Diplomatic missions from 31 CITES countries to witness Thailand's first burning of smuggled ivory



BANGKOK, 23 August 2015 (NNT) - Diplomatic missions from thirty-one member countries of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) have accepted the Thai government’s invitation to witness the first burning event of African ivory tusks seized from smugglers on 26 August 2015.

Tuenjai Noochdamrong, director of the Wildilfe Conservation Office, revealed that African ivory tusks to be burned next Wednesday weighted around 2.1 tonnes with related court cases terminated. The amount was part of a total of 17 tonnes seized in Thailand. She said around 12 tonnes are still kept as evidence for the on-going judicial process, and each of the cases would take five years to end.

Tuenjai said that the burning would show Thailand’s sincerity and strong intention to shut down the African ivory smuggling.

The Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation has well prepared the procedure to destroy the ivory tasks. Every single piece of the tusks will be counted and referred to its registered number before all of them are transferred to the site where they would be crushed into powder and transported to Akkhie Prakarn Company in Samut Prakan's Bang Pu industrial estate for a 5-hour-long burning.

Tuenjai assured the security of the mashed ivory transfer, saying that the trucks are controlled by GPS and guarded by police cars until the end of the process. Ivory burning zone will have closed circuit cameras and be checked by two sets of committees.


-- NNT 2015-08-24

If as stated it takes 5 years to handle the cases related to ivory smuggling its a sad state of affairs for all concerned.

I guess no people involved in these cases are under arrest nor in jail due to bail being posted, no arrest, abscounded, etc What about the people involved in the 2 + tons to be burnt are they in prison, have they paid a fine, are their whereabouts even known?

Answer these and other questions at the dog and poney show that will be put on.and you might have verafication made as to what is burned is ivory, weight, orgin etc.

Edited August 24, 201510 yr by slapout

It's really quite a shame to see them burning this as it is not easy to come by. They should be finding a constructive use for it instead of destroying it

Another ill-conceived policy.

Why not pay artisans to carve wonderful pieces of art from this ivory. Sell it and use the proceeds to fund police patrols to continue finding and stopping poachers. Pay the artisans a fair wage and sell the ivory at a fair price and at least it can do some good. What a stupid waste ivory.

It this is standard and recommended practice by the international community then I strongly disagree with the international community on this issue.

Burn it and the people involved in the smuggling. Make the possession of all ivory illegal.

The Obama administration has recently implemented a nearly complete ban on commercial ivory trade. This is a positive step. The US also had a big burning of the ivory in US possession and there were cryies to do something with the ivory by people who don't realize that the ivory trade is doing to elephants. Elephants could be extinct in the next 20 years.

China should be next to ban ivory. It's the biggest user of ivory.

All this killing for the overgrown teeth of this intelligent animal. The world should be ashamed.

Another ill-conceived policy.

Why not pay artisans to carve wonderful pieces of art from this ivory. Sell it and use the proceeds to fund police patrols to continue finding and stopping poachers. Pay the artisans a fair wage and sell the ivory at a fair price and at least it can do some good. What a stupid waste ivory.

It this is standard and recommended practice by the international community then I strongly disagree with the international community on this issue.

I think the above is a good idea but heck if it does not work call in the Russian bulldozers. They can lay waste to just about anything cheese included while a certain percent of the population starve makes sense.

Another ill-conceived policy.

Why not pay artisans to carve wonderful pieces of art from this ivory. Sell it and use the proceeds to fund police patrols to continue finding and stopping poachers. Pay the artisans a fair wage and sell the ivory at a fair price and at least it can do some good. What a stupid waste ivory.

It this is standard and recommended practice by the international community then I strongly disagree with the international community on this issue.

You really dont get it do you?

The whole idea is to get people away from thinking Ivory as something precious.

Burning contraband makes sense for pirated DVDs, heroin and counterfeit currency, which have no legitimate alternative use and require no scarce resources for their production. But it makes no sense for ivory, particularly if the volume involved is seventeen tons. All you do is decrease supply, which increases the price and encourages more poaching.

One can only hope corrupt officials somehow manage to substitute fake ivory and smuggle for the real material back onto the black market. Otherwise, they are simply condemning more animals to death at the hands of poachers.

Personally, as the animals are already dead, I think "burning" millions of dollars of desired ivory is stupid !

Why not auction it and remit proceeds to Thai needy ?