Myanmar's flourishing African ivory smuggling is putting immense pressure on China's effort to enforce a domestic ban on ivory trade, a report released by Save the Elephants revealed.
Researchers found around 51 shops openly displaying 14,846 ivory items for sale in Myanmar's Mong La, Mandalay, Yangon, Tachileik and Bagan cities.
At Mong La, a town located on the notorious Golden Triangle, “the illegal ivory trade soared by a 63 percent increase in last three years,” the report said.
The Golden Triangle bisects the confluence of the Ruak and Mekong Rivers, bordering Myanmar, Laos and southern China, and is the second largest hub for cross-border smuggling of drugs in the world, according to United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
The report titled “Myanmar's Growing Illegal Ivory Trade with China” reveals the booming ivory product sales at Mong La in the last few years, which has replaced Tachileik on the Thailand border as the place with the largest number of illegal worked ivory items.
Vendors selling carved ivory items, according to the report, stated that Chinese customers buy about 90 percent of what they sell.
Myanmar has more than 5,000 captive elephants, the largest captive elephant population in the world. The existing laws in the country allow trade of ivory procured from licensed elephants that have naturally died.
However, researchers found over a third of the ivory items available in Mong La shops were of African elephants.
“Rampant African ivory smuggling in Myanmar has put a lot of pressure on Chinese law enforcement agencies to ensure effective domestic ban on ivory. Awareness about the ivory ban along Golden Triangle region and a strict law enforcement are required to stop this brutal trade,” Lucy Vigne, a lead author of the report told CGTN.
“The authorities in Myanmar are not deterring ivory smugglers and trade in ivory and other endangered wildlife products that are running riot to meet the continued Chinese demand. This is against the international norms,” she added.
In a bid to control illegal cross-border activities, the Chinese government closed the official border crossing from China into Mong La in 2010.
The Chinese mainland banned the domestic trade of ivory, early this year, in an effort to control poaching in African countries. Its regions including Hong Kong and Taiwan enacted similar laws to combat the illegal ivory trade.
In Myanmar's illegal ivory market, researchers also saw intricate carvings and figurines that appeared to have been smuggled in from China where sales are now banned.
More than 20,000 African elephants are killed every year to satiate global demand for ivory. “Despite a great political commitment from the Chinese government and the moral leadership of influential citizens it will take continued united action to end the issue,” said Iain Douglas-Hamilton, founder of Save the Elephants.
“China's new laws have to be rigorously enforced, borders must be controlled, and everyone must be made aware of the terrible consequences of buying ivory,” he suggested.
Myanmar government, alarmed with the unprecedented increase in wildlife trade, burned seized ivory tusk and other wildlife products on Thursday in a bid to deter the smugglers.
“We know that over 20 countries around the world destroy illegal wildlife parts in this way. We want to wipe out the illegal market and let people know that if they trade unlawful items, they will be seized and destroyed," U Win Naing Thaw, director of Myanmar's Nature and Wildlife Conservation Department told Cambodia Times.
Esmond Martin, co-author of the report, and a conservationist known for his investigative work on ivory and rhino horn trade was murdered in Kenya in February this year.
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Welcome to Elephant News Burma. This site is intended to be a public service to those wishing to keep up to date with events and issues affecting elephants in Burma.
Showing posts with label captive elephant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label captive elephant. Show all posts
Thursday, October 04, 2018
Friday, March 16, 2018
Asian Elephants Are Now Being Killed for Their Skin
The smell was ghastly and the sight even worse. Twenty-five elephants
lay dead in a riverbed in the Ayeyawady (Irrawaddy) delta in
southwestern Myanmar. “The stench is what led villagers to the bodies in
the first place,” says Aung Myo Chit, the Smithsonian Institution’s
Myanmar country coordinator, who also leads a local NGO, Growth for
Prosperity, that helps rural residents avoid deadly conflicts with
elephants.
It was the trust Aung Myo Chit’s outreach workers had earned that led villagers of Nga Pu Taw Township to reveal the dead elephants. Ordinarily, local people avoid reporting poaching to the authorities for fear they’ll be blamed.
By the time Aung Myo Chit’s filmmaker colleague Klaus Reisinger got there in early May, the giant carcasses had deteriorated badly. “Their bellies were bloated,” Reisinger recalls with a shudder.
Captive elephants are often used to drag carcasses of elephants slain for their ivory out of riverbeds where they’re commonly found. But that wasn’t possible this time. The skin had been stripped from the bodies, leaving them to tear apart if moved. So staff with the Myanmar Forest Department who came to investigate burned them in place to prevent their contaminating the downstream water supply.
Such spectacles are familiar on African savannas, where elephants are more numerous and poachers have stalked their ivory for decades. Not so in the thick forests of Myanmar, where the country’s remaining 1,200 to 1,400 endangered wild elephants are elusive and only the males (and not all males) have tusks.
But this and other, smaller recent slaughters in the Ayeyawady delta were not ivory raids. Poachers had killed males, tuskless females, and calves alike in pursuit of a different prize: their skins.
Using elephant skin and other body parts is nothing new in Southeast Asia. In Myanmar and elsewhere—particularly in tribal areas—the skin is dried, ground, mixed with oils, and applied to treat eczema and other skin conditions.
“But there’s a lot we don’t know,” says Martin Tyson, a Wildlife Conservation Society biologist who’s helping Myanmar’s government draft an elephant conservation plan. “Recently Chinese biologists said it’s used for upset stomachs.”
According to Aung Myo Chit, something seems to have surprised the poachers who killed the 25 elephants earlier this year. They “left behind the skins which they’d put up to dry over bone fires.
They hung up the skin like laundry. Some bags were confiscated with raw hides still rolled up on pieces of wood and severed elephant trunks.”
“Rolled up like toilet paper,” Reisinger adds. “People tell me they can skin an elephant in four or five minutes.” Because of heavy penalties for gun ownership, the high-powered rifles used by poachers in Africa are rare in Myanmar. Instead, poachers often use darts and metal and bamboo spears dipped in readily available pesticides; the elephants die slow, painful deaths.
Professional poachers “go into an area and find local guides,” Tyson says. “The guides often get arrested, and the poachers get away. But the amount guides can earn is probably months’ worth of what they could gain by any other activity.”
To read the full article, click on the story title.
It was the trust Aung Myo Chit’s outreach workers had earned that led villagers of Nga Pu Taw Township to reveal the dead elephants. Ordinarily, local people avoid reporting poaching to the authorities for fear they’ll be blamed.
By the time Aung Myo Chit’s filmmaker colleague Klaus Reisinger got there in early May, the giant carcasses had deteriorated badly. “Their bellies were bloated,” Reisinger recalls with a shudder.
Captive elephants are often used to drag carcasses of elephants slain for their ivory out of riverbeds where they’re commonly found. But that wasn’t possible this time. The skin had been stripped from the bodies, leaving them to tear apart if moved. So staff with the Myanmar Forest Department who came to investigate burned them in place to prevent their contaminating the downstream water supply.
Such spectacles are familiar on African savannas, where elephants are more numerous and poachers have stalked their ivory for decades. Not so in the thick forests of Myanmar, where the country’s remaining 1,200 to 1,400 endangered wild elephants are elusive and only the males (and not all males) have tusks.
But this and other, smaller recent slaughters in the Ayeyawady delta were not ivory raids. Poachers had killed males, tuskless females, and calves alike in pursuit of a different prize: their skins.
Using elephant skin and other body parts is nothing new in Southeast Asia. In Myanmar and elsewhere—particularly in tribal areas—the skin is dried, ground, mixed with oils, and applied to treat eczema and other skin conditions.
“But there’s a lot we don’t know,” says Martin Tyson, a Wildlife Conservation Society biologist who’s helping Myanmar’s government draft an elephant conservation plan. “Recently Chinese biologists said it’s used for upset stomachs.”
According to Aung Myo Chit, something seems to have surprised the poachers who killed the 25 elephants earlier this year. They “left behind the skins which they’d put up to dry over bone fires.
They hung up the skin like laundry. Some bags were confiscated with raw hides still rolled up on pieces of wood and severed elephant trunks.”
“Rolled up like toilet paper,” Reisinger adds. “People tell me they can skin an elephant in four or five minutes.” Because of heavy penalties for gun ownership, the high-powered rifles used by poachers in Africa are rare in Myanmar. Instead, poachers often use darts and metal and bamboo spears dipped in readily available pesticides; the elephants die slow, painful deaths.
Professional poachers “go into an area and find local guides,” Tyson says. “The guides often get arrested, and the poachers get away. But the amount guides can earn is probably months’ worth of what they could gain by any other activity.”
To read the full article, click on the story title.
Monday, January 08, 2018
Asian Elephants Are Now Being Killed For Their Skin
The smell was ghastly and the sight even worse. Twenty-five elephants lay dead in a riverbed in the Ayeyawady (Irrawaddy) delta in southwestern Myanmar. “The stench is what led villagers to the bodies in the first place,” says Aung Myo Chit, the Smithsonian Institution’s Myanmar country coordinator, who also leads a local NGO, Growth for Prosperity, that helps rural residents avoid deadly conflicts with elephants.
It was the trust Aung Myo Chit’s outreach workers had earned that led villagers of Nga Pu Taw Township to reveal the dead elephants. Ordinarily, local people avoid reporting poaching to the authorities for fear they’ll be blamed.
By the time Aung Myo Chit’s filmmaker colleague Klaus Reisinger got there in early May, the giant carcasses had deteriorated badly. “Their bellies were bloated,” Reisinger recalls with a shudder.
Captive elephants are often used to drag carcasses of elephants slain for their ivory out of riverbeds where they’re commonly found. But that wasn’t possible this time. The skin had been stripped from the bodies, leaving them to tear apart if moved. So staff with the Myanmar Forest Department who came to investigate burned them in place to prevent their contaminating the downstream water supply.
Such spectacles are familiar on African savannas, where elephants are more numerous and poachers have stalked their ivory for decades. Not so in the thick forests of Myanmar, where the country’s remaining 1,200 to 1,400 endangered wild elephants are elusive and only the males (and not all males) have tusks.
But this and other, smaller recent slaughters in the Ayeyawady delta were not ivory raids. Poachers had killed males, tuskless females, and calves alike in pursuit of a different prize: their skins.
To read the full article, click on the story title
It was the trust Aung Myo Chit’s outreach workers had earned that led villagers of Nga Pu Taw Township to reveal the dead elephants. Ordinarily, local people avoid reporting poaching to the authorities for fear they’ll be blamed.
By the time Aung Myo Chit’s filmmaker colleague Klaus Reisinger got there in early May, the giant carcasses had deteriorated badly. “Their bellies were bloated,” Reisinger recalls with a shudder.
Captive elephants are often used to drag carcasses of elephants slain for their ivory out of riverbeds where they’re commonly found. But that wasn’t possible this time. The skin had been stripped from the bodies, leaving them to tear apart if moved. So staff with the Myanmar Forest Department who came to investigate burned them in place to prevent their contaminating the downstream water supply.
Such spectacles are familiar on African savannas, where elephants are more numerous and poachers have stalked their ivory for decades. Not so in the thick forests of Myanmar, where the country’s remaining 1,200 to 1,400 endangered wild elephants are elusive and only the males (and not all males) have tusks.
But this and other, smaller recent slaughters in the Ayeyawady delta were not ivory raids. Poachers had killed males, tuskless females, and calves alike in pursuit of a different prize: their skins.
To read the full article, click on the story title
Friday, December 22, 2017
ASIAN ELEPHANTS ARE NOW BEING KILLED FOR THEIR SKIN
A lawless zone in northeastern Myanmar has cornered the market in a gruesome good: elephant skin jewellery.
The smell was ghastly and the sight even worse. Twenty-five elephants lay dead in a riverbed in the Ayeyawady (Irrawaddy) delta in southwestern Myanmar. “The stench is what led villagers to the bodies in the first place,” says Aung Myo Chit, the Smithsonian Institution’s Myanmar country coordinator, who also leads a local NGO, Growth for Prosperity, that helps rural residents avoid deadly conflicts with elephants.
It was the trust Aung Myo Chit’s outreach workers had earned that led villagers of Nga Pu Taw Township to reveal the dead elephants. Ordinarily, local people avoid reporting poaching to the authorities for fear they’ll be blamed.
By the time Aung Myo Chit’s filmmaker colleague Klaus Reisinger got there in early May, the giant carcasses had deteriorated badly. “Their bellies were bloated,” Reisinger recalls with a shudder.
Captive elephants are often used to drag carcasses of elephants slain for their ivory out of riverbeds where they’re commonly found. But that wasn’t possible this time. The skin had been stripped from the bodies, leaving them to tear apart if moved. So staff with the Myanmar Forest Department who came to investigate burned them in place to prevent their contaminating the downstream water supply.
Such spectacles are familiar on African savannas, where elephants are more numerous and poachers have stalked their ivory for decades. Not so in the thick forests of Myanmar, where the country’s remaining 1,200 to 1,400 endangered wild elephants are elusive and only the males (and not all males) have tusks.
But this and other, smaller recent slaughters in the Ayeyawady delta were not ivory raids. Poachers had killed males, tuskless females, and calves alike in pursuit of a different prize: their skins.
Using elephant skin and other body parts is nothing new in Southeast Asia. In Myanmar and elsewhere—particularly in tribal areas—the skin is dried, ground, mixed with oils, and applied to treat eczema and other skin conditions.
To read the full article, click on the story title
The smell was ghastly and the sight even worse. Twenty-five elephants lay dead in a riverbed in the Ayeyawady (Irrawaddy) delta in southwestern Myanmar. “The stench is what led villagers to the bodies in the first place,” says Aung Myo Chit, the Smithsonian Institution’s Myanmar country coordinator, who also leads a local NGO, Growth for Prosperity, that helps rural residents avoid deadly conflicts with elephants.
It was the trust Aung Myo Chit’s outreach workers had earned that led villagers of Nga Pu Taw Township to reveal the dead elephants. Ordinarily, local people avoid reporting poaching to the authorities for fear they’ll be blamed.
By the time Aung Myo Chit’s filmmaker colleague Klaus Reisinger got there in early May, the giant carcasses had deteriorated badly. “Their bellies were bloated,” Reisinger recalls with a shudder.
Captive elephants are often used to drag carcasses of elephants slain for their ivory out of riverbeds where they’re commonly found. But that wasn’t possible this time. The skin had been stripped from the bodies, leaving them to tear apart if moved. So staff with the Myanmar Forest Department who came to investigate burned them in place to prevent their contaminating the downstream water supply.
Such spectacles are familiar on African savannas, where elephants are more numerous and poachers have stalked their ivory for decades. Not so in the thick forests of Myanmar, where the country’s remaining 1,200 to 1,400 endangered wild elephants are elusive and only the males (and not all males) have tusks.
But this and other, smaller recent slaughters in the Ayeyawady delta were not ivory raids. Poachers had killed males, tuskless females, and calves alike in pursuit of a different prize: their skins.
Using elephant skin and other body parts is nothing new in Southeast Asia. In Myanmar and elsewhere—particularly in tribal areas—the skin is dried, ground, mixed with oils, and applied to treat eczema and other skin conditions.
To read the full article, click on the story title
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