At a recent conference in Hanoi, experts delivered a message that rhinohorn is not a magical medicine or a status symbol, and called forefforts to save the endangered wild animals. Report by the Nhan DanOnline.
Speakers at the event, timed to coincidewith the World Rhino Day (September 22), included Deputy Chairman of theNational Assembly (NA) Committee for Science, Technology andEnvironment Vo Tuan Nhan, deputy chief of the Hanoi Environmental PoliceNguyen Viet Tien, well-known environmental journalist Do Doan Hoang,and famous actor and comedian Nguyen Xuan Bac.
Theyshared their experiences and findings of a ten-day visit earlier thismonth to South Africa, where they directly witnessed the consequences ofthe increasing international illegal rhino horn trade.
The trip to the world’s main source of illegal rhino horns was made toraise public awareness among Vietnamese people on the increasinglydestructive global trade and to call for joint efforts to protect theremaining rhino population on Earth. It was co-organised by the Vietnamwildlife conservation organisation – Education for Nature Vietnam (ENV)and the South African non-profit Rhinose Foundation.
The insatiable demand for rhino horns is the main cause for the speciesto fall into danger of being killed by hunters and their partsillegally traded, said journalist Hoang, adding that Vietnam is one ofthe three major markets where many people still believe that they canuse rhino horn as a magical traditional medicine and consider it astatus symbol.
He called on policy makers, relevantauthorities and his colleagues in the media and the public to try theirbest to work for the conservation of rhino, not following an absurdreason to deplete rhinos.
“At Kruger National Parkin South Africa, we saw a terrible scene – a rhino that had been shotdead for its horn only one week earlier,” said Nhan revealing that thereare over 28,000 rhino individuals left in the nature globally, 25,000of them (90%) living in South Africa.
However, thenumber of rhinos killed by poachers in the country has increased rapidlyin recent years. So far this year, up to 635 rhinos have died at thehands of poachers in South Africa and nearly two-thirds of them killedinside Kruger, Nhan said, adding this posed the risk of disappearingforever for rhinos if effective measures are not taken to protect them.
The last rhino in Vietnam was killed in 2010, whichis a tragic lesson in conserving wild species on the verge ofextinction. Protecting the endangered species is not the sole issue ofany country but needed the joint efforts by the entire world, Nhansuggested.
He also stressed that with the joining ofVietnam in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Speciesof Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1994 and the implementation of theVietnam Law on Biodiversity, Vietnam has proven its strong commitmentand willingness to collaborate with other country in protecting therhinos.
Newly ENV’s Rhino Ambassador, comedian XuanBac recalled his heartbroken memories in South Africa: “We visited thecarcass of a dead rhino and all that remained was skin and bones. Thehorn had already been taken by poachers.”
“Peoplewho consume rhino are being fooled and wasting their money”, Bac said,urging for strengthened efforts to raise public awareness of rhinoconservation and reinforce the enforcement of laws to prevent theillegal trade in rhino horns.
The demand fromcountries like Vietnam must end, said Andrew Paterson, director of theRhinose Foundation. “We hope that the influential delegates’ experienceson the severity of the problem in South Africa will make a differencehere,” he added.
In another move in response toWorld Rhino Day, “I’m a Little Rhino” , a book written for Vietnamchildren by Humane Society International (HSI), has been delivered tohundreds of schoolchildren from across the country as part of HSI’s workwith the government of Vietnam to reduce demand for rhino horns.
The book aims to educate children about endangered rhinos, thepoaching threat and the need to stop rhino horn consumption to save themfrom extinction.
Four hundred copies of the bookwere distributed to children during the mid-Autumn Festival organised bythe Youth Union of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.Another 700 copies have been given to children at Viet Bun KindergartenSchool in Hanoi’s Hai Ba Trung district and those at Le Quy Don PrimarySchool in Tu Liem district.-VNA
Speakers at the event, timed to coincidewith the World Rhino Day (September 22), included Deputy Chairman of theNational Assembly (NA) Committee for Science, Technology andEnvironment Vo Tuan Nhan, deputy chief of the Hanoi Environmental PoliceNguyen Viet Tien, well-known environmental journalist Do Doan Hoang,and famous actor and comedian Nguyen Xuan Bac.
Theyshared their experiences and findings of a ten-day visit earlier thismonth to South Africa, where they directly witnessed the consequences ofthe increasing international illegal rhino horn trade.
The trip to the world’s main source of illegal rhino horns was made toraise public awareness among Vietnamese people on the increasinglydestructive global trade and to call for joint efforts to protect theremaining rhino population on Earth. It was co-organised by the Vietnamwildlife conservation organisation – Education for Nature Vietnam (ENV)and the South African non-profit Rhinose Foundation.
The insatiable demand for rhino horns is the main cause for the speciesto fall into danger of being killed by hunters and their partsillegally traded, said journalist Hoang, adding that Vietnam is one ofthe three major markets where many people still believe that they canuse rhino horn as a magical traditional medicine and consider it astatus symbol.
He called on policy makers, relevantauthorities and his colleagues in the media and the public to try theirbest to work for the conservation of rhino, not following an absurdreason to deplete rhinos.
“At Kruger National Parkin South Africa, we saw a terrible scene – a rhino that had been shotdead for its horn only one week earlier,” said Nhan revealing that thereare over 28,000 rhino individuals left in the nature globally, 25,000of them (90%) living in South Africa.
However, thenumber of rhinos killed by poachers in the country has increased rapidlyin recent years. So far this year, up to 635 rhinos have died at thehands of poachers in South Africa and nearly two-thirds of them killedinside Kruger, Nhan said, adding this posed the risk of disappearingforever for rhinos if effective measures are not taken to protect them.
The last rhino in Vietnam was killed in 2010, whichis a tragic lesson in conserving wild species on the verge ofextinction. Protecting the endangered species is not the sole issue ofany country but needed the joint efforts by the entire world, Nhansuggested.
He also stressed that with the joining ofVietnam in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Speciesof Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 1994 and the implementation of theVietnam Law on Biodiversity, Vietnam has proven its strong commitmentand willingness to collaborate with other country in protecting therhinos.
Newly ENV’s Rhino Ambassador, comedian XuanBac recalled his heartbroken memories in South Africa: “We visited thecarcass of a dead rhino and all that remained was skin and bones. Thehorn had already been taken by poachers.”
“Peoplewho consume rhino are being fooled and wasting their money”, Bac said,urging for strengthened efforts to raise public awareness of rhinoconservation and reinforce the enforcement of laws to prevent theillegal trade in rhino horns.
The demand fromcountries like Vietnam must end, said Andrew Paterson, director of theRhinose Foundation. “We hope that the influential delegates’ experienceson the severity of the problem in South Africa will make a differencehere,” he added.
In another move in response toWorld Rhino Day, “I’m a Little Rhino” , a book written for Vietnamchildren by Humane Society International (HSI), has been delivered tohundreds of schoolchildren from across the country as part of HSI’s workwith the government of Vietnam to reduce demand for rhino horns.
The book aims to educate children about endangered rhinos, thepoaching threat and the need to stop rhino horn consumption to save themfrom extinction.
Four hundred copies of the bookwere distributed to children during the mid-Autumn Festival organised bythe Youth Union of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development.Another 700 copies have been given to children at Viet Bun KindergartenSchool in Hanoi’s Hai Ba Trung district and those at Le Quy Don PrimarySchool in Tu Liem district.-VNA
