Yahoo News 25 Mar 11;
HANOI (AFP) – The owner of a private zoo in Vietnam has been jailed for three years for selling the endangered tigers that he was supposed to protect, a conservation group and officials said Friday.
Huynh Van Hai, of Thanh Canh Tourism Park in Binh Duong province, near Ho Chi Minh City, was sentenced on March 10, Education for Nature -- Vietnam (ENV) said in a statement.
Fourteen other people linked to his operation, including his son, received sentences ranging from probation to 30 months' jail, it said.
An official at Thuan An district court of Binh Duong province confirmed the sentence.
"We feel that Binh Duong authorities have taken a vital first step in ending illegal farming and trade of tigers in Vietnam," ENV founder Vu Thi Quyen said in the statement.
ENV said it conducted its own investigation last year into the alleged illegal trade of tigers born at Thanh Canh park. The probe indicated at least two other major tiger farmers were also involved in the illegal trade, it said.
ENV added that tigers have essentially disappeared from the wild in Vietnam but 100 are known to be in captivity, mostly on eight private farms.
Older Vietnamese people believe that the bones of tigers, boiled down to make glue, can help treat arthritis, the group said.
In 2007, the communist government allowed some private tiger farms in southern Vietnam to keep dozens of the endangered animals as they were better equipped than state zoos.
Major tiger trader behind bars as global tiger meet opens
WWF 27 Mar 11;
A tiger farmer suspected of being a major figure in Vietnam’s illegal tiger trade has been arrested and sentenced to three years in prison, dealing a blow to the global tiger parts commerce that is pushing the species to the brink of extinction.
The arrest comes as experts and policymakers from the tiger range countries meet for a status check on ongoing efforts to save the iconic species.
According to Education for Nature Vietnam (ENV), Huynh Van Hai, the owner of the Thanh Canh Tourism Park in Binh Duong Province, was arrested by local police for selling tigers out of the back door of his park. Fourteen others, including Hai’s son, were also arrested and sentenced this month, with Hai and two associates also receiving a fine of US $70,000, ENV said on their website.
The International Conference on Tiger Conservation, to be held in New Delhi, India starting Monday, will bring together the 13 countries that still contain tigers, including Vietnam, to further cooperation and international efforts to save the tiger from extinction.
“This is the kind of news we need to hear more of as tiger range countries intensify their efforts to save the world’s remaining population,” stated Mike Baltzer, Head of WWF’s Tigers Alive Initiative. “If we are to not only save tigers from disappearing, but also increase their numbers, we need work together to improve law enforcement capacities and spur the authorities into action. We congratulate the Vietnamese authorities and their partners for this major success, and we look for stronger law enforcement to be on the agenda for this week’s conference.”
The New Delhi conference is the first international follow up to the Global Tiger Recovery Programme (GTRP), a groundbreaking agreement forged in November 2010 by the tiger countries and the international community at a Tiger summit hosted by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, Russia. It is expected to tackle GTRP implementation and monitoring, as well as reveal new tiger population estimates for India, which contains around half of world’s remaining tiger population, estimated to be as low as 3,200 individuals. The GTRP has set a goal of doubling the world’s tiger population by 2022.
The demand for tigers and their parts is in part fueling the tiger’s recent rapid decline. According to ENV, the bones from one tiger have a value of USD $20,000. Since 2005, there have been 24 reported seizures of tigers, their parts and bones in Vietnam.
As the New Delhi conference convenes, the tiger population is at an all time low. Estimated to be around 100,000 just 100 years ago, tigers have declined 97 percent, losing more than 94 percent of their home range. In addition to poaching and the illegal trade, the remaining pockets of tigers are beset by conflict with an increasing human population, habitat loss and prey loss.
