UN tackles wildlife trafficking as illegal trade hits $150billion

The United Nations said it is beaming searchight on wildlife trafficking in Nigeria, following recent seizure of more than $8 million worth of elephant tusks and pangolin scales by Hong Kong customs from a shipping container coming from Nigeria, making it the biggest catch of its kind, by value and weight and ever in the city.

Over the past twelve months, a total of 25 tons of ivory and pangolin scales were seized in Asia, which allegedly originated from Nigeria, while 13 tons of its kinds were seized in Nigeria.

United Nations Office on Drugs and Crimes (UNODC), which revealed this during activities to mark the 2019 World Wildlife Day in Abuja, noted that similar incident in October 2018 led Vietnamese authorities to intercept more than eight metric tons of pangolin scales and ivory arriving from Nigeria.

According to a statement by Mr. Sylvester Atere, Outreach and Communications Officer, UNODC, pangolins smuggled to Asia are unlikely to originate from Nigeria as the species is near extinction in the country.

“ It appears that Nigeria might risk to evolve rapidly into a transit hub for illicit wildlife products, including pangolins, elephant tusks and other protected species, destined for countries in Asia as well as Europe, the Middle East and North and South America.

“This marks a sharp increase from the almost eight tons of pangolin scales seized by States parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in 2016 and 2017”, it added.

Over the past twelve months, a total of 25 tons of ivory and pangolin scales were seized in Asia which allegedly originated from Nigeria, while 13 tons of pangolin scales were seized in Nigeria.

Meanwhile, the Nigeria Customs Service has renewed commitment towards tackling illegal wildlife trade estimated to worth over $150 billion per year.

The illegal wildlife trade which is largely driven by high demand from Asia and elsewhere is the 4th largest illegal trade in the world (after drugs, weapons & human trafficking resulting in catastrophic declines of various wildlife species across Africa such as elephants and pangolins scales.

At a workshop organized for the Nigeria Customs Service, the National Contact Point for the World Customs Organization, Regional Intelligence Liaison Office for West Africa, Abimbola Animashawun said that Nigeria has attracted international criticism and sanctions as an important transit country for the illegal wildlife trade from Central Africa to China and Vietnam.

Animashawun stressed that despite the number of arrests and seizures made by Customs, prosecution has been weak.

Also the Country Director, Nigeria Programme of Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Mr. Andrew Dunn said, “the elephant population across Nigeria and the rest of Africa has declined by 90 per cent in the last century due to hunting for ivory.

“Due to its porous borders, Nigeria has become an important transit country for the ivory trade from central Africa to China and Vietnam. There has been some huge seizures of ivory recently, illegally shipped from Nigeria. This includes 3.5 tons of ivory from Nigeria seized in Singapore in March 2018, with a value of N900 million”, he noted.

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The new ivory: Endangered pangolins dominating illegal wildlife trade in SE Asia

China's shutdown of the domestic ivory market has crashed the price of elephant tusks by more than 60 percent, forcing smugglers to shift their trade towards another lucrative trade – endangered pangolin scales.

After the Chinese government's crackdown on the once thriving wildlife trade, smugglers are shifting to Vietnam and Laos for selling wildlife products, said experts citing recent ivory and pangolin scale seizure data.

The ivory price declined by nearly two-thirds – from 2,100 U.S. dollars per kg to less than 700 dollars per kg – after China's mainland and its regions Hong Kong and Taiwan closed their domestic markets last year. The massive global demand for ivory has led to the poaching of more than 20,000 African elephants every year.

“(Chinese) President Xi's ivory ban turned the tide in the ivory wars,” said Peter Knights, CEO of WildAid.

“As the price of ivory falls, smugglers appear to be turning increasingly to beleaguered pangolins,” a statement by WildAid, a conservation group maintained. “Pangolin scales can still be legally sold when smuggled into China,” it added.

The recent wildlife seizure data shows wildlife traders prefer to trade pangolins scales over ivory. Most of the consignments, originating from African countries, are routed to various Southeast Asian countries, with Vietnam and Laos emerging as a favorite destination.

Hong Kong, as a Chinese special administrative region and a major illegal wildlife product destination, intercepted 17.6 tons of pangolin scales in 2018, up from 7.9 tons in 2017. Ivory seizures dropped for around 20 times, from 7,600 kg in 2017 to barely 370 kg in 2018.

On Friday, customs authorities of Chinese mainland and Hong Kong announced a record seizure of 8.3 tons of pangolin from Nigeria, worth 5.4 million U.S. dollars. An estimated 13,000 pangolins were believed to be poached, given the large consignment size.

“This is the largest amount of pangolin scales ever seized in Hong Kong,” officials announced

In three other separate operations, Vietnam, Uganda, and Angola law enforcement agencies intercepted a massive haul of ivory and pangolin scales.

Around 750 pieces of ivory and thousands of pangolin scales were seized in Uganda on Thursday. The seized consignment, sent from neighboring South Sudan, is one of the country's largest seizures. Authorities arrested two Vietnamese nationals for smuggling the banned wildlife products.

At Vietnam's Haiphong port city, 1.4 tons of pangolin scales and 20 elephant tusks were seized last week. In Angola, five Vietnamese nationals were arrested for attempting to smuggle in 800 kg of ivory and 900 kg of pangolin scales.

The ant-eating pangolins are the most illegally traded mammal in the world. Concerned over the large scale poaching, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) declared all eight pangolin species as threatened with extinction.

Massive use of the product for traditional medicines, mostly in Southeast Asian countries, is leading to their extinction, IUCN said.

“China could help save African and Asian pangolins. Pangolins cannot be bred commercially, and all populations are banned from trade, so there is no possible legitimate source for ongoing scales sales,” Knights added.

(Top Image: Hong Kong Customs officials showing a record seizure of endangered pangolin scales on Friday, February 1, 2019. /Pix courtesy of WildAid)

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HONG KONG MAKES RECORD SEIZURE OF PANGOLIN SCALES, IVORY

HONG KONG — Hong Kong customs officers have intercepted a record 8.3 tons of pangolin scales and hundreds of elephant tusks worth more than USD$8 million combined, underscoring the threat to endangered species from demand in Asia.

Acting on a tip from mainland Chinese authorities, local officials found the haul in mid-January in a refrigerated container labeled as frozen meat from Nigeria, officials said Friday.

They said the smugglers kept the temperature low to better disguise the smell of the illicit cargo. Police arrested two people in connection with the seizure.

It was the largest-ever seizure of pangolin scales in Hong Kong, representing the product of some 14,000 animals, and one of the largest of ivory in a decade, the officials said.

Scales of the anteater-like pangolin have for centuries been highly valued in traditional Chinese medicine. The scales, made of keratin akin to fingernails, are often roasted and ground to a powder before being added into a mix of ingredients to purportedly cure arthritis, promote breast feeding for mothers and boost male virility.

Scientists have designated all species of pangolins as being at risk of extinction. In the last two decades, the number of pangolins worldwide has dropped by about 90 percent.

Ivory tusks are a cherished decorative craft material in Asia, resulting in the devastation of wild elephant populations in Africa.

Under Hong Kong law, the importation and sales of endangered species and their products can be punished by up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $1.3 million.

China and Hong Kong have sought to crack down on the illegal trade, although the semiautonomous port and financial center remains a major transit point for endangered species products and other contraband.

Last year, following the outlawing of ivory sales in mainland China, Hong Kong’s legislature enacted a complete ban on the local ivory trade to take effect by 2021, while raising penalties for offenders.

Meanwhile, a court in Thailand this week dismissed charges against a Thai man believed to be a kingpin in the illicit trade, according to Freeland, an organization that works with police to combat trafficking.

Police arrested Boonchai Bach just over a year ago at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport for his alleged involvement in the smuggling of 11 kilograms (24.2 pounds) of rhino horns from Africa worth $700,000. A Chinese man and a Thai wildlife quarantine officer accused of assisting the smugglers were also arrested.

Citing a lack of evidence, the Samut Prakan Provincial Court found Boonchai Bach not guilty of multiple charges relating to wildlife trafficking, Freeland said.

Boonchai was suspected of running a large trafficking network on the Thai-Lao border that spread into Vietnam. According to Freeland, he and his family played a key role in a criminal syndicate that smuggled items including ivory, rhino horn, pangolins, tigers, lions and other rare and endangered species.

“Prosecution of a complex transnational organized crime case like this requires a multi-agency effort to bring all the pieces of the puzzle together,” said Steven Galster, founder of Freeland. “Instead, we saw a kingpin walk free after a narrowly focused case fell apart when the prosecution’s only major witness flipped in front of his boss.”

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Customs officers deliver HK$62 million blow to smugglers after seizing container on its way to mainland China full of ivory and pangolin scales sent from Nigeria

More than HK$62 million worth of elephant tusks and pangolin scales have been confiscated by Hong Kong customs from a shipping container that arrived from Africa this month.

The illegal wildlife products were believed to be destined for mainland China, for use in traditional medicine and high-end sculptures.

The haul included more than 8.2 tonnes of scales believed to have come from thousands of endangered pangolins, with an estimated street value of HK$42 million. It was the biggest seizure of pangolin scales, by value and weight, ever in the city, the Customs and Excise Department said.

The operation also came amid increasing seizures of wildlife products last year with the quantities seized increasing more than threefold to 270,000kg.

The scales were found along with more than 1,000 tusks, which weighed about two tonnes. Worth more than HK$20 million, the tusks were the largest haul of ivory since a record HK$70 million ivory seizure in 2017.

One source said ivory could be bought for HK$2,300 per kilogram in Africa, but it cost as much as HK$70,000 per kilogram on mainland China.

He said a single ivory tusk, that normally weighs more than 20kg, could be sold for more than HK$1.4 million.

Pangolin scales are worth about HK$230 per kilogram in Africa but can be sold for HK$5,800 per kilogram on mainland China.

According to the department, customs officers uncovered the shipment from Nigeria after receiving intelligence from mainland authorities.

They inspected a refrigerated container, said to be carrying frozen meat from Nigeria, in mid-January, and found the tusks and scales inside.

Two Hongkongers – a man and a woman – were arrested in connection with the case. The man runs a local trading company and the woman is his employee.

The two suspects were picked up at their Mong Kok office about 10 days ago. They have been released on bail pending further investigation.

The Post has learned the contraband was not for local consumption and was probably bound for mainland China.

Customs officers seize HK$11 million worth of fake luxury goods

Customs officers confiscated more than 17 tonnes of the scales in 2018, twice the amount local authorities seized in 2017. The previous record seizure of 7.3 tonnes of scales came in July 2016. That shipment also came from Nigeria.

Africa is one of the main sources of pangolin shipments. Among the seizures in 2018, customs officers seized three separate shipments from Nigeria, involving a total of 11.7 tonnes of pangolin scales.

The source said it was possible this month’s haul was intended to supplement the underground market after the seizures in 2018.

“The price of the scales [seized in the latest operation] is much higher because the scales are bigger in size,” he said. The scales cost more than HK$5,100 per kilogram, but the product in low grade can be bought for as little as HK$580 per kilogram.

Pangolins are believed to have medicinal properties. Products derived from the animal are thought to reduce swelling and increase lactation and blood circulation.

In 2018, local authorities seized hundreds of kilograms of ivory. The city’s record ivory seizure was made in July 2017 when 7.2 tonnes of ivory tusks worth HK$72 million were found hidden in a container which had arrived from Malaysia.

Overall, 270,000kg of endangered species were found trafficked to the city in 745 cases last year with the number of cases up by 72 per cent. Customs officers arrested 528 people.

Despite the large seizures of wildlife products in recent years, a government source said there was no evidence Hong Kong was a trafficking hub.

“The seizures have demonstrated our capability and determination to fight against such smuggling activities,” he said. “Our enforcement action has deterred smuggling syndicates from attempting to use the city as their trafficking transit centre.”

He said Hong Kong was not the final destination for such goods and it was just one of the stops along the smuggling routes.

Waiter, there’s catfish in my grouper: customs struggles to fight false advertising

“The main operation of the smuggling syndicates is not in Hong Kong, and in most of the cases Hong Kong is only involved in arranging the logistics for the cargo,” the source said.

He added that seizures struck a blow to these syndicates, as local authorities confiscated the goods and they suffered heavy financial losses.

On Monday, the Post reported that no one had been prosecuted in connection with the city’s largest ivory seizure, in July 2017. This sparked concerns from experts, who called on local authorities to put more money into investigations.

Customs Commissioner Hermes Tang Yi-hoi said on Thursday customs had worked hard with other relevant departments to protect endangered species and disagreed that the prosecution rate was low.

“With regard to prosecutions, we need to produce sufficient evidence to substantiate charges for offenders. This is rule of law that has guided us throughout the years,” Tang said.

Additional reporting by Christy Leung

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Forest dept team recovers pair of elephanttusks from Latehar house

A special team of the Forest department has recovered a pair of elephant tusks from a house in Latehar district, eight-days after a tusker was found dead with its tusks missing, a senior Forest official said Thursday

Director of Palamau Tiger Reserve (PTR), Mohan Laltold PTI that the tusks of the dead elephant and Rs 2 lakh incash were recovered by the special team on Wednesday from the house at Garu village which falls under the PTR range The elephant was found dead on January 16 near a railway crossing at Chhipadohar in Latehar district and its tusks were missing.

(With inputs from agencies.)

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Excessive Poaching May Be Causing African Elephants To Evolve Without Tusks

While elephants born without tusks are not unheard of, they normally comprise just 2 to 6 percent of the herd population. However, that is not the case at Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, where an astounding 33 percent of female elephants born after the country’s civil war ended in 1992, are tuskless. While that may appear to be just a coincidence, Joyce Poole, an elephant behavior expert and National Geographic Explorer, has another theory. The researcher thinks we may be witnessing an unnaturally induced evolution of the species due to the incessant poaching of the mammals for their valuable tusks.

Tusks are overgrown upper incisors which protrude from sockets in the elephant’s skull. Unlike our permanent teeth, they continue to grow throughout the animal’s life, becoming longer and thicker with age. While humans covet them for ornamental purposes, the teeth are an essential survival tool for elephants. The mammals use tusks for a variety of tasks including, extracting tree bark, digging for water or roots and, in the case of males, even fighting with one another. While poachers usually first target older males due to their impressive tusks, females are not spared either. As a result, in areas where poaching goes unchecked for extensive periods of time, the proportion of tuskless females increases. This allows them to gain a biological advantage, resulting in a larger than average population of female offspring with no tusks.

Poole, who also serves as scientific director of nonprofit ElephantVoices, believes this phenomenon explains the unprecedented rise in the number of tuskless females at Gorongosa National Park. The researcher, who has been studying the wildlife sanctuary’s elephant population for many years, says prior to the country’s 15-year-long civil war, the 100,000 acre-park was home to over 4,000 pachyderms. However, by the time the conflict ended in 1992, about 90 percent of the mammals had been slaughtered for ivory to help finance weapons and meat to feed the soldiers. Of the less than 200 survivors, over 50 percent of the females – 25 years or older – had no tusks. Hence, it is not surprising that the park’s tuskless elephant population has grown substantially.

This is not the first time researchers have observed a drastic change in the population of elephant herds who have suffered severe poaching losses. At the Ruaha National Park in Tanzania, an area which was heavily poached in the 1970s and 1980s, 35% of elephants 25 years or older and 13% of those younger than 25 are now without tusks. A 2008 study published in the African Journal of Ecology found that the number of tuskless females at Zambia’s South Luangwa National Park and adjacent Lupande Game Management Area went from 10.5 percent in 1969 to almost 40 percent in 1989, largely due to illegal hunting for ivory.

Thus far, the genetic consequence of poaching has largely impacted female elephants. Poole explains, “Because males require tusks for fighting, tusklessness has been selected against in males, and very few males are tuskless. For African elephants, tuskless males have a much harder time breeding and do not pass on their genes as often as tusked males.”

However, if the slaughtering of males with the most impressive tusks continues at this pace, it could result in a generation of elephants with much smaller tusks. Poole says, “Assuming that poachers select according to tusk size, they will tend to kill older males with very large tusks, thereby taking out of the population of breeding-aged males who also happen to have very big tusks. Those males then no longer pass on their genes for large tusks. In this manner, heavy poaching will select out genes for large tusks.”

The recent ban on ivory in both the US and China should help eliminate, or at least reduce, elephant poaching. However, scientists are not sure how long it will take for the herds with a higher rate of tuskless females, to reverse the trend.

The only silver lining is that the tuskless elephants look healthy, indicating they have learned to adapt without their all-important “tools.” To investigate how the pachyderms are able to thrive without tusks, a team led by University of Idaho researcher Ryan Long recently fitted six adult females, three with tusks and three without, with GPS tracking devices. The researchers plan to monitor the animals for a few years to document the tuskless mammals’ modified lifestyle and assess its impact on the surrounding environment.

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Elephants are evolving without their tusks due to poaching

African elephants are evolving by not growing tusks as they feel threatened by poachers.

Poachers shoot elephants for their ivory tusks, which are believed to have healing powers. Elephants are adapting to avoid danger, reports Business Insider. Those without tusks have a biological advantage as poachers do not target them.

According to National Geographic, tusks are essentially overgrown teeth that elephants use for most of their daily tasks, like digging for water or vital minerals in the ground and toppling trees to get fibrous food.

Almost a third of the female elephant population in Mozambique do not have tusks. Earlier, this number was between 2% and 4%.

Related: Islamabad zoo’s ‘isolated’ elephant may be released if found suffering from mental health problems

Apart from Mozambique’s Gorongosa National Park, the tusk-less trend was seen in South Africa’s Addo Elephant National Park as well.

Ryan Long, a behavioral ecologist at the University of Idaho and a National Geographic Explorer, said, “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.”

In China, ivory is sometimes even more valuable than gold because it is considered a cure for numerous diseases. It is believed that it can increase strength and fertility. Ivory is still in demand in the country despite a ban being imposed in 2017.

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3 arrested with elephant tusks worth over Rs 1 crore

Jaipur: The crime branch of Jaipur police claimed a major success after it arrested three persons and seized elephant tusks
worth over Rs one crore from them during a raid.

The crime branch led by ACP Mahavir Singh, arrested Kamlesh Sharma (35), a resident of Bassi in Jaipur; Amit Sharma (23), a
resident of Jamwaramgarh; and Vishnu Prasad Sharma (23), a resident of Andhi area.

The police said that they recovered six kg of elephant tusks from the trio. “They had been planning to sell them off in the illegal
market where there is a high demand for tusks,” an official said.

The police said that there is a thriving industry for illegal ivory in China, which often drives up demand in India.

The police had received a tip-off that three youths would be coming to a park to sell tusks, following which a team, which
included Mannendra Singh, Purshottam Sharma, Dwarka Prasad, Avinash and Bhura Ram, laid a trap and arrested the trio. The
accused were planning to sell these tusks to buyers, “We are now trying to find out who all were in their contact lists and where
did they get supply of so many illegal products from,” an official said.

The Jaipur rural police have not ruled out the possibility of an active, illegal wildlife trade racket operating in the city

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Reports shows rising supply of African ivory despite ban in China

More African ivory is being smuggled into China from Myanmar and Beijing's ban on trade in ivory has failed to dampen imports, a report by the conservation group Save the Elephants said on Tuesday.

Wildlife activists said they welcomed China's ban this year on the ivory trade, arguing the step by a country that is the world's largest importer and end user of tusks was vital to reducing the slaughter of the endangered species.

But it has not stopped what Save the Elephants called the "prolific growth" in trading in a town in the "Golden Triangle" area, where Thailand, Laos and Myanmar meet at the confluence of the Ruak and Mekong Rivers, south of China.

There has been a 60 per cent growth in new ivory items seen for sale in the Myanmar-China border town of Mong La in the past three years and 90 per cent of buyers are Chinese wishing to smuggle the ivory home, the report said.

It gave no separate figures for the period since the ban was introduced.

Myanmar has the world's largest population of captive elephants, 5,000 in all, but trade in tusks at Mong La and elsewhere increasingly comes from elephants of African origin, the report said.

Myanmar's government spokesman Zaw Htay was not immediately available for comment.

"Demand is still very high in China ... Myanmar has over 2,000 kilometres of borderline with China which is very easy for smugglers to bring ivory across," said researcher Lucy Vigne.

She co-authored the report with Esmond Bradley-Martin, a prominent American investigator of the illegal ivory and rhino horn trade who was found dead in his home in the Kenyan capital with an unexplained stab wound in his neck in February.

He had spent decades tracking the movement of animal products, mostly from Africa to markets in Asia.

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China seizes 156 mammoth tusks, 406 walrus tusks and over 1,000 antelope horns in huge ivory haul

Chinese customs authorities said they seized 156 prehistoric mammoth tusks from a truck entering from Russia in one of the country’s largest such hauls.

The contraband was seized in late April at a border crossing in northeastern China’s Heilongjiang province bordering on Siberia, but the find was only announced this week by Chinese customs, state media said.

The haul, which also included two elephant tusks and a range of other animal parts, was hidden under a shipment of soybeans.

Eight suspects, including Russians and Chinese, have been arrested, the People’s Daily said.

China banned the sale and processing of elephant ivory last year after having banned its import in 2015.

This, along with global efforts to stamp out the ivory trade to save elephants from extinction, have led smugglers to turn to a stock of ancient mammoth tusks buried mostly in Siberia but also Europe and North America.

The People’s Daily said the shipment as a whole was one of China’s largest involving animal parts in recent years.

The official Xinhua news agency said the inventory included “two elephant tusks, 1,276 antelope horns, 156 mammoth tusks, 406 walrus tusks, 226 narwhal tusks, as well as gall bladders and bear teeth and 320 kilos of sea cucumbers.”

A wide variety of animal parts are sought after in China as traditional medicines or for other uses, while ivory carving is an ancient art in the country.

The latest seizure’s estimated value was 106 million yuan (US$15.7 million), Xinhua said, adding that an investigation was under way.


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Cameroon Investigates Illegal Ivory, Pangolin Scales Bound for China

DOUALA, CAMEROON —

Law enforcement officials in Cameroon say investigations continue following a large discovery of illegal wildlife products hidden in shipping containers bound for China.

At least 1,000 kilograms of pangolin scales and several hundred elephant tusks were found April 6, in containers of cocoa that were to be transported to China from the Douala international airport.

Officials have not yet determined the country of origin for the contraband. Poaching of elephants and pangolins remains a problem in Cameroon; however, the country has also served as a regional hub for smugglers.

Didier Ngono, an official from the wildlife department, told VOA that three Chinese nationals have been arrested and will help police with their investigation.

Ngono says that under the law, the penalties for smuggling include fines ranging from $6,000 to $20,000 and prison sentences of between one and three years.

Cameroon has intercepted and destroyed at least two other large shipments of pangolin scales bound for Asian countries in the past two years.

Eric Kaba Tah, an official with The Last Great Ape, a nongovernmental organization that helps Cameroon enforce wildlife laws, says enforcement mechanisms remain weak.

"In 2016, two Chinese traffickers were arrested with five tons of pangolin scales that were about to be illegally exported from the country to China," Tah said. "They were given three months' imprisonment from … the one-year minimum imprisonment they were supposed to get, and this is why we are very dissatisfied. They should be given punishment that is commensurate to their crimes."

Both pangolins and elephants are considered critically endangered. International trade in pangolin and ivory is banned, yet consumer demand remains high in Asian countries, fueling the illegal market. Pangolin meat is considered a delicacy and the scales are used in traditional medicine.

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Chinese businessman facing wildlife trafficking charges in Namibia

A CHINESE businessman charged with illegally dealing in elephant tusks and possessing other wildlife products is due to go on trial with two Namibian co-accused in the Windhoek Regional Court in November.

The trial of Hou Xuecheng and his co-accused was scheduled to start before magistrate Ileni Velikoshi last week, but ended up being postponed to 5 November because no Mandarin interpreter was available to assist with the translation of court proceedings for Hou.

Hou (41), fellow Chinese citizen Sha Zhiwei, Indian national Rajaiyah Kumar, and Namibian Hamutenja Stanislaus Hamutenya were arrested in June 2014 after they had allegedly been caught dealing in ivory in Windhoek. Another Namibian, George Mashala, was arrested on the same charge at the end of July 2014.

Only Hou and the two Namibians were present for their court appearance last week, though. Having been released on bail of N$20 000 each in September 2014, Kumar and Sha have been fugitives from justice in Namibia since failing to turn up for a scheduled court appearance in January 2015.

Court records reflect that Hou paid their bail on 9 September 2014. Hou has been free on bail of N$30 000 since 29 July 2014.

The state has charged all five of the accused with a count of dealing in controlled wildlife products, based on an allegation that they dealt in four elephant tusks with a combined weight of 54 kilogrammes in Windhoek on 11 June 2014.

Hou, Kumar and Sha are also charged with two counts of possessing controlled wildlife products without a permit. In respect of those charges, the prosecution is alleging that the three men were in possession of a cheetah skin and a leopard skin in Windhoek on 12 June 2014 without having the required permits to possess the skins, and that they also had seven zebra skins, a pangolin skin, and a stuffed leopard head in their possession at China Town in Windhoek on 11 October 2014 without having permits to possess those wildlife products.

Hou has also faced other legal difficulties in Namibia more recently.

After Anti-Corruption Commission investigators seized two lorries and their cargo of timber – alleged to have been illegally logged in the Zambezi region – at Walvis Bay at the start of January, the close corporation New Force Logistics, through which Hou is doing business and which is the registered owner of the lorries, sued the ACC to have the vehicles and their cargo returned to it.

In a judgement delivered in the Windhoek High Court almost two weeks ago, the ACC was ordered to return the lorries and four shipping containers with timber to New Force Logistics, since the ACC investigators did not have a warrant authorising the search and seizure they carried out when they confiscated the vehicles and their cargo.

The four shipping containers with timber that was being transported to the Walvis Bay harbour have in the meantime again been seized by the ACC, after a warrant authorising that action had been obtained.

Hou, Hamutenya and Mashala remain free on bail while waiting for the start of their trial.

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Tusks seized from New Alipore house

Alipore: Two elephant tusks weighing around 31kg were seized from a house in New Alipore Block B on Tuesday

One of the tusks is 148cm-long and has a girth of 35cm, while the other has a length of 132cm and a girth of 34cm.

"The tusks were found in the possession of Rabin Paul. We are trying to find out the ownership before taking further action," an officer of the CID said.

The team that raided the New Alipore house following a "specific" tip-off comprised representatives of the CID and the wildlife wing of the state forest department. Calcutta police helped the raiding team.

Possessing or trading in ivory is banned around the world.

A kilogram of uncarved ivory can cost anything between Rs 20,000 and Rs 70,000 in the black market, while intricately carved items can fetch up to crores of rupees.

"Ivory trade within India has come down significantly. Poachers usually target the illegal markets in China, Japan, Thailand, Vietnam and some other Asian countries where the demand for ivory is high. There, ivory is used in personalised nameplates, statues, and other items," a forest department official said.

Elephant are protected under Schedule 1 of the Wildlife Protection Act, 1972. Killing the animal or keeping any ivory item can attract at least three years in jail and a fine of Rs-50,000.

India is home to 27,300 of the 50,000-odd Asian elephants found across the world, according to the 2017 count. At the turn of the century, there were 2,50,000 Asian elephants in 13 countries.

More than 80 elephants were killed in India over the past three years.

A report released by the environment ministry states that Karnataka has the largest number of elephants, followed by Assam and Kerala.

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China police seize ivory smuggled via Vietnam border

Customs officers in the Chinese Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region have confiscated 368.5 kg of ivory, which were trafficked from Africa into the country via its border with Vietnam.

Three suspects were detained at scene. The 165 elephant tusks, worth over 29 million CNY (4.4 million USD), were illegally transported to Pingxiang city on the night of November 13 and were captured by customs officers the next day, a Nanning official said on December 8. Nanning is the capital of the region.

According to China’s State Forestry Administration, in 2016, the amount of smuggled ivory seized in China dropped by 80 percent from previous peak years.

The local law stipulates that the smuggling of precious animal products worth more than 1 million CNY can be punished with over 10 years in prison or a life sentence.

China will stop commercial processing and sales of ivory by the end of this year.-VNA

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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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Is China Secretly Poaching Elephants in Africa?

Let’s talk about elephant poaching in Africa. First of all, there is not a single African country where you won’t find a footprint of China. Over the last two decades, China has been expanding its territory to Africa in small but sure steps. In the past, Africa would have easily pass as a United States or European Union playground. For instance, the USA has had several army bases in Africa which ‘collaborate’ with local armies to fight terrorists or restore order in times of war. One of the largest is Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti which oversees the Horn of Africa. Likewise, the EU has been a major trade partner.

One Belt One Road

The script, however, reads a bit different today. Africa is gradually turning its face to the east. China to be specific. The country has also considerably gained access to major African economies. It is now almost impossible to talk about development in Africa without mentioning China, a trend that seems to worry the westerners. Through its One Belt One Road initiative, the world’s second-largest economy has made notable regional trade ties in Asia, Europe, and Africa. The aim has been to develop infrastructure and enhance cultural exchanges.

In Africa, the initiative has led to China undertaking massive projects in many countries. For instance, in the year 2009, the Chinese government and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) signed an agreement where China would build more than 9600 km (6000 miles) of road and railways. The project dubbed the North-South Corridor would run across seven countries and was estimated to cost about 1 billion USD. Similar large-scale projects are already happening or are set to begin in other African regions. Africa in return has provided a huge market for Chinese products. Literally almost everything has a ‘Made in China’ sticker; from electronics to fabrics, food, and wood.

Despite being a resourceful partner, China has been accused of giving with one hand while taking with the other. This is because since its significant entrance to Africa, massive elephant poaching started being reported. Apparently, China has the world’s largest ivory market. It also has licensed ivory retailers and carving factories. Approximately 30,000 elephant are being killed yearly for their tusks. The tusks are then taken to China where there’s a lucrative market.

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Hong Kong seizes $9m worth of ivory in Malaysia shipment

Hong Kong customs officials said Thursday they have seized more than $9 million worth of ivory this week in the city’s biggest haul in 30 years.

Customs officers discovered 15,900 pounds of elephant tusks on Tuesday in a shipment that orginated in Malaysia that had been labeled as frozen fish, the Customs and Excise Department announced

Customs officers displayed samples of the tusks piled on the floor at their offices close to some of Hong Kong’s giant container ports.

The department said three people at a trading company in Hong Kong have been arrested in connection with the shipment.

Hong Kong, which is a major transshipment hub for illicit wildlife products, is preparing to ban local ivory sales by 2021.

But under Hong Kong’s customs regulations, anyone found importing or exporting endangered species without a license or trying to smuggle such items into or out of the territory faces possible fines and imprisonment.

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