African rangers in Hong Kong urge end to ivory trade through the city
Print Edition
AFRICAN rangers told harrowing first-hand tales of elephant poaching at a public hearing in Hong Kong yesterday, the latest attempt to halt wildlife trafficking through the city.
Hong Kong, at the mouth of the Pearl River Delta, is one of the world’s top global transit hubs for endangered species and their products, such as ivory, shark fin, pangolin and rosewood.
Shark fin and pangolin are considered delicacies in China and the scales of pangolin, one of the most widely trafficked wild animals in the world, are used in traditional Chinese medicine.
The hearing, held in the legislature, was marked by a testy standoff between traders, who argue their business is legal, and conservationists who say Hong Kong’s prime role is pushing elephants toward extinction.
The United States, Singapore and China’s mainland have banned the ivory trade and the mainland will close down all such operations by the end of this year. Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China, has only timetabled a ban by 2021.
“If you are to be in Africa today, you can see how people are suffering. I am pleading with you this trade should come to an end,” said Josias Mungabwa, a former wildlife crime investigator in Zambia.
Hong Kong has the largest retail market for ivory with 90 percent of consumers coming from the mainland. The trade has been active for more than 150 years with ivory made into jewelry and other objects.
Groups including the World Wildlife Fund say loopholes in Hong Kong’s regulatory system mean traders can use a stockpile of legal ivory as a front while they smuggle illegal ivory to unsuspecting buyers.
Erik Mararv, manager of Garamba National Park in the Democratic Republic of Congo, said 100 elephants are poached a day while 1,000 rangers have been killed over the past 10 years trying to protect them.
Later in the week, a protest outside a famous restaurant by the city’s trademark harbor is planned against the shark fin trade.
A study from Hong Kong’s Shark Foundation released on May 31 showed large restaurant groups were serving shark fin from endangered species like the dusky shark and the silky shark.
Elizabeth Quat, a legislator who has lobbied the government to strengthen the fight against wildlife smuggling, said she hoped a bill to ban the import of ivory would be introduced by the end of this year.
“Today we are reaching the last battle... It is the last chance in our generation to save such a beautiful species,” she said.
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