A KWS officer with a shipment of seized ivory. PHOTO | LABAN WALLOGA | FILE
NATION MEDIA GROUP
A Chinese national suspected to have
smuggled ivory through Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi is
to be arraigned in court.
In a press release sent to
newsrooms, the Kenya Wildlife Service said Tang Yong Jian, 40, was
arrested while in transit from Nampula, Mozambique to Guangzhou, China
on January 18, 2014.
A joint security team comprising
of officials from the Kenya Airports Police Unit, Customs, Kenya Airways
and KWS caught him with 3.4 kilogrammes of raw ivory in his suitcase.
According
to KWS, officials would prefer the suspect be charged with being in
illegal possession and dealing with a wildlife trophy in respect to an
endangered or threatened species.
GLOBAL HUB
On
January 6, China destroyed six tonnes of ivory and other wildlife
products in a landmark event aimed at shedding its image as a global hub
for the illegal trade in African elephant tusks. It was was described
as the first ever public destruction of ivory in the country. (READ: China destroys six tonnes of ivory)
Surging
demand for ivory in Asia is behind an ever-mounting death toll of
African elephants, conservationists say, as authorities have failed to
rein in international smuggling networks.
Experts
believe that most illegal ivory is headed to China — where products made
from the material have long been seen as status symbols — with some
estimating the country accounts for as much as 70 per cent of global
demand.
Other countries have carried out similar
exercises, with the US crushing six tonnes of ivory in November. The
Philippines destroyed five tonnes of tusks in June, and Kenya set fire
to a pile of the same weight in 2011.
The Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) banned international
ivory trading in 1989, but the environmental group WWF estimates that
around 22,000 elephants were hunted for their tusks in 2012, with a
greater number projected for the following year. There could be as few
as 470,000 left, it says.
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