Conservationists hail jailing of Vietnamese pangolin scale smugglers in 900kg haul
The Asian pangolin has been hunted for its meat and scales to the point of extinction, causing poachers to turn to its African cousins
Prized for its meat and scales, the pangolin has almost disappeared from forests and their hilly habitats of Africa and Asia.
Conservationists estimate around 1 million have been trafficked over the last decade, triggered by demand for traditional remedies in China.
On Wednesday, a court in Bac Ninh, a province outside Hanoi, sentenced Nguyen The Du and Nguyen Anh Ngoc to eight years’ jail each for supplying and brokering the sale of the large haul to police officers posing as buyers in a sting operation last June.
The scales, packed into 46 bags, came from three African species – the giant, white-bellied and black-bellied pangolin – according to anti-wildlife trafficking NGO Education for Nature Vietnam (ENV), revealing the global reach of the trade.