14 DAY TRIAL // This past January 23, the Hong Kong Government's Endangered Species Advisory Committee of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department went public with the news that the region was to destroy a total of 28 tons of ivory.
High officials went on to detail that the ivory was all confiscated from traffickers over the years, and that its destruction was intended to signal that Honk Kong was determined to get behind efforts to end wildlife crime.
Writing on the official website for the Humane Society of the United States, Wayne Pacelle stresses that, although ivory stockpiles have been destroyed by other countries in the past, the 28 tons that Hong Kong intends to get rid of represents the largest cache of its kind to have until now been disposed of.
“This action signals that the fight against the ivory trade is global, and it’s finding increasing favor in critical parts of Asia, among consumers and government officials,” the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Humane Society writes.
Interestingly enough, it would appear that high official in Hong Kong did not take the decision to destroy these 28 tons of ivory on their own.
On the contrary, they were convinced to take such drastic action against wildlife crime by green group Humane Society International and its supporters.
In his blog, Wayne Pacelle goes on to detail that, just last year, some 35,000 elephants are estimated to have been killed by poachers in Africa.
The conservationist goes on to argue that, should the killing rate of these animals remain this high in the years to come, African elephants are very likely to fall off the biodiversity map in about 20 years.
“Poachers poisoned or shot elephants with machine guns, and hacked off the tusks of elephants while the animals were still alive,” Wayne Pacelle says.
“This slaughter of elephants, for jewelry, trinkets, or statuettes is unconscionable, and it is robbing African nations of the value that live elephants would bring to these nations in the form of wildlife tourism for decades,” he adds.
For the time being, information concerning when and where the destruction of the 28 tons of ivory will take place has not been shared with the public.