Ban on ivory fails to stem trade

An elephant with a severed tusk coiled in its trunk is painted on the sign for the Pak Lok carvings store. 'Hong Kong never should have banned ivory, it was a choice between save the elephants or save the Africans' said Kanis So, one of the pair of brothers that runs the Tsim Sha Tsui store. 'People used to come here to buy it but now people go directly to China.' Tourists can still choose a souvenir from among the tusks, carved ivory dragons and statues of fat men in creative sexual positions that line the shelves of Pak Lok. It also has a Web site, right, that boasts the company is 'one of the well-known ivory manufacturers in Hong Kong'. Meanwhile dozens of shops in Sheung Wan and along Hollywood Road offer similar stock. The only hitch is that tourists are not actually allowed to take home ivory from Hong Kong or the mainland any more. Under international endangered species laws, ivory trading was banned 11 years ago. Traders insist the ivory the shops still sell in Hong Kong is left over from the 400 tonnes that were stockpiled before the ban. Hong Kong law allows them to sell it in small amounts to residents. If residents move, they can take it with them. That legal loophole, environmental groups say, is helping to fuel a flourishing black market trade in ivory between Hong Kong and the mainland. China is the destination for about 95 per cent of smuggled ivory from Africa. with the newly rich in Guangdong clamouring for ornaments, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency, a British-based non-profit group. Posing as tourists and traders, the pressure group said they identified Hong Kong companies with ties to the booming illegal ivory market in Guangdong. Their operations could barely be considered underground, they say, because officials are involved in facilitating the trade on all levels. 'In Hong Kong, the larger operations have shut down, but the market may have shifted to smaller objects and to China,' said Juliana Ruhfus of the EIA. 'We found businesses in Hong Kong with counterparts on the mainland, and regular ivory trafficking between Hong Kong and the mainland.' The EIA testified about their findings to a United Nations international endangered species conference that continues in Nairobi this week. Ivory trading has dominated the 10 day conference, which will also draft trading rules for 60 other species. Over the next few days, leaders from 150 countries at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered species (CITES) will vote on whether to uphold an international ivory ban which was imposed in 1989, when African elephants were on the brink of extinction. Between 1979 and 1989, ivory poaching halved the African elephant population from 1.3 million to 609,000. After the ban began the ivory market dried up. But then, in 1997, CITES undermined its own rules by approving a one-time sale of 50 tonnes of ivory from Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia to Japan. The US$3 million (HK$23.3 million) proceeds from this sale were supposed to be reinvested in a programme to monitor and prevent elephant poaching. South Africa and two other southern African countries with rising elephant populations and ample resources for enforcing poaching laws are now pressing CITES to allow further such sales of ivory. They say controlled sales of legal ivory, from elephants that die naturally, will bring in revenue that can be used to fund conservation and protection efforts. But environmental groups say the revenue from the last sale has failed to stave off an upsurge in poaching. Kenya and other east African countries say that, by allowing the sale, CITES gave poachers the signal to go back into business. As the conference continues this week, India, Kenya and other east African countries are pressing for a reinforcement of the ban. They argue only a total ban will prevent a re-emergence of poachers and greedy middlemen. Last week, President Daniel arap Moi of Kenya said the country has seized two tonnes of illegal ivory in the past 18 months, a clear sign poachers are again stalking after a 10 year lull. 'We in Kenya see evidence that the illegal killing of elephants has increased while no reliable monitoring system has been put into place,' Mr Moi said. Kenyan representatives also pointed to a growing Chinese market for ivory that only encourages the poachers. Hong Kong used to be the largest supplier of carved ivory products in the world. But, since the ivory ban, the hundreds of factories and traditional carving shops have dwindled down to a few dozen. In the absence of any legal trade, China has emerged as Asia's black market ivory trading centre. Since the ban began some of the largest seizures of ivory have been reported on the mainland. These include 8.9 tonnes of African wild ox horns seized by customs in Zhanjiang in November 1998. Last January, 227 pairs of tusks were uncovered in Wuzhou. In October, 214 tusks, and more than 3,000 pieces of ivory jewellery were uncovered in Tianjin. In addition to the mainland, there have also been large seizures of ivory in Taiwan. Some ivory has made its way into China via North Korean diplomats. Ivory was seized in Paris, Nairobi and Moscow from North Korean embassy staff on their way to China. In Hong Kong, the carving operations that have stayed open do a small-scale business. But shop owners say many of the stores are aware of availability of new ivory from Africa and have recently been supplementing their stock. Hong Kong government officials deny there has been any increase in illegal ivory since the ban and say 260 tonnes out of the original 400 tonnes of stockpiled ivory is still up for sale. Cheung Chi-sun, endangered species protection officer for the Agriculture and Fisheries Department, said statistical data does not suggest any increase in black market activity. But then he quickly added that statistics about black economy activity are unreliable. 'There are so many containers moving between Hong Kong and China that it's not a problem of ivory alone,' said Mr Cheung. 'I have not seen any alarming increase in illegal ivory.' When the EIA questioned staff at Hong Kong's carving shops, investigators said they found evidence of businesses targeting the tourist trade - even though tourists can't legally take ivory out of Hong Kong. At several stores, EIA investigators say they were given suggestions on how to circumvent customs regulations. When they inquired about trading opportunities, they said store owners told them they had regular overseas clients and also claimed overseas trading arrangements could be made through the mainland. But Mr So of Pak Lok said his company deals only in hippo teeth and mammoth, which are not banned under CITES regulations, or they carve from old stockpiles of ivory. 'There is a black market for everything, ivory, heroin, anything' said Mr So. 'It is growing in China, but everything we deal in here is legal.' Despite the continuation of the tourist trade, environmental groups and officials agree that ivory sales are diminishing in Hong Kong stores. However on the mainland it is an entirely different story. The EIA found a Chinese company called Yue Ya in Guangzhou, which manufactures ivory and has expanded dramatically in the past two years. It supplies the Friendship Stores that sell goods to tourists on the mainland. Guangzhou said it had only 50 tonnes of ivory prior to the ban, environmental groups say. But 10 years later there is still ivory readily available on the market. 'The government is connected with the ivory trade at all levels, from running operations to providing certificates of export,' said Mr Ruhfus. 'There is money in it for everyone down the line.' Mr Cheung said the Hong Kong Government has not encountered any problems with enforcement over the past two years. He acknowledged that some ivory may be leaving Hong Kong with tourists, but scolds tourists for not being aware that they cannot export the ivory they buy in shops. However shop owners are not required to distinguish between Hong Kong residents and locals when selling ivory. 'It's unfair to pick on Hong Kong which has some of the most strict laws in the world,' said Mr Cheung. 'When you go into a shop, you should not always believe what the shop owner says when he is trying to sell you something.'