Ivory

[GeneChing]

The shame is that we only think about it in Tiger years. Nevertheless, we're doing our part. Support our WildAid Tiger Championship this year.

Endangered Species Perish While Governments Debate Trade Rules
DOHA, Qatar, March 15, 2010 (ENS) - The future of the world's remaining tigers, elephants, rhinos, and polar bears, bluefin tuna, sharks, and coral as well as rosewood, mahogany, and holywood will be decided over the next 10 days by delegates from 175 countries meeting in Doha.

The delegates represent countries that are Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, CITES. They meet only once every three years to decide trade rules for animals and plants at risk of extinction due commercial trade.

The CITES treaty offers varying degrees of protection to some 34,000 species of animals and plants in trade, through a system of permits and certificates.

Species are included in one of three lists - Appendix I allows no commercial trade, Appendix II allows trade by permit, and Appendix III lists species that are protected in at least one country, which has asked other CITES Parties for help in controlling the trade.

The year 2010 marks the International Year of Biodiversity and the role of CITES in regulating the global trade in plant and animal species is viewed as central to promoting the dual goals of conservation and sustainable use.

In his welcoming remarks to CITES delegates, Qatar's Environment Minister Abdullah bin Aaboud al-Midhad, highlighted the success story of the Arabian oryx, which was extinct in the wild by the early 1970s.

"Qatar has had a great role in keeping some creatures that are endangered to be extinct, including the Arabian oryx," said al-Midhad. "It was resettled in natural reserves, and now it is deemed to be the biggest oryx herd in the Arab world." More than 1,300 oryx are now in existence, he said, and Qatar has given animals from this herd to "neighboring and friendly countries."

After May 1, CITES will have a new leader. After 10 years in the job, Secretary-General Willem Wijnstekers will retire to be replaced by John Scanlon, a top advisor at the United Nations Environment Programme. An Australian national, Scanlon has served in environmental law, policy and management at national and international levels.

In his opening remarks to the delegates, Wijnstekers pointed out that the CITES budget of $5 to $6 million is not enough to cover the increasing number of activities and results that Parties and others expect from CITES.


"In the absence of necessary core funding," Wijnstekers said, "CITES will not be able to fully exploit its great potential and we seriously risk to let down not only the many animal and plant species we appear to attach such great importance to, but we also risk to let down the developing world in its struggle to conserve wildlife from the many threats it faces."

In Doha, more than 42 proposals are on the table, indicating a high level of international concern about the accelerating destruction of the world's biological diversity and the potential impacts of climate change on the biological resources of the planet.

The perilous situation of the world's 3,200 remaining wild tigers is in the spotlight as 2010 is the Year of the Tiger in the Chinese lunar calendar.

The CITES Secretariat and the international policing agency, INTERPOL, are asking countries to submit information about crimes against tigers, so that they can be analyzed and effective anti-poaching strategies developed.

In the early 1900s, tigers were found throughout Asia and numbered over 100,000. In the 1970s, the world woke up to the fact that wild tigers were disappearing. Between the 1970s and 2010, governments and conservationists spent tens of millions of dollars trying to save tigers in the wild and millions continue to be spent. But wild tigers are still falling to poachers.

"If we use tiger numbers as a performance indicator," says CITES Secretary-General Willem Wijnstekers, "then we must admit that we have failed miserably and that we are continuing to fail. How have we let this happen?"

"Although the tiger has been prized throughout history, and is a symbol of incredible importance in many cultures and religions, it is now literally on the verge of extinction," Wijnstekers said. "2010 is the Chinese Year of the Tiger and the International Year of Biodiversity; this must be the year in which we reverse the trend. If we don't, it will be to our everlasting shame."

Tigers are today primarily poached for their skins but almost every part of a tiger's body can be used for decorative or traditional medicinal purposes. Most tigers are now restricted to small pockets of habitat, with several geographical populations teetering on the brink of extinction.

At a symposium in Beijing on Friday, the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies, WFCMS, issued a statement urging its members not to use tiger bone or any other parts from endangered wildlife.

"Tiger conservation has become a political issue in the world. Therefore, it's necessary for the traditional Chinese medicine industry to support the conservation of endangered species, including tigers," said Huang Jianyin, the federation's deputy secretary.

The WFCMS is an international academic organization based in Beijing, with 195 member organizations in 57 nations where traditional Chinese medicine is used.

In its statement, the federation said some of the claimed medicinal benefits of tiger bone have no basis. The use of tiger bones was removed from the traditional Chinese medicine pharmacopeia in 1993, when China first introduced a domestic ban on tiger trade. China is among the 175 countries that are Parties to the CITES treaty.

As an international traditional Chinese academic organization, the WFCMS said it has a duty to research the conservation of endangered species, including tigers. "We will ask our members not to use endangered wildlife in traditional Chinese medicine, and reduce the misunderstanding and bias of the international community," said Huang.

"CITES governments should be encouraged by this statement and use the opportunity they have at this meeting to pass measures, that if properly enforced, can help put an end to tiger trade," said Dr. Colman O'Criodain, wildlife trade analyst, WWF International.

"The societies' public declaration is a clear signal that the traditional Chinese medicinal community is now backing efforts to secure a future for wild tigers," said Professor Xu Hongfa, head of the wildlife monitoring network TRAFFIC in China.

WWF and TRAFFIC are calling for a permanent ban on all trade in tiger parts and products, and for a curtailment of commercial captive breeding operations.

continued next post

[GeneChing]

continued from previous post

Delegates to the CITES meeting also will review progress in the conservation of the great apes, Asian big cats, and the Tibetan antelope.

The escalation of rhino poaching and strategies for fighting criminal networks trading in their horns in parts of Africa and Asia is also on the CITES agenda.

In the 1990s, rhino numbers grew in many of its range states, but in the mid-2000s, rumors emerged that rhinoceros horn could stave off cancer or halt its spread. The CITES Secretariat says that rhinos in India, South Africa, Nepal and Zimbabwe now appear to be killed by organized crime groups that control the smuggling of rhino horns to the Asian Far East, where they are sold on the black market for thousands of dollars.

"The 'shoot to kill' policy adopted by some governments in Africa does not seem to be deterring poachers and one national park store was even robbed at gunpoint, so that horns removed by park staff from rhinos that had died naturally could be stolen," the Secretariat said.

Elephant poaching and the ivory trade will occupy the delegates once again. At the last CITES conference in 2007, Parties agreed to a nine-year moratorium on any further trade in ivory. Yet proposals have been submitted from Tanzania and Zambia seeking permission for a one-time sale of 112 tons of ivory.

With or without permission, these two countries are hoping to open the door for future ivory trade by 'down-listing' their elephant populations from Appendix I to Appendix II.

At the same time, says the International Fund for Animal Welfare, there has been an escalation in seizures of illegal ivory since the last meeting, and an increase in poaching of elephants in central and eastern Africa.

"To permit any step towards further trade in ivory makes no sense whatsoever," said IFAW's Jason Bell-Leask. "It flies in the face of every basic conservation principle and is contrary to the agreement made at the last meeting."

The African Elephant Coalition of 23 African elephant range countries opposes the proposals for the one-time sales. This group insists that the nine-year ivory trade moratorium agreed in 2007 provides all African range states the opportunity to cooperatively secure elephants in their habitats and assess the impacts of the previous legal sales.

Marine species are also high on the CITES agenda this year.

"CITES will address a number of critical issues relating to the international trade of species, but many will focus on marine issues," says Simon Stuart, chair of International Union for the Conservation of Nature, IUCN, Species Survival Commission. "The number of marine species affected by illegal, unmanaged and unreported fishing, as well as bycatch, is contributing to many species such as sharks and commercial fish becoming threatened."

Delegates will discuss whether or not to place a ban on international trade in the commercially valuable Atlantic bluefin tuna. The large fish is valued in the lucrative sushi trade, one was sold in January for over $120,000, but overfishing is threatening the species.

All 27 European Union member states agreed last week to support a ban on the bluefin tuna trade by placing the species on CITES Appendix I. The EU countries join a growing list of supporter, including the United States, but not Japan, where more than 80 percent of all bluefin tuna is consumed.

Other species to be discussed include the spiny dogfish, which appears on fish and chips menus in the UK, and is threatened with over-exploitation. The fate of the porbeagle shark, again under threat from overfishing, will also be decided at CITES.

"CITES COP15 will address a number of critical issues relating to the international trade of species, but many will focus on marine issues," says Simon Stuart, chair of IUCN's Species Survival Commission. "The number of marine species affected by illegal, unmanaged and unreported fishing, as well as bycatch, is contributing to many species such as sharks and commercial fish becoming threatened."

A little-known Iranian salamander could become the first species protected by CITES because of e-commerce, a new threat to endangered wildlife.

The Kaiser's spotted newt, found only in the Zagros Mountains of Iran, is considered Critically Endangered and is believed to number fewer than 1,000 mature wild individuals. Iran is proposing the amphibian for an Appendix I listing.

The newt is sought as a pet by collectors and numbers have dwindled by more than 80 percent in recent years. In 2006, an investigation by TRAFFIC into the sale of Kaiser's spotted newts revealed 10 websites claiming to stock the species. One Ukrainian company claimed to have sold more than 200 wild-caught specimens in one year.

"The Internet itself isn't the threat, but it's another way to market the product," said Ernie Cooper of TRAFFIC Canada. "The Kaiser's spotted newt, for example, is expensive and most people are not willing to pay US$300 for a salamander. But through the power of the Internet, tapping into the global market, you can find buyers."

WWF and TRAFFIC are concerned about online trade in elephant ivory, and precious corals, including overharvested red and pink coral, currently proposed for listing on CITES Appendix II. All 31 species of red coral are vulnerable or endangered.

Delegates to the CITES meeting will consider whether to take a more proactive approach to regulating the online trade in endangered species. This may include the creation of an international database of the trade, scientific research to gauge the correlation between wildlife loss and online trade, and closer collaboration with INTERPOL.

[GeneChing]

Ivory isn't used in TCM to my knowledge. It's just for jewelry and art. Nevertheless it is Hong Kong and China is the main culprit.

Hong Kong Seizes Smuggled Elephant Tusks
Tyrone Siu/Reuters


A customs officer walked on Friday past ivory tusks that were seized by the Customs and Excise Department in Hong Kong.
By BETTINA WASSENER
Published: July 19, 2013

HONG KONG — Customs officials in Hong Kong on Friday announced one of the largest seizures of smuggled ivory ever made in the city — and their fifth since October — highlighting the pervasiveness of a trade that conservationists describe as an all-out crisis for elephant populations in Africa.

The shipment, consisting of 1,148 tusks weighing in at 4,800 pounds, was worth an estimated $2.25 million, according to a customs department statement.

The tusks were concealed in a container coming from the West African nation of Togo.

Rising affluence in Asia has caused demand for ivory and many other wildlife products to soar in recent years, putting many animal and plant species under severe pressure.

Despite rising awareness and warnings that poaching has pushed some species to the brink of extinction, enforcement and penalties often remain weak, and represent an insufficient deterrent to poachers and smugglers, wildlife experts say.

In the case of ivory, the demand stems mainly from China, where it is highly prized for its use in ornaments and sells for hundreds of American dollars per kilogram on the black market.

Tens of thousands of elephants have been killed for their tusks in recent years in Africa, where the revenues from the poached ivory are believed to be fueling conflicts across the continent.

The fact that the number of large-scale shipments has been on the increase also is indicative of organized criminal involvement, say experts at Traffic, a group that monitors the trade in endangered wildlife.

Two other seizures made in Hong Kong in the past nine months weighed in at just over nearly 2,900 pounds, while a shipment intercepted last October weighed more than 8,300 pounds. All originated in Africa.

Hong Kong, Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines are the main transit points within Asia for large ivory consignments arriving from Africa, Richard Thomas, a spokesman for Traffic, said in an e-mail on Friday.

[SoCo KungFu]

Those images are absolutely disgusting. And sad.

I recently saw a program where criminal gangs are poaching rhinos and elephants in protected reserves in Africa. They fly over in helicopters and massacre the animals with high-powered rifles, land, then take out the horns or tusks, then leave the carcasses to rot. The ultimate destination of these horns and tusks are to China. These animals are not only innocent but also highly endangered. I try not to think about it, because it gets me so mad. And to add further insult, whatever concoctions those rhino horns are used for are quack 'medicines'.

Whether or not you agree with Sea World's orca shows, what's going on in Africa, Asia and elsewhere to endangered animals for the sake of $$$ and quack Chinese 'aphrodisiacs' is far, far more insidious and destructive. So what the hell is PETA doing to stop this wholesale slaughter? Or are organized poaching gangs not a soft enough target for them to take on?

While this is a thread related to TCM and the obvious place to point a finger would be at China, do keep in mind that behind China, it is the US that is 2nd or 3rd (depending on estimate) in imports of illegally harvested animals and animal parts (mainly ivory). And frankly, its a problem we (the developed world) created. If we (our corporations) actually paid people in these countries the true value of the resources we strip from their lands, then there wouldn't be so many impoverished individuals willing to take the risks associated with poaching. The main difference between China and everyone else is in who is driving the demand and which species are being targeted.

[GeneChing]

Revealed: the Laos market selling ivory carvings and ‘medicinal’ rhino horn from slaughtered wildlife to Chinese buyers
Philip Sherwell, asia editor
17 APRIL 2016 • 3:42PM

The array of Buddhist figurines, bracelets, ornaments, pendants and chop-sticks shone creamy-white under the shop spotlights in their display cabinets.

The Laotian woman behind the counter passed the wares to her Chinese customers who held them admiringly and carefully inspected the workmanship.

And she openly assured the would-be customers that the intricately carved pieces were ivory from Africa, the most desirable source, handing them a pen-torch to check for the pinkish hue that indicates high quality.

“The best,” she boasted in Mandarin, as other shoppers studied the list of contents in bottles of tiger bone wine.

In the cases next to them was a much more expensive luxury – rhino horn - sometimes carved into trinkets, but usually offered as bark-like strips on sale in jars, to be ground down, dissolved into water and drunk for “medicinal” purposes.

The store was one of several in a squat concrete market on the outskirts of Vientiane, the capital of Laos, that is the new Asian shop-front for the carnage of some of the world’s most majestic wildlife.


Some of the carved ivory items on sale in Laos CREDIT: PHILIP SHERWELL FOR THE TELEGRAPH

Elephant, rhino and tigers are being slaughtered in tens of thousands in Africa and Asia to satisfy the demand of predominantly Chinese consumers for products and “traditional remedies” made from their tusks, horns and bodies.

The Chinese government has in recent years clamped down on the illicit wildlife trade within its borders. So smugglers and buyers now conduct much of their business in their southern neighbours of Vietnam and particularly Laos – the “Wild East” for wildlife trafficking.

The Telegraph visited San Jiang market following information supplied by the Environmental Investigation Agency, a London-based international campaigning organisation that tracks and exposes global environmental crime.

“Laos has emerged as a safe haven for wildlife criminals as international syndicates seek weak spots where enforcement in poor and corruption thrives,” said Julian Newman, EIA’s campaigns director.

Combatting this sickening trade in endangered species is close to the hearts of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge who this week toured a wildlife sanctuary in Assam, India.

They were told about anti-poaching initiatives, yet just hours later the scale of the crisis was brutally illustrated when a rhino in the same park was shot dead and its horn backed off.


With Prince Harry, the royal couple have founded United for Wildlife to work with leading charities to fight the scourge.

Commenting on The Telegraph’s reporting from Laos, a Kensington Palace spokesman said: "It is absolutely vital that these markets are dragged out of the shadows and people learn the truth about what is going on.

"United For Wildlife and the Duke of Cambridge are completely committed to doing everything they can not only to protect animals but also to reduce demand on the ground because that is the only sustainable solution to the problem of poaching."

A royal source said the Duke, who is aware of the market in Laos, will "have significant focus on reducing demand in South East Asia" later this year.

And a major anti-poaching summit will be held later this month in the Kenyan capital Nairobi attended by African leaders and international conservations, as well as celebrity campaigners such as Leonardo DiCaprio, Nicole Kidman and Elton John and philanthropists George Soros, Paul Allen and Howard Buffett.


Rangers from Kenya's Elite Anti-Poaching Unit survey the site where 10 elephants were slaughtered by poachers in Tsavo East National Park CREDIT: EPA

There will watch the burning of 120 tons of seized ivory, the largest ever pyre of tusks, intended to send the message that poaching and trafficking do not pay.

But, Mr Newman noted, “those efforts will fail as long as markets in Asia remain open for business”. And as The Telegraph discovered at San Jiang, those markets remain highly lucrative.

We were shown one garish ornament carved out of rhino horn that weighed 321 grams. The seller did the numbers and came up with a price of $53,450, but offered to knock off the $450 if we bought there and then.

In its carved form, the rhino horn was retailing at a head-spinning $16,600 for 100 grams. Uncarved, it sells for about $6,000 for 100 grams – more expensive than gold - making a cut-off horn from a larger animal worth about $200,000.

The horn is usually ground down and dissolved into boiling water in China and also Vietnam where it is believed to have restorative qualities ranging from curing hangovers to cancer.

More affordable are the ivory trinkets and jewellery. Ivory has long been a much sought-after commodity in East Asia and newly affluent Chinese buyers are now driving the market.

In San Jiang, nearly all the buyers and many sellers were Chinese. The prices were quoted in yuan, conversations were conducted in Mandarin and the shop names are written in Chinese script first and then sometimes Lao.

On offer were chopsticks at $290 a set, pendants at $380 and bracelets for $500 upwards. The price was again calculated by weight, with carved ivory, fetching $6 per gram. The seller was asking for $3,729 for an elaborate eight-inch high Buddhist statuette.


The $3,729 figurine on the scales CREDIT: PHILIP SHERWELL FOR THE TELEGRAPH


Bottles on nearby shelves offered tiger bone wine and bile harvested from captive battery bears, while Buddhas shaped from the beaks of endangered hornbills were also prominently displayed.

Behind the counter, a manager casually held several wads of $100 bills half-an-inch thick – a graphic visual indicator of the monies involved in the business.

I was the only Westerner there, posing as a British tourist looking for an unusual present, accompanied by a local Chinese-speaker. The sellers were wary about my presence, but they allowed me to take photographs of items on sale so that I could show them to a friend who was advising me on my purchase.


Chinese writing on the signage outside the shops in the market CREDIT: PHILIP SHERWELL FOR THE TELEGRAPH


With the guide, they showed no such inhibitions, immediately offering to befriend him on WeChat, a messaging application popular in China and widely used to conduct illicit wildlife trades.

When I asked whether I needed an export certificate to bring the items through customs, the sellers laughed. After all, as there is no legal cross-border trade in ivory, then there can be no paperwork to authorise it.

“No problem,” said on vendor, deploying her only language, then patting her pockets and telling the guide that I should just carry any smaller purchases with me.

There are also websites offering helpful hints on how to carry them on flights – one tip is to wrap the ivory in tinfoil to throw off X-ray machines.

continued next post

[GeneChing]

Some of the ivory products on sale at the market including a $3,729 figurine CREDIT: PHILIP SHERWELL FOR THE TELEGRAPH


Laos, a small landlocked communist-ruled state, has become such a hub due to its strategic location in South-East Asia, weak law enforcement and widespread corruption. Located down a street less than a mile from the Mekong river, San Jiang is conveniently close to the city’s airport for Chinese shoppers.

“Almost all of the ivory on sale in Laos comes from elephants slaughtered in Africa,” said Mr Newman of EIA. “The failure of Lao authorities to honour their international obligations and clamp down on the open sale of ivory is appalling.

“The situation for Africa’s elephants is dire. About 30,000 are being poached for their tusks every year, and the scale of the loss is outstripping natural replacement, threatening the long-term survival of the species.

“For Africa’s endangered rhino populations, the outlook is even more parlous. Since 2008 5,940 have been poached, out of a wild population of about 25,000. In 2015 alone 1,338 were killed, the sixth year in a row the number has increased.

“This slaughter is being driven by escalating prices for rhino horn in the main markets of Vietnam and China for pseudo-health benefits, black markets that Laos is culpable of openly supplying.”

In a report entitled Sin City, the EIA and Education for Nature Vietnam last year documented how a corner of north-western Laos, the so-called the Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone (GT SEZ) in Bokeo Province, has become “a lawless playground” catering to the desires of visiting Chinese gamblers and tourists who can openly purchase and consume illegal wildlife products and parts.

International records show that Laos was implicated in at least 11 major ivory seizures between 2009 and 2015. The combined weight for these seizures is more than 10 tons of ivory – representing the equivalent of more than 1,500 dead elephants.

Laos has also gained global notoriety as the base for several wildlife-trading operations. Best-known is the one headed by a businessman known as Vixay Keosavang – the “Mr Big” of the international trafficking world.

In 2013, the US government offered a $1 million reward for information leading to the dismantling of his syndicate, which is said had affiliates in South Africa, Mozambique, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and China.


A Thai craftsman in the Surin province carves a Buddha figure CREDIT: JONAS GRATZER/GETTY IMAGES


Mr Vixay remains a free man, his business intact, and told one journalist that he worked with Laotian officials.

Laos has twice been sanctioned twice under CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) the international agreement between governments governing such activities.

The country has acknowledged the challenges. In a speech to mark the UN-designated World Wildlife Day last month, Sommad Pholsena, the minister for natural resources and the environment, pledged that Laos would implement CITES and crack down businesses trading endangered wildlife.

Also last month, Vientiane hosted a meeting of law enforcement officials from border areas of Laos, Vietnam and China to discuss regional moves to tackle wildlife smuggling.

But there have so far been no significant prosecutions or convictions or major seizures, unlike in neighbouring countries such as Thailand and Vietnam.

As the state-run Vientiane Times noted: “While governments in the region have provided a political voice to combatting wildlife trafficking networks, this is yet to translate on the ground and trafficking networks continue unabated.”

Additional reporting by Gordon Rayner in Assam

The very notion of Buddhist figures carved in ivory is ironic and sad.

[GeneChing]

I'm copying all the ivory posts off the Endangered Species in TCM to make an indie Ivory thread. Illegal Ivory poaching is not really a TCM thing. It just got posted there because that's been our illegal animal poaching thread.

London investigators say obscure Chinese town is world’s biggest hub for illegal ivory
By Asian Correspondent Staff | 4th July 2017 | @ascorrespondent



The EIA says it found a massive ivory smuggling syndicate operating out of a small town in China. Source: AP

INVESTIGATORS from London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) have discovered how a little-known town in southern China has become a global hub – the world’s biggest, in fact – for the smuggling of ivory tusks poached from African elephants.

Following what it describes as an “exhaustive investigation” spanning three years, the EIA said a syndicate member told undercover investigators that Shuidong town in Guangdong province is the destination for a staggering 80 percent of all poached ivory smuggled into China from Africa.

Shuidong, EIA said, is home to a network of ivory trafficking syndicates whose reach extends to East and West Africa, including the elephant poaching hotspots of Tanzania and Mozambique.

After years of painstaking undercover work during which investigators infiltrated one of the leading syndicates, the EIA detailed the inner-workings of the syndicate in its new report entitled, The Shuidong Connection: Exposing the global hub of the illegal ivory trade.

In its investigation, the EIA tracked a shipment of more than two tonnes of tusks from northern Mozambique to Shuidong. The investigation, it said, provided insights into the workings of an active ivory smuggling ring.

EIA Executive Director Mary Rice said the smuggling of ivory was still rampant in China despite the Chinese government’s laudable decision to close its domestic ivory market, leading to a fall in price for ivory tusks in the country.

Rice said although they had been identified in the past, the smuggling group was still active until late June 2017, extending its operations to West Africa to source lucrative tusks poached from forest elephants.

“The Chinese Government’s decision to shut its domestic ivory market by the end of 2017 is an admirable response to mounting international pressure to end the industrial-scale slaughter of Africa’s elephants,” Rice said in a statement.

“What EIA discovered in Shuidong, however, clearly shows transnational criminal networks are operating with near-total impunity.”

Rice added it was vital that enforcement agencies in Africa and China “put these criminals out of business immediately.”


Customs officers stand guard in front of confiscated ivory in Dongguan, southern Guangdong province in 2014. Source: AP

The EIA said its first encounter with the Shuidong smugglers was in September 2014 during an investigation into elephant poaching in Tanzania.

In Zanzibar, the main gateway for shipments of tusks flowing out of Tanzania, the EIA found that a single group from the syndicate had sent out 20 shipments of ivory tusks to China in just one year.

“They formed part of an international network of people from Shuidong supplying the booming Chinese market for sea cucumbers; with their knowledge of working in Africa and supply routes to China,” the EIA said.

“Their presence in strategic coastal towns and their business cover, the Shuidong traders in East and West Africa were ideally positioned to move into the illegal ivory trade.”

As a result of improved enforcement efforts and prosecutions, the EIA in April 2016 found that ivory traffickers were switching their focus from Tanzania to Mozambique.

In Pemba, a port town, the EIA said investigators posed as potential ivory traders and logistics specialists and gradually gained the trust of the syndicate partners.

Over the span of a year, investigators found African-based “fixers” who consolidated ivory shipments in secure locations as well as key Chinese syndicate players travelling to Africa to inspect tusks for quality.

The EIA also alleged key customs and border enforcement personnel, as well as freight agents, had taken bribes to turn a blind eye to the illegal activity.

Julian Newman, EIA Campaigns Director, said: “EIA has shared, in confidence, the detailed intelligence unearthed during the course of the Shuidong investigation with relevant Government departments and enforcement agencies and looks to them to use it.

Newman added action is needed to end the criminal enterprise which is “devastating Africa’s elephant populations.”

[GeneChing]

This ivory article mentions WildAid, our WildAid Tiger Claw Champion benefactors.

Officials Just Made The Largest Ivory Bust In History
It meant the death of 1,000 elephants.
BY ELIZABETH CLAIRE ALBERTS
JULY 7, 2017

For anyone who reads the news about the illegal wildlife trade, it’s easy to become desensitized to the frequent seizures of animal parts — rhino horns, pangolin scales, elephant tusks, or even live animals like slow lorises or turtles.

But yesterday was one for the record books. Authorities in Hong Kong discovered 7.2 tons of illegal elephant ivory in cargo containers marked as frozen fish. This seizure is said to the biggest in recorded history, with the value of the tusks thought to be about $72 million HK (about $9.2 million USD).


Facebook/Elephant Asia Rescue and Survival Foundation

To obtain so much ivory, an unbelievable number of elephants had to die. This particular seizure contains ivory from 700 to 1,000 elephants, including many baby elephants, according to Alex Hofford, a campaigner for WildAid, an organization that works to fight the illegal wildlife trade.


Wildaid/Alex Hofford

Across Africa, elephant populations are plummeting, and poaching is the main culprit. If poaching isn't stopped, conservationists are warning that elephants could be extinct within 20 years.


Facebook/Anti-Fur Society

Rob Brandford, executive director of the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust (DSWT), which runs an orphanage for baby elephants whose parents were killed for their ivory, explains that poaching is having a devastating effect on wild elephants.


Wildaid/Alex Hofford

“The effect on elephant populations is evident, though not only in numbers, with only 400,000 elephants alive today, but also behavior and lost knowledge,” Brandford told The Dodo. “Their deaths will impact their herds, not only in mourning for those killed, as elephants mourn their dead like humans, but also in the knowledge and wisdom that has been lost [for the surviving individuals].”


Wildaid/Alex Hofford

[GeneChing]

I know this shop. It's prominent in SF Chinatown.

San Francisco gallery accused of selling ivory after broadening of ban
By Evan Sernoffsky December 6, 2017 Updated: December 6, 2017 5:36pm


Photo: Brandon Chew, Special To The Chronicle
IMAGE 1 OF 2 In this Chronicle file photo from July 28, 2015, people pass by a piece described as a “mammoth ivory tusk” in a shop window in San Francisco’s Chinatown.

The owner, the manager and a saleswoman at a San Francisco art and antiques gallery have been charged with illegally selling ivory, city prosecutors said Wednesday.

The bust at Lovell’s Antique Gallery, located along Grant Avenue in Chinatown, is the result of a sting last December by state and federal wildlife agents that led to the seizure of 32 items that appeared to be made from ivory, officials said.

The charges come three weeks after President Trump reversed a decision by his administration to lift restrictions on importing elephant hunting trophies from two African nations, and two years after the Obama administration banned nearly all commercial trade of such goods.

Before the ban, a number of Chinatown galleries had long displayed and sold carved pieces made from elephant tusks. California passed a ban on ivory in 1976, but it permitted the sale of ivory imported before 1977, feeding a market for fraudulent documents.

Lovell’s owner, 56-year-old Abraham Magadish of El Cerrito, was charged with one count of selling ivory and two counts of possessing ivory for sale, court papers show. The gallery’s corporate parent, ALAER-90, was hit with similar charges.

The gallery’s manager, 33-year-old Yesika Becerra, and 58-year-old saleswoman Vivian Wei Zhao were each charged with one count of selling ivory. Becerra and Zhao, both San Francisco residents, were to be arraigned Thursday in San Francisco Superior Court.

A worker who answered the phone at Lovell’s on Wednesday said, “We’re not talking about it right now.” She said Magadish would not be in the store for “a few months.”

“The sale of ivory has decimated the elephant population around the world,” District Attorney George Gascón said in a statement. “By eliminating the market for ivory at home, we can play a role in reducing demand and the likelihood that these majestic animals will be hunted abroad.”

State and federal wildlife agents have been working the case against the gallery since Dec. 15, 2016, when an undercover agent purchased a statuette being sold as ivory for $240, officials said.

Agents then swarmed the store and found some items “had a cryptic code on the price tag” that appeared to indicate they were ivory, according to court records.

Conservationists say 50,000 elephants a year are illegally slaughtered for their tusks and that cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York have been centers in the ivory trade.

Evan Sernoffsky is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky

[GeneChing]

WildAid, the benefactors of our WildAid Tiger Claw Champion, Yao Ming & ivory.

Yao Ming and WildAid inform Chinese consumers that buying ivory is now illegal
December 27, 2017



The greatest single step toward reducing elephant poaching will come into effect on Sunday when it will be illegal to buy or sell ivory in China. The country was once the world's largest market for illicit ivory, and a major driver of rampant elephant poaching in Africa.

"We can start 2018 hopeful that elephants will be safer now that China has banned commercial ivory sales. Prices are down and law enforcement efforts in many parts of Africa and Asia are much improved," said WildAid CEO Peter Knights.

"The UN has unanimously called for domestic ivory sales bans, and many other countries are responding with action. Japan alone remains unwilling to join the global community on this issue," Knights said.

WildAid is now shifting its demand reduction campaign to educating Chinese consumers that ivory can no longer be bought or sold legally. Long-time WildAid ambassador and former NBA star Yao Ming is featured in a new video and billboard campaign releasing today across the country.



In 2012, Yao Ming and WildAid produced the first documentary on ivory poaching to air nationally on China Central Television, China's state broadcast network also known as CCTV.

Additionally, with WildAid, African Wildlife Foundation and Save the Elephants, Yao Ming launched one of the largest ever public awareness campaigns. Chinese public and private media donated more than US$180 million in media space during 2013-2016. As a result, a 2017 WildAid survey showed a 70% increase in knowledge that ivory comes from poached elephants over the past five years.

In 2014, Yao Ming proposed to the National People's Congress that ivory sales be banned in China. That same year, China carried out its first ever destruction of seized ivory, indicating a sea change in attitude from the government. After strong collaboration with the Obama Administration, President Xi announced the ban on December 30, 2016.

Many Chinese celebrities joined Yao Ming in the "Ivory Free" campaign, including Li Bingbing, Jay Chou, Lang Lang and Jiang Wen. International icons Prince William, David Beckham, Lupita Nyong'o, Maggie Q, Sir Richard Branson, Edward Norton, Ian Somerhalder, the cast of The Walking Dead and many others also participated in the campaign.

Dozens of messages featuring WildAid ambassadors were broadcast on more than 25 TV networks, outdoor video screens and movie theaters in China. Also, thousands of billboards were placed in over 20 Chinese cities.

IUCN estimates that the population of African elephants declined by 111,000 over the past ten years. The overall trends in the poaching of African elephants show a decline from the 2011 peak, but are still at levels too high when viewed continent-wide. The overall population of African elephants is likely to have declined in 2016.

While efforts in Eastern Africa have helped reduce poaching to pre-2008 levels, unfortunately illegal killing of Central Africa's forest elephants remains very high. This compounds the dramatic losses experienced in the region over the past decade. Between 2008 and 2016, elephant populations declined by 66% in parts of Cameroon, Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and Gabon, according to a WWF survey.

[GeneChing]

There is hope. There's always hope.

DECEMBER 28, 2017 / 11:26 PM / UPDATED 10 HOURS AGO
China ban on ivory sales begins Sunday, aims to curb elephant poaching
Reuters Staff
3 MIN READ

HONG KONG (Reuters) - A ban on ivory sales in China, the world’s largest importer and end user of elephant tusks, takes effect on Sunday with wildlife activists calling it a vital step to reducing the slaughter of the endangered animals.


FILE PHOTO: Ivory tusks seized by Hong Kong Customs are displayed at a news conference in Hong Kong, China July 6, 2017. REUTERS/Bobby Yip/File Photo

China has made a big push to eradicate ivory sales and demand has fallen since early 2014 because of a crackdown on corruption and slower economic growth.

Public awareness campaigns featuring celebrities have helped boost awareness of the bloody cost of ivory. Wildlife groups estimate 30,000 elephants are killed by poachers in Africa every year.

“It is the greatest single step toward reducing elephant poaching,” said Peter Knights, chief executive of the group WildAid.

China has allowed the sale of pre-convention ivory, which refers to products such as carvings and crafts acquired before the 1975 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), as long as it is accompanied by certificates.

The trade in pre-convention ivory has been legally thriving in China and Hong Kong since 1975, and environmental activists have long asserted that it has spurred demand for all ivory.

The ban on all ivory sales has already led to an 80 percent decline in seizures of illegal ivory entering China as well as a 65 percent decline in raw ivory prices, said conservation group WildAid.

Under the ban, China’s 172 ivory-carving factories and retail outlets will also close. Some factories and shops started closing in March.

Illegal ivory supplies have also been rife in unlicensed shops and online across China.


FILE PHOTO: A man checks a tusk at an ivory workshop in Beijing, China, March 31, 2017. REUTERS/Thomas Peter/File Photo

This year, ivory prices in China were about 65 percent lower than 2014 levels, said WildAid, with retailers in some places trying to sell off stocks and offering heavy discounts before the ban.

The Chinese ban has been hailed by activists but they warn that Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, remains a big obstacle to the eradication of elephant poaching.

China’s ban on sales does not apply in the former British colony, which has the largest retail market for ivory and has traded it for more than 150 years.

Hong Kong is a prime transit and consumption hub for ivory with more than 90 percent of consumers from mainland China.

Since 2003, Hong Kong has intercepted about 40 tonnes of illegal ivory, only about 10 percent of what is believed to have been smuggled in, WildAid said in a paper to the city’s legislature in May.

Hong Kong set a timetable for a ban on ivory trading last year, with a phase-out time of five years. A final vote on the ban is expected in the city’s legislature in early 2018.

Conservationist Zhou Fei said the Chinese ban could be a catalyst for the closure of ivory markets across Asia.

However, Kenya-based conservation group Save the Elephants said this year that neighboring Laos has expanded its retail market more rapidly than any other country.

(This story has been refiled to fix typographical error in paragraph 12)

Reporting by Farah Master; Editing by Robert Birsel

[GeneChing]

Esmond Bradley Martin: Top ivory investigator killed in Kenya
By Briana Duggan, CNN
Updated 11:10 AM ET, Mon February 5, 2018

Nairobi, Kenya (CNN)One of the world's top ivory and rhino horn trafficking investigators has been found dead with multiple stab wounds.

Esmond Bradley Martin was found dead on Sunday at his home in the Nairobi suburb of Karen, according to Kenya's Interior Ministry spokesman Mwneda Njoka.

Police are investigating and have yet to establish a motive, Njoka told CNN.
Bradley Martin had just returned from a trip to Myanmar and was writing a report on his findings when he was killed.
Bradley Martin is a former UN special envoy for rhino conservation. One of his notable achievements was persuading China to close its legal rhino trade in 1993. He also played a key role in
For decades, Bradley Martin traveled the world exposing trafficking routes in Laos, Vietnam, Ethiopia and Nigeria, often working with Kenya-based NGO Save the Elephants.
The NGO paid tribute to him in a post on Twitter Monday.

View image on Twitter

Save the Elephants
@ste_kenya
We are deeply saddened by the death of wildlife-trade researcher Esmond Bradley Martin who died yesterday in Nairobi. A long term ally for STE, passionate champion of wildlife and meticulous researcher, his loss will be deeply felt by all who knew him. https://goo.gl/NFUYe1

2:26 AM - Feb 5, 2018
17 17 Replies 118 118 Retweets 185 185 likes
Twitter Ads info and privacy

"We are deeply saddened by the death of wildlife-trade researcher Esmond Bradley Martin who died yesterday in Nairobi. A long term ally for STE, passionate champion of wildlife and meticulous researcher, his loss will be deeply felt by all who knew him," the NGO wrote on its twitter account.
Kenyan elephant expert Paula Kahumbu, of Wildlife Direct said he was an "icon" in conservation.
"He was one of the only people who was doing real investigative work on ivory horn trafficking and rhino horn trafficking. His work helped conservationists redirect their efforts," Kahumbu told CNN.
Ali Kaka of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature told CNN that the work of independent ivory investigators like Bradley Martin is "extremely dangerous."
"It's obvious it has become more dangerous and the bar has risen tremendously ... individuals are now being exposed and they don't have backup.
"He was the point person on this but what concerns me is it seems like the war is not over. It has gone underground and has become much more dangerous," he added.

Poachers have no qualms about murder.

[GeneChing]

CUTTING OFF SUPPLY
African leaders are pressing Europe to follow China’s lead by ending ivory trade


A bird flies over a family of elephants walking in the Amboseli National Park, southeast of Kenya's capital Nairobi, April 25, 2016. - RTX2BLAN
Let us live. (Reuters/Thomas Mukoya)

WRITTEN BY Yomi Kazeem
March 17, 2018 Quartz Africa

The next target in the struggle to stamp out ivory trade and its debilitating effect on elephant populations across Africa is the European Union (EU).

A petition signed by 32 African leaders has called on the EU—the world’s largest exporter of legal ivory—to close its thriving market. Advocacy groups suggest that while ivory trade is legal within the EU, it could also be fueling poaching. “Europe has become both a destination and transit hub for illegal ivory,” says Bert Wander, campaign director of Avaaz, a global advocacy group.

In the past year, the push to curtail ivory trade has recorded some success, especially in Asia where demand has been historically high. China, the world’s largest importer of ivory, finally banned the trade in Dec. 2017 and, the following month, Hong Kong did same.

Both decisions are crucial to the future of Africa’s elephant populations as trade in China alone accounts for deaths of up to 30,000 elephants per year on the continent. Overall, elephant populations across the continent have declined: an elephant census in 2016 pegged the elephant population at just over 350,000, a sharp drop from the 1.3 million population in 1979. To survive, researchers believe elephants in Africa are migrating to safety in parks where they remain protected by strict anti-poaching laws. One of those is Chobe National Park in northern Botswana. The southern African nation has become a safe haven for elephants and now accounts for a third of the continent’s elephant population. Since 1995, the elephant population in Botswana is believed to have risen by over 30,000.

The argument to end the trade in the EU is driven by a need to totally eliminate possible destinations for poachers and merchants who continue to circumvent laws around hunting and ivory trade. “The reason the EU must close the trade is because China has closed that avenue.” Tshekedi Khama, Botswana’s environment minister says. “If we can close the main exit areas then we are going to be a lot more successful than we are.”

Will the U.S. follow?

[GeneChing]

Jackie Chan, Yao Ming back ad campaign against ivory, shark fin and rhino horn trade
David Beckham, Lupita Nyong’o, Britain’s Prince William are among the celebrities to have joined charity WildAid’s drive to change attitudes towards the selling of endangered animal parts
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 14 March, 2018, 11:44am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 14 March, 2018, 12:44pm
Kylie Knott
kylie.knott@scmp.com



Chinese basketball great Yao Ming and Hong Kong martial arts star Jackie Chan are among the celebrities taking part in global conservation organisation WildAid’s latest campaign to end the illegal trade in wildlife.

Called “Partnership for the Wild”, the campaign – launched on March 14 in Africa, the US and Asia – aims to raise awareness and cut consumer demand for illicit products such as elephant ivory, rhino horn and shark fin soup.

Shark fin still on most Hong Kong restaurant menus for Lunar New Year banquets, study finds
Chinese concert pianist Lang Lang and actresses Li Bingbing and Angelababy are also campaign ambassadors, as is singer Jay Chou. Britain’s Prince William, former soccer player David Beckham, actresses Lupita Nyong’o and Maggie Q, and businessman Richard Branson are also supporters.

The campaign, created in partnership with outdoor advertising company JCDecaux, will help spread WildAid’s message that “when the buying stops, the killing can too”. It has been translated into six languages and will be launched in more than 10 countries by the end of this year.


Jackie Chan appears on a billboard as part of the WildAid campaign. Photo: WildAid

More than 600 billboards featuring Yao are on display at the Beijing Capital International Airport and in other major cities in China. The campaign will be rolled out in Tanzania, East Africa, this month, and shark protection messages will be promoted in Hong Kong and Thailand.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) says the huge demand for shark fin, regarded as a delicacy at Chinese banquets, is a major reason for the drop in shark numbers. Shark fin is still on the menu in Hong Kong restaurants.

WildAid chief executive Peter Knights said: “Thanks to JCDecaux’s generosity, we will be able to reach more people in more places with messages that will help protect imperilled wildlife.”

WildAid estimates up to 30,000 elephants are killed illegally every year.


Yao, Britain’s Prince William and David Beckham appear in a WildAid campaign ad. Photo: WildAid

In January, Hong Kong lawmakers voted overwhelmingly to ban the trade in ivory, a move environmentalists described as “a lifeline for elephants”. Ivory sales in the city will be phased out gradually, stopping completely in 2021.

Threads:
WildAid Tiger Claw Champion
Banning Shark Fin Soup
Ivory

[GeneChing]

Another reason why we support WildAid with our WildAid Tiger Claw Champion - Ivory

Taiwan and U.K. to Ban Ivory Trade
April 4, 2018



Taiwan has introduced a bill that will ban all domestic ivory trade effective January 1, 2020. Amendments to the Wildlife Conservation Act will make it illegal to sell or purchase ivory in the jurisdiction.

Violators will face prison sentences ranging from six months to five years, and fines up to NT$1 million (US$34,222). Before coming into effect, the bill is in a 60-day public consultation period.

Also this week, the UK announced tighter restrictions on ivory limiting trade to very few exceptions, such as museum antiquities. A public consultation there received 70,000 responses, 88% of which were in favor of a comprehensive ivory ban.

The actions by the U.K. and Taiwan follow domestic ivory bans in mainland China and the US. Hong Kong also recently announced plans to phase out the ivory trade.

“The UK and other jurisdictions are following mainland China’s lead in banning the ivory trade, which will provide much-needed relief to Africa’s elephants,” said WildAid CEO Peter Knights.

“Now all attention should be on Japan, which continues to have a weakly-regulated ivory trade, as the last step to consigning this destructive trade to history,” Knights said.

In recent years, up to 33,000 African elephants have been killed annually for their ivory tusks. WildAid’s campaigns with high-profile ambassadors raise awareness about the poaching crisis in order to reduce consumer demand for ivory.

###

About WildAid

WildAid is a non-profit organization with a mission to end the illegal wildlife trade in our lifetimes. While most wildlife conservation groups focus on protecting animals from poaching, WildAid primarily works to reduce global consumption of wildlife products such as elephant ivory, rhino horn and shark fin soup. With an unrivaled portfolio of celebrity ambassadors and global network of media partners, WildAid leverages nearly $230 million in annual pro-bono media support with a simple message: When the Buying Stops, the Killing Can Too.