低了近60%。“当局持续有效地做好本职工作，让我们没事可干的时候，我们才会不用做这些，”亨德里说。

Save Vietnam’s Wildlife, a nonprofit based at Cuc Phuong National Park, organizes training sessions across the country for park rangers and the police, conducts community education programs and operates one of the country’s only rehabilitation centers for confiscated animals.

设在菊芳国家公园(Cuc Phuong National Park)内的非营利机构“拯救越南野生动物组织”(Save Vietnam’s Wildlife)在该国各地组织面向护林员和警察的培训活动、运营社区教育项目，并且开设了一家越南少有的罚没动物康复中心。

In Vietnam, much of the wildlife intercepted from illegal traders is sold by officials back into the black market. Nguyen Van Thain, Save Vietnam’s Wildlife’s founder, often must race to the sites of recent confiscations to try to recover animals before that can happen.

在越南，从非法交易者手中截获的许多野生动物都会被官员卖回黑市。拯救越南野生动物组织的创始人阮文泰(Nguyen Van Thain)常常需要赶去最新的罚没现场，才可能及时救回动物。

“Corrupt rangers still want to sell animals back to the trade,” Mr. Nguyen said. Even if the animals are not sold, very few return to the wild, because of a lack of rehabilitation facilities.

“腐败的林业工作者还是想要把动物弄回去卖掉，”阮文泰说。因为康复中心的匮乏，就算动物免于被贩卖的命运，也没有多少能重返大自然。

Animals not sent to a specialized rescue center often “just sit around until they die,” Dr. Shepherd said.

未能送到专业救治中心的动物往往“坐以待毙，”谢泼德说。

Over the last three months, Mr. Nguyen has helped rescue 20 pangolins, but the maximum capacity at his center — one of only two in Vietnam that can care for pangolins — is less than 50. With a budget of just $90,000 a year, he has few resources with which to expand the center and hire additional staff.

过去三个月里，阮文泰帮助救治了20只穿山甲。不过他创办的中心最大的容量不到50只，而越南只有两处这样的地方可以照看穿山甲。这家中心的年预算仅为9万美元，他也没什么资源来扩大中心规模或增添人手。

Mr. Nguyen says he is not confident that attitudes will change in time to spare his country’s wildlife.

阮文泰表示，自己并不看好越南人能及时转变观念，让野生动物免于灾祸。

“The problem in Vietnam is that conservation is a new way of thinking,” he said. “Vietnamese people need to learn to take seriously what we have now. We need to take care of our own environment and wildlife if we want it to be around in the future.”

“越南的问题是，保护自然还是个新的概念，”他说。“越南人必须学会珍惜我们现在拥有的东西。如果我们想要它们将来还存在的话，我们必须保护好自己的环境和野生动物。”