Consultant to Collect, Analyse Information on Illegal Turtle Trace

I. Background:

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN)'s 2011 report on tortoises and freshwater turtles globally ranked 17 Asian turtle species among the world's 25 most threatened species. According to the official criminal data from the Department of Crime Statistics and Information Technology of the Supreme People's Procuracy, in 2018 and 2019, among 267 cases of violations related to illegal wildlife trade, 32 cases (11.99%) were directly related to turtles. While WCS's media monitoring and analysis indicated that from 2018 to date, there have been 89 cases related to rare turtle species detected in Viet Nam.

The illegal turtle trade is becoming more common with the development of social networks. In 2020, Viet Nam has more than 69 million users of the social network Facebook, while the emerging social network, Tiktok has more than 13 million users. These are all identified as potential platforms for the illegal wildlife trade. According to the 2020 WCS’s cyber-trafficking survey, the situation of online wildlife trade has changed a lot compared to the situation before the pandemic occurred. Facebook is still the main channel that traders use to sell wildlife products (accounting for over 90%). Large cities such as Ha Noi and Ho Chi Minh City are bustling places to buy and sell wildlife online, recording many buyers/sellers from these localities. However, the lack of strict management measures, specific and clear legal provisions on trading illegal items on social networks make these acts rampant. Not only closed groups, fake accounts but also business pages are used for wildlife trade, making it difficult to investigate and verify information.

Besides being a large market, social networks are also an indirect marketing tool to sell rare turtles. On March 18, 2021, the Education for Nature - Vietnam (ENV) received information about a person who continuously posted many rare and endangered turtles on social networks to advertise and reported to the authorities. In result, 127 turtles kept in captivity were detected. Most recently, on June 30, 2021, Viet Nam Television reported that the elongated tortoise is a species on the list of endangered animals that need to be protected, but it was for sale a lot on Tiktok with videos disguised as showing off as pets. This seriously affects the perception of viewers, especially abetting acts of illegal wildlife trade.

In order to have a better understanding of the illegal turtle trade on social media platforms then to design interventions to prevent the situation, WCS will work with a reputable and experienced media agency in data journalism to conduct information collection and analysis on illegal turtle trade on some social media channels in major cities (Ha Noi, Ho Chi Minh city), and some other hotspots which will be identified during this research.

II.  Objectives:

Produce an in-depth analysis to reflect situation of the illegal turtle trade on some social media platforms, and recommend measures to support law enforcement agencies to reduce and prevent that situation.

III. Activity, Expected outputs/deliverables and tentative deadline 

Total allotted time (total working days): 33 days

IV. Consultant Requirements:

• Service provider is required to have capacity to carry out data journalism. especially in the field of environment (attach publish articles to provide evidence). The service provider has an extensive journalists network and being a member of the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GJIN) is preferred.
• Service providers must manage their personnel to ensure results and outputs. Key personnel should meet the following criteria:

In addition, members of the consultant team must meet the following criteria:

Team leader:

• Having a bachelor's degree/postgraduate degree in journalism, communication, or related field
• Having a good understanding of the media system in Viet Nam;
• Having knowledge and experience in supporting the construction and development of the press network, especially in the environmental area;
• Having skill and experience in collecting, interviewing, analyzing and presenting data;
• Experience in communication consulting and communication development;
• At least 10 years of experience in media and journalism;
• Having good analytical and writing skills
• Experience in working with press agencies and media networks

Team member(s):

• Having a bachelor's degree/postgraduate degree in journalism, communication, or related field
• Having a good understanding of the media system in Viet Nam;
• At least 3 years of experience in media and journalism;
• Experience in working with media agencies and media networks
• Having experience in infographic design

VII. Application procedure:

Interested candidate(s) are invited to send to [email protected] [1] before 12:00 pm (Hanoi time), Monday, December 6, 2021.

1. An email of interest
2. Members’ Curriculum Vitae
3. Technical and financial proposal (as suggested in the below template)

Note: Only shortlisted candidates will be contacted.