Prince William visits Vietnam to campaign against poaching

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The Duke of Cambridge today took his campaign to end illegal trade in animal parts such as rhino horn to one of the world’s top destinations for trafficked wildlife products.

He arrived in Vietnam for a two day official visit to give “a positive message” to local people about how they can help save animals at risk of extinction from industrial scale smuggling and to address a global conference on trafficking.

Vietnam is known as one of the world’s leading transit centres for the trade in animal parts, many poached in Africa, but the Duke hopes his visit will boost its government’s efforts to clamp down on traffickers.

Ahead of his speech tomorrow Prince William visited Hong Ha Primary School, where many of the pupils are children of traditional medicine practitioners.

The children read ‘I’m a Little Rhino’, a children’s book produced by the Vietnamese Government to educate children about the threat to wild rhinos and the lack of effectiveness of rhino horn as medicine.

He also visited a traditional medicine shop on Lan Ong Street, Hanoi’s hub for traditional medicine, where he spoke to a traditional medical practitioner about work to curb use of products like rhino horn in traditional treatments.

The trip included talks with Vietnam’s Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc at the presidential palace in the capital Hanoi.

A Kensington Palace spokeswoman said: “During his call on the Prime Minister, the Duke spoke about the strength of the relationship between the United Kingdom and Vietnam and said he was looking forward to hearing what Vietnam was doing to tackle the challenges presented by the illegal wildlife trade.”

William is a patron of conservation charity Tusk Trust and is president of United For Wildlife, an umbrella organisation of conservation groups.

In advance of the Third Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade the Vietnamese authorities last weekend destroyed more than two tonnes of seized elephant ivory and rhino horns.

The nearly 5,000lb (2,200kg) of seized material - estimated to be worth more than £5.5 million on the black market - came from some 330 African elephants and 23 rhinos slaughtered by poachers.

The animals were killed to meet the demand for ivory, which is used to make jewellery and home decorations, and rhino horns, which some people mistakenly believe can cure cancer.

One Vietnamese village Nhi Khe has been described as “an industrial-scale crime hub” for rhino horn and elephant products and “a supermarket for illegal wildlife trafficking” at a special hearing of the new Wildlife Justice Commission in The Hague earlier this week.

The Prince’s spokesman said: “He knows the people of Vietnam will share his concern that we have less than 25 years to save some of our most iconic species from extinction. He believes Vietnam has a real opportunity to be leaders in wildlife conservation.”

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