1.2-tonnes of Hong Kong’s near 30-tonne stockpile of illegal ivory has been loaded into a rotary kiln for incineration at the government waste plant in Tsing Yi today, reports the SCMP.
The incineration ceremony was graced by the presence of high-profile officials, conservationists, activists and local media including the Secretary for the Environment Wong Kam-sing and John Scanlon, secretary general of the Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species.
Hong Kong has the world’s largest stockpile of illegal ivory and the city is set to destroy three tonnes of its stockpile each month.
However, not everything will be destroyed, 1.6 tonnes will be kept for educational and scientific purposes.
Photo: USFWS Mountain-Prairie, Flickr
