Singapore destroyed 7.9 tonnes of illegal elephant ivory shipments for the first time on Monday (June 13), in a bid to prevent such seizures from re-entering the global illegal wildlife trade market, and to send a strong message that the country condemns such trade in wildlife.
The ivory — estimated to be worth about S$13 million — was seized from shipments dating back to January 2014. It was pulverised by an industrial rock crusher and a compact roller, and is to be incinerated at an eco-waste incineration plant. The ashes will be used as landfill at Pulau Semakau.
Previously, seized ivory was repatriated to the source country for further investigations, donated to museums, or kept for educational or enforcement purposes after investigations in Singapore concluded.
In the past 10 years, about 10 tonnes of ivory have been seized by the Singapore authorities, Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) told TODAY.
In 2015, the AVA handled 25 cases where live species of endangered wildlife were seized, and 18 cases involving endangered wildlife parts or products.
In the first five months of this year, there were 21 cases involving illegal wildlife and nine cases involving wildlife parts or products. Examples of seized wildlife parts include elephant ivory, rhinoceros horns, pangolin scales and dried seahorses.
For future seizures of illegal ivory, the AVA will assess each case and destroy the seized ivory if warranted.
Dr Chris R Shepherd, regional director of wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic in South-east Asia, said that repatriating ivory to countries of origin to help in investigations should be carefully considered, because there is a risk that the ivory may wind up in the trade’s supply chain again.
Ms Elaine Tan, chief executive of conservation non-governmental organisation WWF Singapore, said: “Today’s event was symbolic of the Government’s support for the fight against the ivory trade, but needs to be followed up with meaningful action to address the country’s unenviable role as a transit point in the smuggling of ivory from Africa to Asia.” Traffic and WWF Singapore called for a tough law-enforcement action plan, including “risk-profiling of containers, traffickers and trade routes from or to high-risk destinations”.
AVA told TODAY that it works closely with enforcement agencies here to determine “the most cost-effective methods” to safeguard Singapore’s borders against the entry of controlled items such as illegal wildlife and their products, using various methods including “routine and random checks and risk-profiling of shipments to be targeted for surprise inspection”.
The ivory destroyed on Monday came from four seizures in 2014 and 2015. It was intercepted from travellers or shipments from Africa en route to Vietnam or Laos. From this, two tusks, 10 bangles and 109 ivory cubes were donated to the Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum for educational purposes. The remaining ivory, comprising about 2,750 elephant tusks and six ivory bangles, was destroyed, AVA said.
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