ゴールドマン環境賞にベトナム人のセンザンコウ保護活動家

【ハノイＡＦＰ＝時事】環境分野のノーベル賞とも呼ばれる「ゴールドマン環境賞」の今年の受賞者の一人に、絶滅が危惧されるセンザンコウの保護に取り組む、ベトナム人のグエン・バン・タイ氏（３９）が選ばれた。数十億ドル規模の違法取引から、センザンコウ１０００匹以上を保護する活動が評価された。（写真はゴールドマン環境賞を受賞したセーブ・ベトナムズ・ワイルドライフのグエン・バン・タイ代表。ベトナム北部ニンビン省にて）
　センザンコウの肉は、中国と東南アジアでは滋養強壮やがん治癒効果があるとの迷信から、珍味として重宝されている。
　ＮＰＯ「セーブ・ベトナムズ・ワイルドライフ（ＳＶＷ）」代表のタイ氏は、センザンコウの保護活動の最前線に立ち、野生動物の不正取引の主要拠点であるベトナムが直面する深刻な問題について、世界に警鐘を鳴らしてきた。
　ゴールドマン環境賞は、「継続的かつ重要な取り組み」で環境の保護・改善に功績のあった草の根の活動家を、毎年６人表彰している。
　受賞者発表前にＡＦＰのインタビューに応じたタイ氏は、野生動物の不正取引の問題を人に理解してもらう手助けをするのは、「若者やベトナムの地域社会を巻き込み、森林や野生動物、環境の保護に共に取り組むことにつながる」と語った。
　タイ氏は、「調査結果と設置型カメラの画像に基づくと、ベトナムに生息する野生のセンザンコウは過去１５年間で９０％以上減少したと考えられる」と指摘している。
　ベトナムにあるＳＶＷの保護施設では、スタッフやボランティアがセンザンコウを元気になるまで世話し、その後、自然に返す。これまでに１６００匹近くを救ってきた。
　タイ氏によると、スンダセンザンコウ（マレーセンザンコウ）とミミセンザンコウのうち、後者がより深刻な状況にあり、ベトナムでは絶滅のリスクが高い。
　ＳＶＷの施設はミミセンザンコウの繁殖計画を進めており、新たに生まれたセンザンコウを、後に自然に返すことも目指している。
　タイ氏は今年の「アジア部門」の受賞者に選出された。「島しょ国部門」には石炭火力発電所１３基の建設計画中止に貢献した平田仁子氏が選ばれた。【翻訳編集ＡＦＰＢＢＮｅｗｓ】
〔ＡＦＰ＝時事〕（2021/06/17-11:24）

A Vietnamese conservationist working to save pangolins from the devastating multi-billion-dollar wildlife trade won a prestigious award Tuesday for his role in rescuing over a thousand of one of the world's most endangered creatures.
Highly prized in China and southeast Asia for their flesh, pangolins are seen as a delicacy for the mistaken belief that they can cure anything from impotence to cancer.
Nguyen Van Thai, director of Save Vietnam's Wildlife (SVW), has been at the forefront of efforts to raise the alarm internationally about the serious problems Vietnam faces as a major hub for wildlife trafficking.
He was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize -- known colloquially as the Green Nobel -- which honours grassroots environmental leaders who have made sustained and significant efforts to protect and enhance the natural world.
Helping people to understand these problems will be an opportunity to attract young people and the Vietnamese community to join the work in protecting the forest, wildlife and the environment, Thai, 39, told AFP in an interview ahead of the announcement of the six winners of the prize.
- Risk of extinction -
Pangolins -- often described as scaly anteaters -- are defenceless in the wild, curling up into a ball when they are frightened, allowing poachers to easily gather them up.
Based on figures from investigations and images from camera traps, we can say that pangolins in the wild in Vietnam have decreased more than 90 percent in the last 15 years, Thai said.
At SVW's rescue centre in Vietnam, a team of staff and volunteers work long hours nursing pangolins back to health, before releasing them back into the wild. They have now saved nearly 1,600 of the vulnerable creatures.
Of the two types -- Sunda and Chinese -- the latter is faring worse, and faces a high risk of extinction in Vietnam, according to Thai.
But his centre is developing a breeding programme for the Chinese pangolin, with the hope that they can later be released into the wild.
The Goldman Environmental Prize's recognition of SVW's work could go a long way in helping boost the rescue centre's work, he said.
My first feeling when I found out I won this award was pride, he said. Since I founded Save Vietnam's Wildlife, my aim was to see Vietnamese become leaders in conservation in their own country.
There are not many Vietnamese role models that we can follow, he explained. (But) an individual or an organization can not do it alone -- we need to work together.
Thai is the second Vietnamese national to win the Goldman Environmental Prize -- in 2018, Nguy Thi Kanh was recognised for her crusade against the country's fume-spewing coal industry.
Six prizes are handed out each year, honouring activists from Africa, Asia, Europe, Islands and Island Nations, North America, and South & Central America.
Thai took this year's Asia prize, while Kimiko Hirata of Japan, who prevented the construction of 13 coal power plants, won the Islands and Island Nations award.