Hanoi (VNA) – The non-governmental organisationEducation for Nature Vietnam (ENV) held a ceremony on December 2 to honourindividuals and collectives in the field of law enforcement with outstandingcontributions in wildlife protection.

Addressing the event, ENV Vice Director Nguyen Thi PhuongDung said that the Wildlife Protection Awards aims to recognize the significantrole of law enforcement agencies, courts and procuracies in observing the lawrelated to wildlife conservation and preventing criminals in the field.

This year, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Minh Tuan from theOffice for Environmental Criminal Prevention and Control of the Kien GiangPolice Department and Lieutenant Colonel Luu Phuoc Nguyen from the same officeof the Quang Nam Police Department won the Best Law Enforcement Office Award.

Meanwhile, the Best Judge Award went to Ngo Duc Du, Judge ofTan Binh district’s People’s Court in Ho Chi Minh City.

Best Procurator Award was presented to Hua Ngoc Thong fromthe People’s Procuracy of Dien Bien district of Dien Bien province.

The best collective award honoured the Mobile ForestManagement Team from the Forest Management Sub-Department of Thanh Hoa provinceand Team 2 of the Office for Environmental Criminal Prevention and Control ofHa Tinh province.

Officials of the People’s Court of Khanh Hoa won the specialaward for raiding wildlife trafficking rings.

This is the third time the awards were organized after 2013and 2015. The organizing board received 40 nominations.

The Criminal Code 2015 (revised in 2017) has raised thepunishment for wildlife criminals to 15 years in prison. Last year, a criminalreceived 13 years’ imprisonment for illegal caging and trafficking 145 Javapangolins. Ten other defendants in the case were also sentenced to 5-8 years injail./.