A Tanzanian court yesterday sentenced a prominent Chinese businesswoman, who is described as "queen of ivory," to 15 years of smuggling 350-pound tigers weighing about two tons.
In October 2015, Yang Feng Glan was charged with two Tanzanian men for smuggling 860 pieces of ivory between 2000 and 2004 worth 13 billion shillings ($ 5.6 million). The three denied the charges.
Yang, 69, has been living in Tanzania since the 1970s and has served as secretary-general of the China-Africa Business Council in Tanzania, police sources said. Yang, who speaks Swahili, also has a popular Chinese restaurant in Dar es Salaam.
Environmental groups welcomed Yang's condemnation, saying: "It is evidence of the government's seriousness in fighting illegal wildlife hunting, but it has criticized the government."
"It is not enough punishment for the atrocities it has committed, its responsibility for the illegal fishing of thousands of elephants in Tanzania, it has been running a network that killed thousands of elephants," said Amani Nguzaro, director of the World Wildlife Fund in Tanzania.
According to a 2004 census, the number of elephants in Tanzania fell from 110,000 in 2009 to less than 43,000 in 2014 as environmental groups blamed illegal fishing. The demand of Asian countries such as China and Vietnam for ivory, which has been converted into jewelery and jewelery, has led to an increase in illegal fishing across Africa.
Yang has lived in Tanzania since the 1970s and has a popular Chinese restaurant.