Tanzania ivory seized in Hong Kong

By Zephania Ubwani, Arusha
11 September 2010 10:30 A huge consignment of ivory shipped from Tanzania has once again been seized by customs officials in Hong Kong.The contraband ivory is worth $ 1.4 million (nearly Sh2 billion) or 10.85m Hong Kong dollars, according to reports from the Far East country yesterday. Reports said customs officers impounded 384 elephant tusks packed in two containers that came into the city’s port from Tanzania. The seizure is another indication on the gravity of poaching in the country, only few months after Tanzania lost a bid to sell its 90 tonnes of ivory stockpiles during a Cites conference in Doha. … The seizure has once again put Tanzania on the world spotlight as one of the countries leading in indiscriminate killing of elephants for their ivory which has good market in Asia. … Other reports say at least 10 tonnes of ivory seized in the Far East states last year were shipped from Tanzania although some could have originated from the land-locked countries such as the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia…. The country’s pleas notwithstanding, the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) reported early this year that nearly 50 per cent of illegal ivory traded globally originated from Tanzania. Reports of seizures of contraband animal trophies headed to the Far East countries from eastern Africa have become common in recent days. Early this week huge consignment of elephant tusks destined for China via Nairobi were impounded at the Lubumbashi airport. Several Chinese nationals were arrested. Last month, Kenyan authorities have intercepted more than two tonnes of elephant tusks and rhino horns disguised as fruit destined for export to Malaysia. … East Africa is still recovering from extensive poaching in the 1960s and 1970s before the global ban. In 1989, poaching had reduced populations to about 17,000 elephants. Before yesterday’s haul, Hong Kong Customs in May this year also made the what was the largest seizure of elephant tusks in the past 20 years. A total of 3.9 tons of unmanifested elephant tusks, worth about $8 million, were seized in Kwai Chung. The container originated from Douala, Cameroon.