The article says:
"What is more worrying about the incident is that the young soldier who posted the photos on Facebook did not think he did anything wrong, says Nga Pham from BBC Vietnamese."
It then goes on to say:
"Authorities now realise that they need to do something to educate people, especially the young, about animal welfare and protection, she adds."
The young guy has access to the internet and Facebook, so we can't say that this guy lives under a rock or is caught in a time-freeze. Conservation education in developing countries (in my experience anyway) does little to counteract centuries of tradition. What would be more effective would be hefty fines, confiscation of property in lieu of fines, lengthy jail terms, and execution. We are all educated about the dangers of taking/dealing drugs, and yet there are still people that are willing to take the risk. Fear, in developing countries, is more effective than education. So maybe if these soldiers are made an example of, and some conservation education is thrown in for good measure, then it would be a better deterrent than educating kids in school who, when they go home, still have to eat bushmeat or kill the snake in the yard or set a trap to kill the wildlife raiding their crops or tend to the de-fanged monkey their parents bought for them as a pet.
