Nearly 1 tonne of elephant tusks, pangolin scales uncovered in Hanoi

Customs officers of Noi Bai International Airport on September 28 seized nearly one tonne of elephant tusks, ivory products and pangolin scales transported from Nigeria.

The products were hidden in 24 boxes sent by two companies based in Nigeria to two companies in Hanoi’s outskirt district of Soc Son through Turkish Airlines on September 21.

The products have been put on the seals. The Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology has also taken their samples to trace their origin.

Trading, storing and transporting ivory is forbidden in Vietnam. Violators can be fined from 5-50 million VND or imprisoned from six months to five years.

In August 2017, a “Say No to Ivory” campaign was launched in Ho Chi Minh City with a view to raising public awareness of elephant protection.

The campaign, part of the global wildlife programme “When the buying stops, the killing can too”, was launched by the Centre of Hand-on Actions and Networking for Growth and Environment (CHANGE) and WildAid organisation.

The “Say No to Ivory” campaign is set to last for three years.

In Vietnam, WildAid is focusing on measures to change people’s wrong belief in the uses of wildlife products, including ivory, through communication publications.

According to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the number of elephants in Vietnam has fallen from more than 1,000 to about 100 which mainly live along the border with Laos and Cambodia. Vietnam has become an illegal point of transit for ivory over the last decade.-VNA

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Ivory seized by S’pore authorities in March to undergo DNA analysis

SINGAPORE — Efforts to analyse the DNA of 3.5 tonnes of ivory seized by the Singapore authorities in March are underway, and findings could help to pinpoint where the elephants were poached and shed greater light on ivory trafficking.

The Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority (AVA) said on Friday (May 4) it is working with an American conservation biologist known for his groundbreaking work using DNA – or deoxyribonucleic acid – to aid the conservation of elephants.

Populations of the largest land animal are in peril due to poaching and the illegal trade in ivory, and tens of thousands of elephants are reportedly slaughtered every year.

Dr Samuel Wasser and his team from the University of Washington visited Singapore last month and collected 253 samples of the tusks seized.

The AVA is also working with the United States’ Homeland Security Investigations, the Singapore government agency added.

The shipment, which was declared to contain groundnuts, originated from Nigeria and was to be re-exported to Vietnam. It was detained at the Pasir Panjang Scanning Station by the Immigration and Checkpoints Authority on March 5.

The AVA inspected the container and found 61 bags containing 1,787 pieces of elephant ivory estimated to be worth about US$2.5 million (S$3.3 million). The AVA said in March that the importer was assisting with investigations.

Dr Wasser said: “The ivory we are sampling now was seized a month and a half ago. That’s the shortest time we’ve ever had between the seizure (being) made and us getting to sample it. By getting the information quick, we can have a greater effect in enforcement.”

DNA analysis takes three weeks from the time the samples arrive at the laboratory, he said. Countries may not release ivory seized to his team until cases are closed, which can be months or years later. But if brought in earlier, his team can help enforcement agencies to “build a better prosecution”, added Dr Wasser. Besides Singapore, his team has worked with authorities from countries such as Kenya, Mozambique, the United Kingdom, Malaysia and Sri Lanka to collect samples of seized ivory.



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Vietnam a hotspot for elephant-tusk trafficking

“When I was director of Yok Don National Park, I saw a live male elephant being tied by poachers to a column of house so they could cut its tusks,” said Do Quang Tung, MARD’s chief secretariat, describing an incident of two years ago in one of three areas with the highest numbers of living elephants in Vietnam.

Elephant tusks, rhino horns and bear gall are the products of a wildlife market valued at $20 billion, ranking third below narcotics and weapon markets worldwide.

Experts say mainland China consumes 70 percent of the world’s elephant tusks. Thailand, Hong Kong and Vietnam are also large markets.

The wholesale price of elephant tusks in Hong Kong and mainland China was $450-900 per kilogram last year.

In the last three months of 2016, Vietnam’s customs officers discovered and seized six tons of elephant tusks. 

Recently, in a consignment of timber imported from Mozambique, customs officers discovered 2,052 kilograms of elephant tusks hidden in six out of 100 sections of wood. About 100 elephants were killed for the tusks.

Le Nguyen Linh, deputy head of the Sai Gon Port Zone 1 Customs Agency, said he once saw a pair of tusks weighing up to 60 kilograms illegally carried through the Cat Lai Port.

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3 tonnes of elephant tusks seized from smugglers

Vietnamese authorities have seized nearly three tonnes of ivory hidden among boxes of fruit, officials said Sunday, the latest haul to spotlight the country's key role in the global wildlife smuggling trade.
Police in the central province of Thanh Hoa found 2.7 tonnes of tusks inside cartons on the back of a truck that was on its way to Hanoi, according to a report on their website.

"This is the largest seizure of smuggled ivory ever in Thanh Hoa province," the report said.
State media said the elephant tusks originated from South Africa.

The truck driver claimed he was unaware of what he was transporting, according to a report in state-controlled Tuoi Tre newspaper.

Police declined to comment further when contacted by AFP on Sunday.

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, with 30,000 illegally killed each year.
Prices for a kilogramme (2.2 pounds) of ivory can reach as high as $1,100.

Vietnam outlawed the ivory trade in 1992 but the country remains a top market for ivory products prized locally for decorative purposes, or in traditional medicine despite having no proven medicinal qualities.

Weak law enforcement in the communist country has allowed a black market to flourish, and Vietnam is also a busy thoroughfare for tusks trafficked from Africa destined for other parts of Asia, mainly China.

Last October, Vietnam customs authorities discovered about 3.5 tonnes of elephant tusks at Cat Lai port in Ho Chi Minh city, all in crates of wood, including a hefty two-tonne haul packed into a single shipment.

In 2015, 2.2 tonnes of tusks, originating from Mozambique, were discovered and seized northern Hai Phong port.

And last week authorities in Hong Kong seized 7.2 tonnes of ivory, the largest haul in the city for three decades.

While low level couriers are sometimes arrested across Asia very few wildlife trafficking kingpins are brought to justice.

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Joint efforts called for to protect last wild elephants in Vietnam

The diplomat made the statement while addressing a talk held by the US Embassy in Hanoi, on August 11, in response to World Elephant day (August 12), under the theme “Please treat elephants well”.

In attendance at the event were Nguyen Dao Ngoc Van and Alegria Olmedo from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Rose Indenbaum from TRAFFIC, and Nguyen Thi Phuong Dung from Education for Nature Vietnam (ENV).

During the talk, delegates called for greater attention to elephants and their difficult living conditions, whilst discussing possible ways to preserve the last 100 wild elephants that remain in Vietnam.

The event enabled participants to understand more about the ways in which they could tackle the threats to elephants, through voluntarily joining wildlife organisations, supporting wildlife preservation efforts and raising awareness of the elephants’ struggle for survival.

Earlier on August 10, the US Embassy screened a film entitled “Ivory Game”, a documentary film featuring illegal elephant ivory trade, from the moment the elephant was poached in Africa to the moment when the elephant ivories were sold illegally in Asia.

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