The move would serve to send a firm message to poachers, wildlife products traffickers

Mar 25, 2014 21:11 GMT  ·  By

The Wildlife Conservation Society has recently announced that Vietnam might soon get behind efforts to halt poaching and trafficking operations by destroying its illegal wildlife products stockpile.

Thus, according to officials working with Vietnam's Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the country is now looking into the possibility to crush various wildlife products it has confiscated from traffickers over the years.

Live Science informs that the products that Vietnam is thinking about destroying in the near future are items made from ivory, rhino horn, or tiger bone.

The same source tells us that, by getting rid of its ivory, rhino horn, and tiger bone stockpile, the country hopes to send a firm message to poacher and animal body parts traffickers.

This message would be that Vietnam does not tolerate wildlife crime, and is ready and willing to do its best to fight this threat to the planet's remaining biodiversity.

Commenting on the country's plans to crush its stockpile of illegal wildlife products, Susan Lieberman with the Wildlife Conservation Society stated as follows:

“In recent years, the international community has recognized that Vietnamese citizens have emerged as key players in global illegal wildlife trade, as traders, transporters, traffickers and end-consumers for wildlife.”

Furthermore, “If this decision is turned into action, it will set a high standard for other governments, and reinforce Vietnam’s commitment to treating wildlife crime as serious crime.”

The Wildlife Conservation Society says that, according to recent estimates, poachers presently kill as many as 96 elephants in Africa on a daily basis. Hence, the overall headcount for this species has dropped by 76% when compared to 2002.

As far as rhinos are concerned, the Society estimates that, just in 2013, over 1,000 such animals were killed and stripped of their horns by poachers operating in South Africa. The horns were later sold on the black market.

In case anyone was wondering, Vietnam is not the first country to announce plans to take a stand against wildlife crime by destroying its illegal animal products stockpile.

Thus, it was in November 2013 when the United States publicly destroyed 6 tons of ivory. “Rising demand for ivory is fueling a renewed and horrific slaughter of elephants in Africa, threatening remaining populations across the continent,” Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell said at that time.

In this year's January, China resorted to similar measures and burned six tons of ivory, and, this past February, France also crushed some 15,000 pieces of ivory.