The country's ivory stock is worth $6.4M (€4.84M), will be destroyed nonetheless

Jun 19, 2013 18:01 GMT  ·  By

This coming June 21, several tones of ivory that make up the Philippines' national stock will be destroyed in an attempt to discourage poachers and illegal traffickers.

High officials have announced that, although the Philippines' national ivory stock is estimated to be worth some $6.4M (€4.84M), it will be nonetheless destroyed almost in its entirety.

This is because the country is now facing a surge in illegal trafficking activities involving this precious material.

In fact, The Inquisitr inform us that, for the time being, illegal ivory trafficking ranks amongst the country's top trafficking problems.

By the looks of it, a little more than 100 pieces will not be destroyed. Of these, 106 will be repatriated to Kenya and some will be kept for educational purposes.

Commenting on the Philippines' decision to destroy its national ivory stock, Mundita Lim, the current director of the Protected Areas and Wildlife Bureau, argued as follows:

“The destruction of the items would hopefully bring the Philippines’ message across the globe that the country is serious and will not tolerate illegal wildlife trade, and denounces the continuous killing of elephants for illicit ivory trade.”

As reported on several occasions, the increase in trafficking activities involving elephant tusks, rhino horns and several other animal body parts is largely due to a growing demand for such rare products.

Conservationists and officials looking to end these trafficking activities say that, in the case of ivory, demand has particularly increased in China and in Asia.

Many fear that, unless measures intended to end this illegal trade are soon taken, elephants will switch from being an endangered species to being an extinct one.

The Philippines is not the first country to take a stand against this illegal trade in animal body parts.

Some three weeks ago, Kenya announced a series of rather extreme measures intended to address its ongoing poaching crisis.