Poaching: Setback for Dar as Hong Kong seizes $3.4m ivory

By The Citizen Team and Agencies

Dar/Hong Kong. As the country launches a fresh bid to sell its ivory stockpile, Hong Kong authorities have confiscated two shipping containers from Tanzania and Kenya loaded with jumbo tusks worth $3.4 million (about Sh5.4billion). This incident involving ivory weighing more than 3,628kg, could affect the country’s attempt to release into the international market its huge stock.

Last week Tanzania announced that it had reapplied to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to sell over 101,005kg of its ivory stockpile valued at over $55.5million (about Sh88.8billion) saying the money would be used to fund anti-poaching operations.

However, Tanzanian authorities were reluctant yesterday to explain how the seizure of the ivory could re-ignite a standoff with other East African Community member states and the international community.

In 2010, Tanzania unsuccessfully applied to be allowed to sell 90kg of its stockpile, then valued at $20million.  In its latest request, Tanzania says the ivory to be sold would exclude that which was seized from poachers and any whose origin is questionable.

The minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Mr Khamis Kagasheki, declined to comment on the matter yesterday, saying he would give an official statement after getting a detailed report on the seizure of the ivory.

“We have information (on the seizure of the ivory) but I am not in a position to comment on the matter... we are in the process of selling our ivory stockpile, and negotiations with CITES are going on,” said Mr Kagasheki.

The acting director of Wildlife, Mr Paul Sarakikya, also declined to give a detailed account of the matter saying his division was getting in touch with relevant authorities across the world to establish the source of the seized ivory.

He said the ministry was getting in touch with Interpol and the Nairobi-based Lusaka Agreement Task Force, an inter-governmental organisation charged with carrying out investigations on violations of national laws pertaining to illegal trade in wild fauna and flora.

The task force was the brainchild of wildlife law enforcement officers from eight Eastern and Southern African countries meeting in Lusaka, Zambia in December 1992, under the auspices of Zambia’s ministry of Tourism.

Asked how the seizure of the ivory could affect Tanzania’s new bid to sell its ivory stockpile, Mr Sarakikya responded: “I cannot say anything for now.”

Reports reaching Dar es Salaam quoted Hong Kong customs officials as saying the containers arrived from Tanzania and Kenya. The agency seized a total of 1,209 pieces of ivory tusks and three pounds of ornaments from the two containers.

The Hong Kong Customs department was kept on alert after a tip-off from Guangdong officials in China. On October 16, Hong Kong officers inspected a container from Tanzania purporting to contain plastic scrap and found $1.7 million worth of ivory. A day later, a second container from Kenya was seized with ivory valued at $1.7 million, according to Hong Kong Customs.

Seven people, including one Hong Kong resident, have been arrested by Chinese authorities in connection with the cases, said a customs spokeswoman.

Hong Kong is viewed as a transit point for the illegal ivory trade, feeding into increasing demands in China, according to an article published this week.

Elephants are being killed in Africa at an alarming rate as international demand for ivory soars. Much of the demand comes from increasingly affluent Asian countries, particularly China and Thailand.

The last major bust in Hong Kong occurred in 2011 when officials seized a shipment of ivory and rhino horns valued at $2.2 million in Hong Kong dollars.

Last week, the deputy minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Mr Lazaro Nyalandu, said the country’s new bid to sell the ivory stockpile was aimed at using the money for anti-poaching operations.

He said: “Poaching of elephants is currently very alarming; we have to use every resource we have at our disposal to fight the vice.”

Tanzania’s total ivory stockpile, he said, stood at 137,229.20kg, out of which 101,005kg are saleable. The minister noted further that the current international auction price of ivory was $550 per kilogramme. However, he pointed out that this time around, Tanzania would be more focused in its arguments vis-à-vis those of its likely opponents, including Kenya.

“Unlike in the past, we want to get absolute support from neighbouring Kenya,” said Mr Nyalandu who rejected the notion held in many quarters that any sale of the ivory would escalate poaching.

Tanzania is also asking the world agency, working for the protection of endangered wildlife, to scale down the protection for its jumbo population so as to be permitted to undertake trade in tusks as hunting trophies. Last week, the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) called the Tanzanian proposal “ludicrous” for “coming at a time when ivory poaching is escalating.”

The agency also pointed out that the CITES ivory-trading mechanism itself was increasingly being called into question. “The very system CITES uses to permit so-called one-off auctions is profoundly flawed and, we believe, a major driver of poaching and the illegal international trade in ivory,” EIA executive director and Elephant Campaign head Mary Rice said in a media statement.

Source: The Citizen (22/10/2012): http://www.thecitizen.co.tz/component/content/article/37-tanzania-top-news-story/26723-setback-for-dar-as-hong-kong-seizes-34m-ivory.html