VietNamNet Bridge – The central city’s People’s Court rejected poacher Nguyen Van Ly’s appeal of a three-year conviction at a hearing on Monday.

A family of the Red-Shanked Doucs (Pygathryx nemaeus) is snapped at the Son Tra Nature Reserve in Da Nang City. The central city’s People’s Court decided to imprison illegal hunter Nguyen Van Ly three years in prison for killing the endangered langurs. — Photo: VNS

Ly was sentenced by Son Tra district people’s court last year for killing two Red-Shanked Doucs in the Son Tra Nature Reserve.

The court said Ly had violated regulations on hunting and killing endangered species under the list of protected animals of the Governmental Decree No 32.

Ly, 29, along with his wife, his father and two other accomplices, hunted illegally in the Son Tra Nature Reserve in Da Nang for one month in 2015.

The group killed five wild animals, including two endangered Red-Shanked Doucs (Pygathryx nemaeus) – a kind of langur that was declared endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature in 2013, and the Red Book of Viet Nam.

Rangers from the Son Tra-Ngu Hanh Son’s Forest Protection Department caught them with 100 traps and 3.11kg of dried meat, bone, skin and fur of the wild animal at their shelters in forest.

The meat and bones were identified at the Viet Nam Science Academy as having belonged to a Red-Shanked Doucs.

At the first trial, the Son Tra district’s court on July 13, 2016, fined poarcher Vi Van Son to three years in prison, and Vi Van Hoang to two-year and six months.

The district’s court then gave Ly three years for killing the endangered langurs, and his father Nguyen Van Hoi a two-year imprisonment.

Ly’s wife, Le Thi Lan was given two years, but she then was given a suspension.

Ly then appealed for a reduction of the sentence.

The Son Tra Nature Reserve in Da Nang, known for its rich biodiversity, is home to 300 Red-Shanked Doucs.

However, poaching, logging and the construction of houses and villas have caused an alarming drop in the population over the past decade.

In 2015, an area of 11ha forest in the Nature Reserve was destroyed by illegal loggers for building a tourism site.

More than 2,000 traps have been dismantled by rangers and volunteers.

About 20 restaurants, 68 houses and villas have been built in the reserve. 

VNS