HONG KONG, China (AFP) – A ban on selling most ivory products in Hong Kong came into effect Friday, the culmination of a three-year process to eliminate the once rampant trade in the city. Hong Kong lawmakers in 2018 backed a bill opting for a gradual phasing out of the trade — a move some conservationists at the time criticised as a loophole that could be exploited. The city has been accused of playing an […]
Tag: ivory
Singapore crushes massive ivory haul on eve of World Elephant Day
SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — Singapore began destroying nine tonnes of seized ivory Tuesday, the largest such action globally in recent years, including contraband tusks that came from more than 300 African elephants. The destruction by an industrial rock crusher was held on the eve of World Elephant Day, and aims to prevent the items from re-entering the market and disrupt the global supply chain of illegally traded ivory, Singapore’s National Parks Board said. A spokeswoman […]
Ivorian ex-minister convicted over attack that killed 18
ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast (AFP) – A former Ivorian minister was sentenced to 20 years in prison on Tuesday for complicity in a 2012 attack in western Ivory Coast that killed 18 people, including seven UN peacekeepers. Hubert Oulaye, 64, ex-public works minister under former president Laurent Gbagbo, “provided the financial means to establish a rebellion in the west” of the country, the attorney general said. “The accomplice is sometimes more dangerous than the perpetrator,” she added. […]
Cambodia seizes shipment of ivory hidden in hollow logs
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (AFP) — Cambodia has seized nearly a tonne of ivory hidden in hollowed-out logs and discovered inside an abandoned shipping container, an official said Wednesday. The country has become a key regional transit point for the illicit wildlife trade. Nearly 280 pieces of ivory — full and partial elephant tusks — were found in the container at the southwestern port of Sihanoukville after sitting there for a year. The shipment, owned by […]
Hope for elephants as ivory prices fall: conservationists
by Tristan MCCONNELL Agence France-Presse NAIROBI, Kenya (AFP) — The price of ivory has fallen by nearly two-thirds in the last three years, according to research conducted in China and published Wednesday by the conservation group Save the Elephants. At its peak in 2014 the estimated wholesale price for raw ivory stood at $2,100 (1,900 euros) per kilogram on the Chinese black market, but by early 2017 the price had fallen to $730 per kilogram, […]
Gabon’s forest elephants slain for ivory at alarming rate
MIAMI, United States (AFP) — Poachers are killing elephants for their ivory at an alarming rate in the central African nation of Gabon, leading to a loss of 80 percent of the population in the last decade. Some 25,000 elephants have been slaughtered in Minkebe National Park, an area that had been considered a sanctuary, said the report in the journal Current Biology. “Because Gabon is thought to hold the largest remaining population of forest elephants, […]
Burning ivory, waging war: world battles poaching in 2016
As 2016 draws to an end, Africa’s elephants and rhinos are counting the cost of a poaching crisis that has killed tens of thousands of animals. Wildlife rangers are turning to drones, night-goggles and automatic weapons in an increasingly high-tech battle that’s worth billions of dollars worldwide. https://youtu.be/8ljo8omYt0c
Singapore destroys tonnes of illegal ivory
SINGAPORE, Singapore (AFP) — Singapore on Monday crushed and burnt almost eight tonnes of ivory confiscated over two years to try to deter smugglers as activists called for tighter enforcement. Over 2,700 elephant tusks weighing 7.9 tonnes were fed into an industrial rock crusher before incineration. It was the fist time seized ivory had been destroyed in Singapore, the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority said in a statement. Previous hauls were returned to the originating country, […]
Crush and burn: Malaysia destroys huge ivory trove
https://youtu.be/L4xrAEhFgko Port Dickson, Malaysia – 14 April 2016 – AFP — Malaysia on Thursday destroyed 9.5 tonnes of elephant ivory it had seized over the years, which authorities hope will help deter smugglers who have long used the country as a trans-shipment point. The huge pile of African elephant tusks, estimated to be worth $20 million, was first fed into in an industrial crusher to be pulverised, and then incinerated in a giant furnace in […]





