Illegal ivory trade in Vietnam threatens Africa's elephants

Wildlife organization Save The Elephants on Tuesday decried thriving illegal ivory trade in Vietnam which it said is a threat to Africa's elephants.

In a study released in Nairobi, Save The Elephants said no other country is known to be as active in both illegal imports of new raw tusks and illegal exports of the final ivory products.

Ivory researchers, Lucy Vigne and Esmond Martin, found that the overwhelming majority of raw tusks sold wholesale in Vietnam are smuggled in from Africa, which presents a threat to Africa's elephant.

"Nearly all elephant tusks coming into Vietnam today are from Africa, and they are all illegal to trade. The price of raw ivory wholesale for an average of 1,100 U.S. dollars a kilogram, making it a money-spinning undertaking in the Far-East country," CEO of Save the Elephants, Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton said during the launch of the study.

Douglas-Hamilton said the recent increase in poaching in Africa is driven by the high demand for ivory in the Far-East which receives over 200,000 kgs of raw ivory from the continent.

"The retail market for ivory products in Vietnam is the biggest in the world where the most expensive finished merchandise fetches 20,000 dollars, with most of the products being carved or processed being small transportable jewelry items," he said.

Africa is in the midst of an epic elephant slaughter, with conservationist groups saying that poachers are wiping out tens of thousands of elephants a year, more than at any time in the previous two decades.

In East Africa, the status of elephant populations has improved across much of Kenya, in the parks of Uganda and northern Tanzania.

The study revealed that the growing trade in ivory in Vietnam is killing Africa's elephants owing to dramatic increases in illegal imports of new raw tusks, illegal exports of the final products, and number of artisans joining the lucrative industry.

The study shows that the number of pieces for sale rose more than six times between 2008 and 2015, with most of the ivory originating from Africa.

However, industrial-scale elephant killing has continued in the important southern Tanzania elephant populations and in adjoining Mozambique, with the Democratic Republic of Congo now emptied of elephants, and Gabon is in the front line of the battle to save forest elephants.

Mali's rare desert elephants are in acute danger from a surge in poaching and instability caused by a Jihadist revolt.

Vigne said the surge in demand in Vietnam for ivory from Africa rose after the region ran out of ivory in Asia following their depletion coupled with the fact that most of the behemoth mammals are domesticated.

Her fellow researcher, Martin, said between 25,000 and 30,000 elephants are killed in Africa each year, with two-thirds of the ivory leaving East Africa ports destined for the Orient. Douglas-Hamilton stressed the need to close down such markets.

"We have seen great gains made against the ivory trade over the past year, with a federal ban in the U.S. and a presidential commitment from China. We must work together with governments to prevent markets from springing up elsewhere like Vietnam," Martin said. 
Source:XINHUA