Architecture student wins Philippines elephant sculpture design contest

Manila: An architecture student in the Philippines has won a contest to design a life-size elephant sculpture, which will be made from ivory dust and placed in a park in suburban Quezon City.

Janus Andrade Nuñez, an architecture student at the University of the Philippines, won the competition launched by the Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB).

Featuring curvilinear lines that reflect the image of an elephant rising 13 feet (3.96 metres) high, Nuñez said the sculptor was symbolic of “overcoming”.

The sculpture symbolises the country’s intensified fight against the ivory trade, officials said.

“Through art, we want to symbolise our effort to institutionalise a campaign against the illegal trade of ivory,” said BMB director Mundita Lim.

“With this sculpture, we declare our support for a worldwide advocacy against the killing of elephants for illegal ivory trade,” Lim said, adding that the sculpture was a joint project of the BMB and the Department of Environment and Natural Resources.

“The Philippines is one with other countries that care about the preservation of elephants,” Lim explained.

There are no elephants in the Philippines.

The sculpture will be erected at the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife in suburban Quezon City, said Environment Secretary Ramon Paje who led the groundbreaking ceremony for the project.

Using a steamroller, the department of environment last June crushed five tons of seized elephant tusks worth P420 million (Dh35 million). The tusks were then turned into ashes in a crematorium.

“It is also symbolic that we are using the ashes of the damaged ivory tusks, for this noble project,” said Paje.

“The Philippines will never tolerate illegal wildlife trade. This is the statement of the sculpture,” said Paje, adding, “The Philippines is committed to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES).”

Forged in 1973, CITES is a treaty meant to regulate commercial trade of critically endangered species.

Last year, CITES named the Philippines as one of the world’s eight transshipment hot spots for illegal ivory trading that emanates from Africa and through several other Asian countries.