云南三男子盗窃黄花梨树获刑8年

云南三男子盗窃黄花梨树获刑8年

试图盗树最糟糕的会是什么呢？云南三名偷树的男子正好告诉你偷窃木材有多严重。云南3男子趁雨夜偷偷溜入中科院西双版纳热带植物园,将一棵分叉的黄花梨树偷锯贩卖被判处有期徒刑8年。

Try stealing a tree. What’s the worst that can happen?

Three men in southwest China’s Yunnan Province are finding out just how bad timber thievery can be.

A court has sentenced the tree thieves to eight years in prison for stealing a valuable, fragrant rosewood tree from a botanical garden at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in the Xinshuangbanna Dai Autonomous Prefecture, in Yunnan.

On top of the sentence, the three were also ordered to pay a fine of 100,000 yuan (about 1,472 US dollars) each.

The heist took place on October 9, 2015. According to CCTV News, the three men arrived at the tropical botanical garden armed with tools. They cut a rosewood tree down and hid its trunk in a fish pond back home.

One of the thieves was arrested about a week later. His accomplices panicked and sold the trunk in Laos the next day. They were arrested shortly after.

The fragrant rosewood tree is a second-class key protected wild plant in China. Each is worth around 360,100 yuan.

Fragrant rosewood is a rare species of legume plant that grows in the Hainan, Fujian, Zhejiang, and Guangdong provinces. The plants are used for medicine and making furniture and ornaments.

Despite government efforts to protect the species, fragrant rosewoods have become increasingly rare. Demand for its wood remains high, and it takes decades for a sapling to grow to be useful. The species has been listed as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.

Prices for the trees can go even higher. A 20-meter tall fragrant rosewood with a diameter of 65 centimeters was valued at 23 million yuan in Guangdong in 2012.

Do you think the punishment fits the crime in this case, or should the sentences be cut down?