CITES FAILURE TO GIVE ELEPHANT MORE PROTECTION SEES BLOOD IVORY SMUGGLING ON THE RISE
(Posted 22nd October 2016)
A third seizure of blood ivory in a month, this time a haul worth an estimated 1 million US Dollars, was reported from Vietnam’s Cat Lai Port in Ho Chi Minh city.
Half a ton of blood ivory was found in two containers, disguised and hidden under layers of glue to avoid detection.
Authorities in the port, when the scan yielded unclear pictures, opened the containers, searched the cargo by hand and found the hidden contraband. Also found in the containers were pangolin scales, another animal nearly poached to extinction as a result of East and South Asia’s greed for animal products.
On October 06th was a ton of blood ivory seized, reportedly shipped from Mozambique while on October 01st 300 kilograms of blood ivory were found at Hanoi’s Noi Bai International Airport offloaded from an incoming aircraft.
CITES and in particular the European Union, which backstabbed African efforts to put elephant on the highest protection standards of Appendix 1, are under increasing fire from conservationists around the world for failing Africa’s dwindling elephant populations and as a result bearing responsibility for every consignment of blood ivory smuggled out of Africa and into the main consumer markets in China and Vietnam.
