A family of forest elephants in the Central African Republic’s Dzanga-Sangha Special Reserve, weeks before poachers killed 26 elephants in the same location. (Photo: Laurel Chor)
A coalition of 51 wildlife organisations have signed a letter urging the Hong Kong government to stop issuing import and re-export licenses for ivory that was in circulation before 1975.
That year is when the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) was established, and thus any ivory that was procured before then is not regulated by the convention.
The groups claim that legal, pre-convention ivory from Europe is being imported into Hong Kong.
Ivory traders then use government-supplied paperwork to launder ivory from recently killed elephants and insert it into the market under the guise of being legal ivory.
The wildlife organisations believe that it would be a “crucial win” for elephants if Hong Kong severed this import route.
The United States, United Kingdom, Sweden, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Austria have all banned pre-convention ivory, says the letter.
The coalition includes WildAid, Born Free Foundation, the Humane Society, and the World Wildlife Fund.
According to WildAid, 33,000 elephants are killed for their ivory every year. Much of the ivory ends up in China.
Read the full letter here.
