China Claims They Have Banned Ivory, But News That Just Leaked Is Very Upsetting

Considering the effects of the ivory bans, have elephants really been spared?

With huge tusks that got to the ground, Satao was head and shoulders above the others in is herd. The beast, which is considered one of the last great “tuskers” and is estimated to be about half a century old, was hailed as the biggest, oldest and arguably most iconic elephant in all of Kenya.

In his prime, tourists from all over the world would come in to see Satao. Sadly though, not even his celebrity status- as well as the added security that is got him- could save the most beloved elephant. He was found dead on the 30th of May 2014, and he was apparently a victim of poaching. His face was hacked off, and his ivory was gone.

Satao is just a single victim of the awful ivory trade that is decimating the elephant population of Africa. Currently, the ivory trade is costing the continent about 20 to 30 thousand elephants on a yearly basis. The population of elephants on the continent is about 415, 000; a decline of well over 100,000 in the past decade.

Sadly, this isn’t all the bad news.

On the 31st of December 2017, the elephant ivory trade in China was ground to a standstill. The country is seen as the largest consumer of ivory in the world.

This move is in accordance with the announcement of Former US President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Both leaders committed to enact “almost complete” bans of ivory in their respective countries.

That of America came to effect in June 2016.

In November of 2017, the Trump Administration announced that the ban on importing elephant ivories from Zambia and Zimbabwe would be lifted, but the decision was eventually put on hold after a series of backlash.

Craig Millar, head of Security and Field Operations at the Big Life Foundation, said, “The rate of poaching hasn’t dropped since China’s ban on ivory, but prices of ivory have”

“The rate of poaching has been steadily declining in Kenya for the past three to four years, and it is hoped that the trend would continue”

Millar also added that this drop in prices is actually a good thing.

“As soon as the announcement was made, we witnessed the price of ivory drop by as much as 50 to 60 percent. This just means that the poacher on the ground here is getting much less than anyone else who is on the supply chain, so there’s even less of an incentive for him to keep on risking his life.

Apart from being faced with some brutal scenes, Millar and his colleagues place their lives in danger to protect the animal at Big Life. The foundation manages an area just over 2 million acres.

The biggest impact of this ivory ban, however, has been on the animals themselves. Millar says that Big Life’s elephant hides his tusks from humans by shoving his head into a bush.

“The animals are actually very clever. I’ve seen quite a few changes in the animals that we can attribute to poaching. The behaviors change drastically depending on the environment that they’re in. They know where they’re safe, and they’ll be more relaxed. If they feel threatened, they get nervous and unsettled”

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Under poaching pressure, elephants are evolving to lose their tusks

THE OLDEST ELEPHANTS wandering Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park bear the indelible markings of the civil war that gripped the country for 15 years: Many are tuskless. They’re the lone survivors of a conflict that killed about 90 percent of these beleaguered animals, slaughtered for ivory to finance weapons and for meat to feed the fighters.

Hunting gave elephants that didn’t grow tusks a biological advantage in Gorongosa. Recent figures suggest that about a third of younger females—the generation born after the war ended in 1992—never developed tusks. Normally, tusklessness would occur only in about 2 to 4 percent of female African elephants.

Decades ago, some 4,000 elephants lived in Gorongosa, says Joyce Poole—an elephant behavior expert and National Geographic Explorer who studies the park’s pachyderms. But those numbers dwindled to triple digits following the civil war. New, as yet unpublished, research she’s compiled indicates that of the 200 known adult females, 51 percent of those that survived the war—animals 25 years or older—are tuskless. And 32 percent of the female elephants born since the war are tuskless.

A male elephant’s tusks are bigger and heavier than those of a female of the same age, says Poole, who serves as scientific director of a nonprofit called ElephantVoices. “But once there’s been heavy poaching pressure on a population, then the poachers start to focus on the older females as well,” she explains. “Over time, with the older age population, you start to get this really higher proportion of tuskless females.”

This tuskless trend isn’t limited to Mozambique, either. Other countries with a history of substantial ivory poaching also see similar shifts among female survivors and their daughters. In South Africa, the effect has been particularly extreme—fully 98 percent of the 174 females in Addo Elephant National Park were reportedly tuskless in the early 2000s.

“The prevalence of tusklessness in Addo is truly remarkable and underscores the fact that high levels of poaching pressure can do more than just remove individuals from a population,” says Ryan Long, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Idaho and a National Geographic Explorer. The “consequences of such dramatic changes in elephant populations are only just beginning to be explored.”

Josephine Smit, who studies elephant behavior as a researcher with the Southern Tanzania Elephant Program, says that among the female elephants she tracks at Ruaha National Park, an area that was heavily poached in the 1970s and 1980s, 21 percent of females older than five are tuskless. As in Gorongosa, the numbers are highest among older females. About 35 percent of females older than 25 are tuskless, she says. And among elephants ages five to 25, 13 percent of females are tuskless. (Smit, a doctoral candidate at the University of Stirling, in Scotland, says the data have not yet been published, though she presented the findings at a scientific wildlife conference last December.)

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Japan’s refusal to stop ivory trade undermines bans elsewhere

Japan has got out of implementing tough measures to clamp down on domestic sales of ivory. The move could undermine the international effort to halt the ivory trade.

Elephants are poached for the ivory in their tusks, which is sold on to consumers in Asian countries like China and Vietnam. As a result, the ivory trade is a significant threat to elephants’ survival.

Last week, the standing committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), the global body that regulates trade in animal parts, met in Geneva. Several countries, particularly from Africa where elephants are poached, lobbied for CITES to force Japan to introduce a national ivory action plan. This would have forced the country to take concrete steps to clamp down, possibly including a ban on the domestic trade in antique ivory.

However, Japan managed to sidestep the proposal.

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CHINA’S VOW TO SHUT DOWN ITS IVORY TRADE BY THE END OF 2017 IS A ‘GAME CHANGER’ FOR ELEPHANTS

BEIJING — China promised Friday to halt its domestic ivory trade completely by the end of 2017, a decision greeted by environmentalists as offering real hope for an end to a poaching crisis that is wiping out tens of thousands of elephants across Africa.

“China’s announcement is a game changer for elephant conservation,” Carter Roberts, president of the World Wildlife Fund, said in a statement. “The large-scale trade of ivory now faces its twilight years, and the future is brighter for wild elephants.”

China said it would begin phasing out the ivory trade in March and cease processing and trading completely by Dec. 31, 2017.

The Natural Resources Defense Council, a New York-based environmental advocacy group, said the news “may be the biggest sign of hope for elephants since the current poaching crisis began,” while Grace Ge Gabriel, Asia director at the International Fund for Animal Welfare, said she was “overwhelmed with joy.”

“This is great news that will shut down the world’s largest market for elephant ivory,” said Aili Kang, Asia director at the Wildlife Conservation Society. “Ivory traffickers have just lost one of their biggest markets.”

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Seizures of elephant ivory hit 30-year high

Elephant ivory seizures have hit their highest level for almost 30 years while poaching incidents have stabilised, according to the world conservation body.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, known as Cites, said that last year about 40 tonnes of ivory were seized from poachers and from people trying to import into places such as mainland China and Hong Kong. It was the best return since 1989.

The organisation’s secretary-general, John Scanlon, said that the prospect of tougher enforcement, greater awareness about illegal wildlife products among the general public and a growing number of countries banning the trade in ivory appeared to have dampened enthusiasm in the market.

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Conservationists Call for Enforcement Powers to Crack Down on Ivory Gangs

LONDON — Global delegates and campaigners are gathering in Geneva this week for a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, known as CITES. The trade in ivory is high on the agenda as poaching continues to hit elephant populations across parts of Africa. Campaigners want tougher enforcement of regulations to tackle organized criminal gangs behind the trade.

The United Nations estimates the illegal wildlife trade is worth $23 billion per year, with much of that value coming from ivory.

Asia, and especially China, is by far the biggest market.

The London-based Environmental Investigation Agency spent three years infiltrating one of the major smuggling syndicates shipping ivory from east African ports. Investigators identified the southern Chinese town of Shuidong as the major hub for poached ivory, they say 80 percent of ivory destined for China passes through the town.

“[Shuidong] has emerged as probably the biggest hub in the world for the illegal trade of ivory tusks. We first came across the footprints of this group in Tanzania in 2014. The country has lost half its elephants in five years, the biggest loss in Africa,” said Julian Newman, the agency’s campaign director.

As Tanzania began to clamp down on smuggling, the gangs moved to Mozambique. Investigators secretly recorded one of the traffickers, named as "Xie", describing the trade through the Mozambican port of Pemba.

Xie boasted that he is able to move anything through Pemba. He said all the authorities there have been bought off and the customs clearance agent, the customs also gets a share of the money.

Newman said smugglers are operating with impunity.

“There were a few cases where they had some tusks seized. But they were never arrested. And they saw these seizures as a business expense,” said Newman.

Earlier this month, $10 million-worth of ivory was seized in Hong Kong. China plans to ban the trade by the end of 2017.

But John Sellar, former chief enforcement officer at CITES, told VOA via Skype there is too much focus on the trade and not enough on the criminals involved.

“There is speculation involved here, there is undoubtedly money-laundering to my mind. This is a much more complex issue. Organized criminal networks are now major players in all forms or many forms of wildlife trafficking. And you need to bring an organized law enforcement response to that,” said Sellar.

Without that enforcement, campaigners warn the poaching of ivory will likely continue, until the criminal networks are investigated and broken down.

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Hong Kong ivory ban bill makes exceptions for antique objects

Amendments to Hong Kong’s Protection of Endangered Species of Animals and Plants Bill were launched last month in the territory’s Legislative Council.

The bill, which is still in the process of being enacted, aims to ban the import and export of worked and raw ivory by 2021.

However, although the bill is stricter on modern elephant ivory, a clause stipulates that trade in antique elephant ivory from before July 1925 will still be possible.

British Art Market Federation chairman Anthony Browne said: “This indicates there is consensus, following decisions in mainland China and Europe, that there should be special arrangements for antique works of art containing ivory of cultural and artistic significance.”

The 1925 date is used in Hong Kong as it is 50 years before the CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) agreement came into force in July 1975.

Different countries use different dates - for example in the UK and Europe the date used to determine antique works of art containing ivory is 1947. In China the date is 1949, which is the date the People's Republic of China was founded.

At the end of 2016, China announced its plans to issue a ban on the trade in domestic ivory by the end of 2017.

Demand for ivory in Asia has fuelled the illegal trade and the slaughter of thousands of elephants each year in Africa.

UK trade associations representing the art and antiques sector, although supportive of steps to end the illegal trade in poached modern ivory, argue the case to allow the trade in antique objects containing ivory.

Associations believe the trade in genuine antiques and works of art with ivory elements does not support the illicit market for poached ivory.

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HK seizes $12m worth of ivory

More than seven tonnes of ivory worth over US$9 million (S$12.4 million) were seized in Hong Kong, officials said, the largest bust of its kind in the city in three decades.

The 7,200kg haul was hidden underneath frozen fish and raised suspicions due to the high transport fees listed on the bill of import.

Hong Kong Customs officials said on Thursday the cargo had come from Malaysia and was believed to have been the work of a major smuggling ring. One man and two women have been arrested in connection with the find, Customs official Wan Hing Chuen said, warning that there could be more arrests.

Hong Kong is a major hub for ivory import and processing, but it launched a landmark Bill last month to phase out the trade by 2021. Critics say the city's authorities are lagging behind mainland China, where officials have pledged to completely ban ivory trading by the end of this year.

The global trade in elephant ivory, with rare exceptions, has been outlawed since 1989 after populations of the African giants dropped from millions in the mid-20th century to around 600,000 by the end of the 1980s.

There are now believed to be some 415,000 left, with 30,000 illegally killed each year.

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Hong Kong launches ivory ban bill

HONG KONG: Hong Kong launched a landmark bill to ban its ivory trade Wednesday, describing it as an effort to “eradicate” the illegal poaching of elephants.

The southern Chinese city is a major hub for ivory sales and announced last year that it would ban the import and export of the goods, but later clarified it would only completely abolish the trade by 2021.
Critics say authorities are dragging their feet and lagging behind China, where officials in December pledged to halt the enterprise by the end of 2017.

A new amendment to the Protection of Endangered Species of Animals and Plants ordinance was presented to lawmakers Wednesday, designed to toughen regulations and “phase out the local ivory trade,” but said it would be a five-year process.

Environment minister Wong Kam-sing said the city must respond to the demands of the international community as he formally introduced the bill at the legislative council Wednesday.
The trade would “fully come to a close” by 2021, he added.

A frontline park ranger from the Democratic Republic of Congo last week delivered emotional testimony to legislators, describing the violent nature of the trade.

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China denies involvement in ivory smuggling from Uganda

China on Thursday rejected allegations that two of its diplomats smuggled ivory from Uganda.

“The Chinese embassy officials are suspected of helping move ivory from the Democratic Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and South Sudan, using Uganda as a transit point,” Ali Munira, a spokeswoman for Uganda’s top anti-corruption body, told AFP this week.

Uganda’s president Yoweri Museveni directed the two diplomats to be probed into the alleged wildlife interference.

China has denied such allegations terming them totally unfounded but at the same time vowed to punish them if found guilty.

“We have rigorous regulations and laws on governmental officials, embassy members, and visiting groups to forbid them from buying or engaging in [smuggling] activities,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying told reporters.

“We have rigorous regulations and laws on governmental officials, embassy members, and visiting groups to forbid them from buying or engaging in (smuggling) activities,” she added.

Poaching is a major factor contributing to the rapid decline in the numbers of African elephants, with about 20,000 slaughtered every year, according to the WildAid’s wildlife organization.

It says about 415,000 African elephants remain today, compared with the 3 to 5 million in the early 20th century. The animal is officially listed as a vulnerable species.

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Ivory Prices Drop in Asia Following China's Ban

A new, as yet unpublished research by the Wildlife Justice Commission shows that the price of raw ivory in Asia has fallen dramatically since the Chinese government announced plans to ban its domestic legal ivory trade.

However, poaching has not dropped yet, according to the Guardian, which has seen the research.

Undercover investigators from the Wildlife Justice Commission have been visiting traders in Hanoi over the last three years. In 2015, they were being offered raw ivory for an average of $1,322 per kg in 2015, but by October 2016 that price had dropped to $750/kg, and by February this year prices were as much as 50% lower overall, at $660/kg.

Of all the ivory industries across Asia, it is Vietnam that has increased its production of illegal ivory items the fastest in the last decade, according to the non-profit Save the Elephants.

Vietnam now has one of the largest illegal ivory markets in the world, with the majority of tusks being brought in from Africa. Although historically ivory carving is not considered a prestigious art form in Vietnam, as it is in China, the number of carvers has increased greatly.

Demand for the carved pieces comes mostly from mainland China. Until recently, the chances of being arrested at the border was slim due to inefficient law enforcement.

However, the prices for raw ivory are now declining as the Chinese market slows; this is partly due to China’s economic slowdown and also due to the announcement that the country will close down its domestic ivory trade.

China’s ivory factories were officially shut down by 31 March 2017 and all the retail outlets will be closed by the end of the year.

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China Poised to Close Ivory Factories

NAIROBI, KENYA —
China is preparing to shut down ivory factories Friday. It is the first phase of the government’s plan to end all domestic ivory trade this year. Kenyan conservation group Save the Elephants says that commitment has already had some impact.

Save the Elephants says the wholesale price of ivory in China dropped up to 60 percent in the last three years. The Nairobi-based conservation group says in 2014 a tusk sold wholesale for $2,100 per kilogram. In February of this year, an ivory tusk was sold at $700 per kilogram.

Save the Elephants researcher Esmond Martin did the study, which was released Wednesday in Nairobi.

“The government of China announced in December last year, 2016, it was going to close down the ivory factories, the legal ones and illegal shops,” Martin said. “So what we found was many of the shops are now, are diversifying, getting out of ivory, moving into other materials.”

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China to shut down all ivory factories, retail stores in 2017

China has shut down 67, or one third its ivory factories and retail stores, and will shut down the remaining 105 by the end of the year, according to the State Forestry Administration on Friday.

To further the protection of wild elephants, the administration said that the unsold and unprocessed ivory items can be transported to the remaining 105 factories and stores, but December 31 will be the last day of operations for the sale of ivory.

“The rest of the raw materials will be used in non-commercial activities, for example, restorations of antiques in museums,” said Zhang Dehui, Chief of Wildlife Conservation Division under the State Forestry Administration.

China’s ivory ban has led to a sagging illegal ivory market in recent years.

“China has been spearheading the effort to close its ivory market. This will help reduce the pursuit for profit in ivory and quash its consumption demand. Meanwhile, it will encourage other developing and developed countries to further clamp down on their relevant domestic ivory markets in a bid to save the wild elephant population,” said said Wang Aimin, Country Program Director of the Wildlife Conservation Society China Program.

China used to account for about 70 percent of the global ivory market, but it wants to honor its commitment to the protection of elephants.

“There are many other countries that still allow ivory processing and sales for commercial purposes. And commercial hunting of African elephants is not prohibited in some countries. We hope that these countries will evaluate their current policies on elephant protection and take further action,” said Zhang.

The State Forestry Administration said China has provided 10 million dollars to African countries for the protection of elephants and other wildlife. And more training programs will be launched by China for African countries in law enforcement to protect the threatened species this year.

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China announces to ban all ivory sales by the end of 2017

African elephants currently face a crisis of numbers because the value of ivory has increased dramatically.

#Ivory can fetch almost $600 per pound on the black market. The demand has increased the rate of poaching with an elephant being killed every 15 minutes. Beyond the ecological effects of poaching is the economic effects on local communities, where it can destroy livelihoods of those who live within areas that elephants range.

Poachers spread crime and rob communities of an asset because elephants draw tourists from all over the world. This provides communities with a legal, sustainable source of income for locals.

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Nam wants China action on poachers

WINDHOEK-CHINESE nationals involved in criminal activities in Namibia are straining diplomatic relations between the two countries, The Southern Times has learnt.

Namibia and the East Asian giant established diplomatic relations in early 1990 and China has invested over R60 billion into Namibia over the past 26 years. China also assisted Namibia in building essential infrastructure including hospitals, schools and roads.

But the Chinese community in Namibia, believed to have a population of over 100,000, has been in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons – inciting growing xenophobic sentiment from the hosts.

Chinese nationals’ involvement in illegal wildlife trade is blamed for fuelling rhino and elephant poaching in Namibia. Increasingly, Namibians including senior public officials are voicing their anger over these activities.

In March 2014, Wang Hui, 41, Li Xiaoliang, 32, Li Zhibing, 55 and Pu Xuexin, 51, were intercepted at Hosea Kutako International Airport attempting to smuggle 14 rhino horns worth R2.3 million and a leopard skin worth R50,000, out of the country.

The four were each sentenced to 14 years imprisonment by a Windhoek court. At the time, the case was the country’s record rhino horn smuggling incident.

Then, in November 2016, a 28-year-old Chinese man managed to sneak out of Namibia with 18 rhino horns hidden in his luggage at Hosea Kutako International Airport, before he was apprehended upon his arrival at the Oliver Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg, South Africa.

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"Malaysia intercepts 24 tons of elephant ivory being smuggled to China"

Malaysian authorities made their largest-ever ivory bust after uncovering 24 tons of "white gold" hidden in crates designed to look like stacks of sawn wood. The street value of the ivory may exceed $25 million.

The ivory comes from over 750 elephants, according to conservationist Paula Kahumbu. The shipment originated in Togo, but the elephants were likely killed in other parts of Africa, since the West African nation has less than 200 pachyderms.

Malaysian customs officials say the shipment traveled from Togo to Algeria to Spain to Malaysia. The contraband was destined for China, which is the largest consumer of ivory products.

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Slaughtering Of Elephants Is Soaring Because Of China's Demand For Ivory

 by MARK MEMMOTT


"For the first time in history," hundreds of millions of people in China are now wealthy enough to buy jewelry, combs and trinkets made of ivory and that's led to a huge spike in the illegal slaughtering of elephants in Africa, The New York Times' Jeffrey Gettleman said earlier today on Morning Edition.



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China Takes Steps to Counter Wildlife Trade on the Internet

PNN Online
November 21, 2008

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) and Taobao, China's largest internet auction site, jointly announced a series of online activities to counter illegal wildlife trade on the Internet.

The rise of the Internet is contributing to the rapid growth of illegal trade in wildlife, which is having a devastating effect on animals and ecosystems. Fast, convenient and anonymous, trading of wildlife on the Internet is posing a major challenge to wildlife conservation and law

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Trader on the horns of a legal dilemma

Xu Fang, Shanghai Daily
September 4, 2008

A LOCAL garment trader went on trial yesterday for allegedly smuggling 2.05 million yuan (US$299,537) worth of ivory and related products into the city.

The case was heard by Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, which is still considering a verdict.

Prosecutors said Zhuang Zhifang, 48, who was conducting garment trades between China and Guinea, was seized by Customs officers for carrying eight pieces of ivory, 16 ivory bangles and two ivory bracelets in her luggage when she arrived at the Pudong International Airport from Paris on May 13. Earlier, she had flown from Guinea to Paris.

The seized ivory weighed 1.3 kilograms and came from African elephants. Prosecutors charged Zhuang with smuggling precious animal products, saying that the defendant, having traveled between China and Guinea several times, should have known ivory and ivory products cannot be brought into the country.

Zhuang admitted she knew it was illegal to carry ivory into China. But the African seller told her that processed ivory was allowed to be traded and carried because it was considered to be a craft article.

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China gets ivory imports go-ahead

BBC News

The UN has given China the green light to bid in a one-off sale of ivory.

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) voted in favour of China's request during a meeting being held in Geneva.

China joins Japan as approved buyers of government-owned ivory from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe.

In 2007, Cites authorised the four nations to sell off stockpiles of legally held elephant ivory.

In order to gain approval, China had to present evidence to members of the Cites standing committee that it had put in place measures to tackle any illegal domestic sales of ivory.

"China has acted rather successfully against its own illegal domestic ivory market," said Tom Milliken, a director for Traffic, the wildlife trade monitoring network

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