Vietnam seizes 2 ivory statues from France
Customs officials in Tan Son Nhat Airport seized two ivory statues in a shipment of furniture parts sent to Ho Chi Minh City from France.
The statues, weighing 2.31 kg in total, were found to be carved from tusks of African elephants (Loxodonta Africana). The shipment receiver is a woman in Binh Thanh District.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature describes the species as vulnerable as poaching for ivory and meat, human population expansion and land conversion threaten its population.
Vietnam has banned the trade of elephant tusks and ivory products since the 1990s.