On the road to destruction

Sustainable Development and Wildlife Minister Gamini Jayawickrama Perea and CITES Secretary General John Scanlon pose with the tusks   

Sri Lanka became the first country in South Asia to crush its entire stockpile of blood ivory but challenges to local conservation remain

By Uditha Jayasinghe

Trumpeting a first for South Asia, the Sri Lankan Government yesterday crushed and burned blood ivory worth an estimated $ 3 million and prayed for the hundreds of African elephants killed for their tusks.

The ivory came from a single shipment of 359 tusks, weighing 1.5 tons, seized by Sri Lankan customs authorities at the Port of Colombo in May 2012. Subsequent investigations by Interpol, who collected DNA samples from the tusks, traced the slain elephants to Northern Mozambique and Tanzania. Sri Lanka is among 16 countries in the world to destroy their stockpiles of ivory. Fittingly, the first two tusks fed into the crusher were from Sri Lankan elephants that were apprehended by local customs officials.

Saying sorry 

The shipment was in transit from Kenya to Dubai when it was confiscated by the Government under international anti-smuggling law. Government ministers, diplomats and schoolchildren along with officials from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) gathered at Colombo’s scenic Galle Face to witness the crushing of the tusks.

It took seven hours to splinter the tusks in an industrial crusher and the ivory shards were then transported to an incinerator at the Holcim plant in Puttalam under heavy military security. Once burned, the ash will be dumped into the Indian Ocean.

The crushing was preceded by a special religious ceremony where leaders of Buddhism, Hindu, Islam and Catholicism delivered short statements about the environmental and social costs of poaching. A two-minute silence was also observed in memory of the killed elephants.

“All of human society is responsible for this crime,” said Venerable Omalpe Sobitha Thero, the Buddhist priest who led the service, “apologising for this atrocity is important. This prayer is to honour these creatures and all life.”

Iconic investigation 

This is also the first time a multi-country legal effort identified the origin of the tusks.

“What was done here in Sri Lanka has set the example for others to follow in ensuring that samples of seized and confiscated ivory are taken before such contraband is destroyed,” said CITES Secretary General John Scanlon.

“The efforts of Sri Lanka, as a transit State, to intercept illicitly traded ivory and other illicitly traded wildlife is helping to combat these serious crimes and thereby protect precious wildlife assets in Africa and elsewhere.”

The DNA samples collected from these tusks increase the possibility of prosecuting and convicting poachers.

Destroying the contraband ensures no one will ever profit from it and, when coupled with the seizure of ivory and the prosecution and conviction of offenders, it sends a very powerful message that Sri Lanka does not tolerate this illegal trade, and that illegal traders now face significant risks along the entire illegal supply chain – in source, transit and destination states, Scanlon added.

According to CITES, every year around 30,000 elephants are killed in Africa for their tusks, primarily to satisfy the demand for ivory products in Asia. Some of the African nations such as Mozambique and Tanzania have lost more than half their elephants since 2009.

Countries such as Hong Kong and China are largest consumers of ivory and rhino horns, CITES claims. In recent years poaching has been driven by the increasing involvement of international criminal gangs, attracted by lucrative ivory prices.

Between 2013 and 2014 the price of an ivory kilo in China tripled from $ 750 in 2010 to $ 2,100 in 2014, CITES estimates, creating a black market of over $ 1 billion for illicit wildlife trade. 

Expanding protection 

However, the road to destruction was not smooth with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa giving orders to have the tusks transferred to the President’s Office, recalled customs official Nanda Kodithuwakku. The point of the move was to hand over the ivory to the Temple of the Tooth in Kandy, an effort that was thwarted by several officials.

They also argued that by giving the ivory to a third party, Sri Lanka would flout the CITES, the body that regulates the global wildlife trade.

“We can show the world that we are also in the CITES family,” Samantha Gunesekera, former Deputy Director of Sri Lanka Customs, says. “We convey that message throughout the world, [and to] our people.”

Sri Lanka was the first country to request the deployment of a Wildlife Incident Support Team (WIST) under the International Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC), in response to a CITES Decision adopted in Bangkok in 2013.

The WIST, which was led by INTERPOL, collected DNA samples from the 359 elephant tusks that were seized by Sri Lankan Customs authorities in the port of Colombo following the receipt of information from the World Customs Organisation.

The DNA samples collected by the WIST, through INTERPOL, represents best practice and Sri Lanka has set the example for others to follow in ensuring that samples of seized and confiscated ivory are taken before such contraband is destroyed.

Sri Lanka has been a signatory to (CITES) since 1979 but the country is yet to ratify the Convention.

The Convention provides necessary laws to not only help apprehend smuggling rings but also protect the country’s fauna and flora. However, Sri Lanka Customs needs supplementary legislation to collaborate and enlist the help of other countries in arresting international smuggling rackets, which are yet to be implemented.

This means that not only do customs officials have limited authority to stop smuggling; Sri Lanka has become a lucrative transit point for international illegal wildlife trade because it does not have the necessary regulations to stop the flow of goods. Despite many pledges by the Government and ostentatious ceremonies for African elephants, Sri Lanka’s own journey towards protecting its fauna and flora remains long and often under resourced, if not out rightly neglected.

Pix by Shehan Gunasekera