Philippines in big push against wildlife trade

Manila: The Philippines began destroying five tonnes of elephant tusks on Friday in a landmark event aimed at shedding its image as one of the world’s top hotspots for illegal African ivory trading.

Authorities on Friday destroyed nearly five tonnes of elephant tusks as the highlight of the Environment Month celebrations.

The ceremony, led by Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) secretary Ramon Paje, was conducted at the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Centre in suburban Quezon City where the tusks had been stored since the mid 1990s.

A bulldozer crushed the tusks, which were taken by poachers mainly from African elephants.

“This act is a strong statement that the Philippines will not tolerate the illegal wildlife trade,” Paje said.

Worth an estimated 420 million pesos (Dh35.27 million), the tusks were harvested at the cost of lives of hundreds of elephants.

For its part, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) said the crushing of the ivory tusks is a “strong, symbolic” gesture.

“The public destruction of seized ivory sends a bold message to traders — that the Philippines shall no longer tolerate the trade in ivory or any other illegal wildlife products,” said WWF-Philippines communications manager Gregg Yan. “Remember that when the buying stops, the killing will too.”

In 2007, the wildlife trade monitoring organisation, Traffic, bared the pilferage of ivory tusks from government stockpiles in the Philippines in a presentation to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) on the results of an analysis of global ivory seizure records contained in the Elephant Trade Information System (Etis).

Etis is the database of seizures of items derived from elephants killed by poachers, providing insights into all aspects of the illicit ivory trade.

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According to the Etis analysis in 2007, “the largest ivory seizure ever made in the Philippines, possibly as much as 3.7 tonnes of raw ivory in 2006, subsequently disappeared from the custody of Manila customs under corrupt circumstances.”

Dr Colman O Criodain, WWF’s wildlife trade policy analyst said “ivory is known to have disappeared from a number of government-held stockpiles worldwide.”

In 2007, Etis analysis highlighted the role of the Philippines, both for its domestic ivory trade and for the role of the country as a transit point for ivory originating from Africa or elsewhere in Asia and en route to markets in China.

The analysis identified the Philippines as one of the “major transit points in the illicit trade and also noted “a new carving industry producing religious sculptures and artefacts has recently been identified in the Philippines that may be linked to an export trade to Italy, the Holy See and perhaps other destinations.”

O Criodain said that “while destroying ivory puts it out of temptation’s way, an essential element of such an act is that the stockpiles are fully and transparently audited so that it is clear what ivory is being taken out the system and where it originated — only then can outside observers have real confidence in the integrity of the ivory removal.

Earlier, the DENR had intended to “burn” the stockpile.

This, however, did not push through following opposition from the environmentalist group EcoWaste Coalition which said burning the tusks would violate environmental laws on waste disposal.