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Agence France-Presse

A rhino horn trader has been sentenced to 14 years in jail, the longest ever prison term a Vietnamese court has handed down for the crime, a local conservation group said on Wednesday.
Vietnam is both a consumption hub and popular transit point for the multibillion-dollar trade in animal parts.
Authorities have long vowed to stem the flow of illegal wildlife criss-crossing its borders, but experts have warned the black market persists thanks to weak law enforcement.
Earlier this week, Do Minh Toan, 36, received 14 years in jail for trading and trafficking rhino horns from the United Arab Emirates (UAE) into Vietnam.
New threat to African rhinos with horn touted as Covid-19 balm
It came after a 2019 discovery by customs officials at Hanoi’s Noi Bai international airport of 55 pieces of rhino horn – weighing around 125kg (275 pounds) – in a carefully disguised shipment.
The pieces were encased in plaster and police used rods to break the casts apart.
According to non-government organisation Education for Nature Vietnam (ENV), the punishment is the toughest to date in the country for crimes relating to rhino horns and the wildlife trade.
“Amid the negative opinions about Vietnam’s handling of wildlife crimes, this heavy penalty showed that Vietnam’s competent authorities have begun to mete out serious punishment to deter people from wildlife crimes,” ENV vice director Bui Thi Ha said in a statement.
The organisation said Vietnam had recorded 317 crimes relating to rhino horns since 2017. A total of 24 people have been arrested and charged, with the average jail term for those found guilty more than five years.


Vietnam and China remain lucrative markets for elephant tusks, pangolins, tiger parts and rhino horns.
Some believe that rhino horn helps cure diseases and hangovers when ground into powder.
Poachers in Africa have decimated wild rhino populations to meet demand despite the trade being banned globally since the 1970s.
Only about 29,000 rhinos survive in the wild, down from half a million at the beginning of the 20th century, according to conservationists.


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Vietnam

Vietnam hands down record 14-year sentence to rhino horn trader

Vietnam has handed down its longest prison term for rhino horn trading. Photo: AFP

Hong Kong’s leading role in the global extinction crisis, as hub of illegal wildlife trade, and the legal amendment that could change that

A dead pangolin. Thousands of carcasses like this are illegally trafficked to Hong Kong every year. Photo: Paul Hilton/Earth Tree Images

The plight of the pangolin, the world’s most trafficked mammal, is emblematic of Hong Kong’s leading role in the global extinction crisis as a hub of the illegal wildlife trade. Photo: Paul Hilton/Earth Tree Images

Thousands of pangolins and their scales are trafficked through Hong Kong every year. Photo: Paul Hilton/Earth Tree Images

Seized pangolin scales. In 2018 and 2019, scales and carcasses seized in Hong Kong equated to the poaching of up to 50,200 pangolins, or one every 21 minutes. Photo: Paul Hilton/Earth Tree Images 

Amanda Whitfort, associate professor of law at the University of Hong Kong.

Penalties for smuggling wildlife increase if species impact victim statements are given. Rescued Ryukyu black-breasted leaf turtles at Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden. Photo: Kadoorie Farm and Botanic Garden

Stan Shea Kwok-ho (left), Marine programme director of Bloom, and ADM Capital Foundation’s wildlife programme manager Sam Inglis. Photo: Xiaomei Chen

Young woolly rhino found almost perfectly preserved in the Siberia permafrost

The carcass of a juvenile woolly rhinoceros, found in permafrost in eastern Siberia, Russia. Photo: Department for the Study of Mammoth Fauna of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) / Reuters

A handout picture taken on September 6, 2018 and provided by the Yakutia Academy of Sciences shows the head of an ancient wolf, discovered in the permafrost on the bank of the Tirekhtyakh river in the northern Siberian region of Yakutia. - Japanese scientists helping their Russian colleagues performed a series of tests and determined its age as approximately 32,000 years. (Photo by HO / YAKUTIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES / AFP) / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / YAKUTIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES / HO" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

A horn of a juvenile woolly rhinoceros, the carcass of which was found in permafrost in august 2020 on the banks of the Tirekhtyakh river in the region of Yakutia in eastern Siberia, Russia, is seen in this undated handout photo obtained by Reuters on December 30, 2020. Department for the Study of Mammoth Fauna of the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia)/Handout via REUTERS ATTENTION EDITORS - THIS IMAGE HAS BEEN SUPPLIED BY A THIRD PARTY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVES. MANDATORY CREDIT.

Rhino killings down over 50 per cent in South Africa, as zoo in Taiwan to send female white rhino to Japan for breeding

A white rhino baby with its mother at the Leofoo Village Theme Park in the northern Taiwanese city of Hsinchu. Photo: AFP

KRUGER NATIONAL PARK, SOUTH AFRICA  NOVEMBER 7 (SOUTH AFRICA OUT): Rangers Rob Thompson and Don English with suspected rhino poachers on November 7, 2014 at the Kruger National Park, South Africa. The suspected rhino poachers were in possession of a .375 hunting rifle fitted with a silencer, as well as an array of machetes and knives. A Special Ranger Patrol  is conducting a military-style campaign to combat the scourge of rhino poaching. (Photo by James  Oatway/Sunday Times/Gallo Images/Getty Images)[23SEPTEMBER2020 FEATURE TRAVELCREDIT: Getty Images

PIETERMARITZBURG, SOUTH AFRICA  JULY 31: (SOUTH AFRICA OUT) Armed guards look after rhino at the Tala Private Game Reserve on July 31, 2014 in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. VIP bodyuards have been assigned to fight off rhino poachers. This follows the killing of two rhino at the game reserve. The reserves manager says they have increased security with 24-hour mobile armed protection of the animals. (Photo by Jackie Clausen/Sunday Times/Gallo Images/Getty Images)[23SEPTEMBER2020 FEATURE TRAVELCREDIT: Getty Images

Rhinoceros ( Ceratotherium simum )in savanna.  Kruger National Park. South-Africa. (Photo by: Godong/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)[23SEPTEMBER2020 FEATURE TRAVELCREDIT: Getty Images

Handout image shows a white rhino at the Leofoo Safari Park in Taiwan.[23SEPTEMBER2020 FEATURE TRAVELMANDATORY CREDIT:  LEOFOO SAFARI PARK

A female white rhino, Emma, from the Leofoo Safari Park in Taiwan will be sent to Japan’s Tobu Zoo and Amusement Park in March next year to mate with a male and help improve the genetic diversity of it herd. Photo: Leofoo Safari Park

News

Asia

Southeast Asia


Do Minh Toan was jailed for trading and trafficking rhino horns from the United Arab Emirates, after 55 pieces weighing 125kg were found in a shipment in 2019
Vietnam and China remain lucrative markets for elephant tusks, pangolins, tiger parts and rhino horns



A Vietnamese man was jailed for trading and trafficking rhino horns from the United Arab Emirates into Vietnam, after 55 pieces weighing 125kg were found in a shipment in 2019.


Crime

Conservation

Animals