From forests to chopsticks: Mapping semi-legal wildlife supply chains in Vietnam

The exploitation of wildlife for meat consumption-both legal and illegal-poses major conservation, animal welfare, and public health risks. While scholarship often centers on CITES-listed species, non-CITES species remain underexamined. Focusing on the trade in civets and bamboo rats in Vietnam, this study examines the illegal trade embedded within ostensibly legal businesses using crime script analysis (CSA) to map it through two complementary scripts, one farm-based and one restaurant-based. Drawing on 107 interviews and direct observations, findings reveal that more than half of surveyed facilities (34/63) acknowledged illegal sourcing; eight farms operated outside the regulatory system or maintained unregistered satellite locations; two-thirds of registered farms had earlier operated unregistered; and logbook manipulation was widespread. Ritualized inspections and facilitation payments compounded lax oversight. These procedural dynamics provide a foundation for targeted interventions essential to conservation and zoonotic disease surveillance within a One Health framework.