ENV has been working for more than three years to raise awareness and influence public attitudes about the need to protect wildlife threatened by hunting and trade. After initial training in 2003, seven ENV staff participated in a 10-day intensive media training course provided by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) in Vietnam during 2004.

The EJF team returned to Vietnam to give further training and a joint investigation was undertaken into bear farms with ENV. The course gave the ENV staff basic knowledge about the importance and role of media and how to prepare an effective media campaign including writing press releases, developing films and conducting interviews. The course was extremely useful as it focused on the specific needs of the ENV staff. In the field the teams gathered film and photos from inside bear farms and were able to film the distressed bears being "milked" for bile.

This powerful footage helped gain the attention of top Vietnamese pop star, My Linh, who agreed to film a short message for consumers, urging them not to consume bear parts or bile. The thirty-second television Public Service Announcement (PSA) targeting bear bile consumers has been shown on Vietnamese television and has significantly raised the profile of the issue within Vietnam. My Linh, suggests that audiences should avoid the use of bear bile and other bear products to ensure that bears remain "in the wild where they belong". The PSA film has been aired on more than 40 provincial TV channels throughout the country.

Watch the My Linh PSA

EJF has also donated to ENV: a digital stills camera that is used to gather high-quality images for use in publications, press releases and on the Internet; a digital video kit for filming educational messages and documenting evidence, and a computer for use as an in-house video editing and design facility.

During the training course in 2004, ENV staff was also assisted in the development of a bear bile attitude survey. This survey was then was tested on more than 200 people. The data from the survey was analyzed and a presentation of the results was made to all of the trainees. In June and July 2004, ENV then carried out a full survey to assess the current attitudes towards the use of bear bile amongst consumers in Hanoi. A total of 1,814 people were surveyed in seven districts. The survey results suggest:

• 30% of Hanoi residents are consumers of bear bile


• Males dominate bear bile users (37% of all male surveyed) compared with females (23% of all females surveyed)


• People under the age of 25 represented a smaller proportion of users than their elder peers


• Most bear bile consumers would be willing to use alternatives to bear bile if these were either more effective or cheaper

The results of the survey will be use to design awareness raising activities aimed at influencing public attitudes and reducing demand for bear bile.

To find out more about the work of ENV please visit their website: http://www.envietnam.org

November 2006

A team from EJF has just completed a two-week training course for Hanoi based NGO, ENV (Education for Nature Vietnam). EJF has already worked with ENV in 2004, when they were trained in basic camera skills and were assisted in the production of a 30-second television advert, with popular singer My Linh, urging people not to use products made from bears. This time ENV wanted to produce another PSA but instead of using celebrities they wanted normal, everyday people to say the message. EJF's cameraman and editor assisted ENV in creating, filming and editing the PSA which will be broadcast on TV stations nation wide. ENV are now equipped with a new Apple Mac G5 computer and Final Cut Pro editing software as well as the latest Sony HDV camera and professional accessories (funded by WSPA World Society for the Protection of Animals). During the two weeks training, ENV staff were given an introduction to computer-based editing as well as further camera skills. They are currently working on a three-minute video installation on bear bile extraction, entitled "The Torture Chamber" for an exhibition in Hanoi on 24th November.