School children enjoy the program on bird indentification.

The current rampant wildlife trade in Vietnam poses serious problems, with many kinds of wild animals and bird species being sold openly in the markets. Many local people prefer to keep wild birds in cages and many young people still shoot birds for game. An environmental education programme for the young generation is essential to raise awareness. If we can engage schoolchildren in these issues we can also encourage them to join in biodiversity conservation activities. However, such kinds of programmes and activities have been very limited up till now.

Indoor educational programe.

Project will address these problems, laying the foundation of awareness among schoolchildren that will gradually contribute to future wildlife and bird conservation in Vietnam. The project will organize training courses for biology teachers within selected schools, training and providing them with the most up-to-date techniques and information. The project will produce the supporting posters and leaflets. These will be distributed to secondary schools, key individuals in local communities and to wildlife shop owners and markets within Hanoi city. Presentations will be performed directly to the students, and the project will also set up a weekly news programme for the campaign using the schools’ internal radio channel.

The project will be conducted within Hanoi city. This project will be the first comprehensive educational programme for local schoolchildren on wildlife in general and the wild bird trade in particular. The project will be conducted at four carefully selected secondary schools which are located near the most sensitive wildlife trade markets, namely Hoang Hoa Tham, Bach Mai, Tang Bat Ho and Hanoi-Amsterdam. Recruitment, training and co-ordination of team members and teachers from the four secondary schools will help ensure the long-term effects of the educational programme, carrying the message beyond the initial campaign period. Setting up, training and providing up-to-date information for the school groups will arm them with the fundamental knowledge about wildlife species and nature conservation. The campaign, including talks, presentations, posters and leaflet distribution, will help to spread information, encourage active participation and help schoolchildren as well as local communities to be more aware of the importance of nature and biodiversity conservation. In this way, negative impacts such as the wildlife trade, the keeping of wild birds for pets, and hunting will be gradually reduced.