Tanzania Jails Chinese Businesswoman for 15 Years for Smuggling Elephant Tusks

Yang Feng Glan, 69, a Chinese national who has been living and working in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania since the 1970s has been sentenced to jail for 15 years.

Dubbed the 'Ivory Queen', Yang Feng Glan was charged in October 2015 along with two Tanzanian men for smuggling about 860 pieces of ivory worth 13bn shillings ($5.6m) to Asia. She is believed to have been directly involved in the murder of over 500 elephants.

In the past, someone of this caliber would be regarded as 'untouchable' and often made to believe they are above the law. It is very rare to hear of foreigners being prosecuted in Africa. Not anymore and Tanzania has laid a good example for other African countries to follow. 

We can only hope that this model is copied and foreigners in the continent respect the laws of the land and not see themselves as individuals who are above the law.

Ivory poaching is said to have caused a 20% decline in the population of African elephants in the last decade alone. While only the paddlers have been the ones targeted by authorities, it is the big players like Yang Feng Glan that cause the major harm.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a global environmental body, says the population of African elephants has fallen to 415,000 - a drop of 110,000 over the last 10 years - as a result of poaching.

This illicit trade is as a result of the high demand from China and East Asia, where ivory is a leading material for high-class expensive jewelry and ornaments, with Yang Feng Glan a major dealer.

In addition to the prison sentence, the judge has ordered Yang's property to be repossessed.

Before her arrest, Yang was a wealthy businesswoman, who among other businesses, operated a Chinese restaurant as well as an investment company in Dar es Salaam.

Header Image Emmanuel Herman/Reuters