Hai Phong customs officials seized more than 1 ton of illegal elephant ivory from Hong Kong on May 24, reports Tuoi Tre.
Officials inspected the 40-foot container and found the huge collection of elephant tusks that were cut up and hidden in charcoal bags.
The shipment originated in Hong Kong and was en route to China, a common path for the illicit commodities according to a recent report by the World Wide Fund for Nature.
The elephant tusks are typically used in traditional medicine and for decoration in Vietnam and China, fetching $770 - $1,200 per kilogram.
This confiscation is far from the largest in Vietnam with the record going to a 2009 shipment of 7 tons from Tanzania, also seized in Hai Phong.
While Vietnam officially banned the ivory trade in 1992, this has done little to stop it.
African elephant populations have faced the brunt of exploitation since their Vietnamese cousins are on the verge of extinction with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) estimating that only 70 remain, compared to 1,500 – 2,000 in 1980.
“They’re right on the edge. And it will take a lot for them to recover. Not only a huge conservation shift but a huge cultural shift as well,” said Barney Long, Director of the WWF’s Species Program.
He lamented that while the government has set aside land and made bold statements, lax enforcement and poor management have rendered conservation efforts “very ineffective.”
While elephants are now listed as “critically endangered” in the Red Data Book of Vietnam, in March of this year, CITES (a conservation treaty of which Vietnam is a signatory), identified the country as “one of the eight primary source, transit, or consumer countries in the current illegal ivory trade.”
Sadly, this genocidal practice isn’t likely to end anytime soon.
