Conservationists in Zimbabwe on Friday welcomed reports that a poacher who was part of a gang that killed two rhinos in the south of the country has been sentenced to 35 years in jail, News24 reported.

The unusually heavy sentence was handed down to Tawengwa Machona on New Year's Eve by a magistrate in the city of Masvingo.

Zimbabwe is battling to save its few hundred remaining black and white rhino amid an upsurge in poaching in 2015.

Convicted poachers don't often get sentences of more than nine years in Zimbabwe.