Malaysia major wildlife transit port, TRAFFIC warns

The Star 31 Aug 11;

NEW DELHI: Malaysia is, inadvertently, clawing its way into becoming a hub for international wildlife smuggling.

This follows the seizure in Hong Kong, of 794 pieces of ivory tusks, which had earlier arrived from a Malaysian port.

A 66-year-old suspect has been detained in connection with the seizure. However, his nationality and source of the country where the contraband arrived from, are being withheld to facilitate investigations.

Traffic, a global wildlife trade monitoring network, disclosed that Hong Kong Customs officials found the tusks, weighing 1.9 tonnes, concealed inside a shipping container on Tuesday.

"This latest Hong Kong seizure further underscores Malaysia's role as an intermediary country in the illicit flow of African ivory to Asia.

"It's time for Malaysia to get tough on international ivory smugglers, who are tarnishing the country's reputation," Tom Milliken, Traffic's Elephant and Rhino Programme Co-ordinator, said in a statement Wednesday.

The agency further added this was not the first time international traffickers had used Malaysia to ship out ivory to Hong Kong and later channel it to China to meet the lucrative demand.

In 2003, the island authorities discovered 275 tusks, weighing nearly two tonnes, illegally exported from Tanzania and transited via Malaysia.

In December 2009, 189 pieces of ivory, concealed inside a container labelled as 'white wood, were shipped from Nigeria to Malaysia, enroute to Hong Kong.

Last Friday, Tanzanian police seized 1,000 ivory tusks hidden in sacks of dried fish, in the Port of Zanzibar, on its way to Malaysia by sea.

A recent Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) reported "Malaysia has progressively gained prominence in successive ETIS analyses as a transit country for African ivory," according to the statement.

High-priced ivory, often used in making gun handles, piano keys, billiard balls and costly souvenirs, is a thriving million-dollar trade, especially in parts of Africa where poachers hunt elephants for tusks.

Experts estimate overall wildlife trade was worth a staggering US$20bil (RM60bil) annually second only to drug trafficking. - Bernama

Hong Kong seizes nearly 800 smuggled elephant tusks
AFP Yahoo News 31 Aug 11;

Hong Kong has seized nearly two tonnes of elephant ivory worth about $1.7 million hidden in a shipment from Malaysia and detained a local man over the haul, customs authorities said Wednesday.

Inspectors found 794 pieces of tusks, weighing 1,898 kilos (4,184 pounds), concealed behind stones in a container marked for factory use at the city's port on Monday, a spokeswoman for the customs department told AFP.

A 66-year-old Hong Kong man was arrested and was under investigation, she added, but declined to confirm whether the shipment was destined for China, a major market where ivory is ground up and used in traditional medicine.

If convicted, the man faces a fine and imprisonment of up to seven years under customs or wildlife protection laws.

Anti-trafficking wildlife groups lauded authorities for the haul, part of the illegal elephant ivory trade that has been rising globally since 2004, largely due to increasing Chinese demand.

"This looks like another huge consignment of ivory aimed at the Chinese market," Tom Milliken, a coordinator of wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC, said in a statement.

"The authorities in Hong Kong are to be congratulated on this important seizure, but it is now vital to ensure that all leads are followed to track down those responsible along the entire smuggling chain."

International trade in ivory was banned in 1989 after the population of elephants dropped from the millions in the mid-20th century to some 600,000 by the end of the 1980s.

But seizures have escalated dramatically in the last seven years, driven by Chinese consumption, which is exacerbating Africa's elephant poaching crisis, activists say.

In September last year Hong Kong customs seized 384 ivory tusks worth $1.4 million from two containers marked "dried anchovies" in a vessel traveling from Tanzania to the southern Chinese city.

Milliken meanwhile urged Malaysia to step up law enforcement against smuggling, saying the Southeast Asian nation was increasingly used as a transit country for African ivory.

"This latest Hong Kong seizure further underscores Malaysia's role as an intermediary country in the illicit flow of African ivory to Asia," he said.

"It's time for Malaysia to get tough on international ivory smugglers, who are tarnishing the country's reputation."

Malaysian wildlife authorities said last week they were "highly concerned" after police in Tanzania's Zanzibar archipelago seized more than 1,000 elephant tusks, which were being smuggled en route to Malaysia.

Malaysia identified as a major transit point for elephant tusk smugglers
Isabelle Lai The Star 3 Sep 11;

PETALING JAYA: More than 20 tonnes of illegal ivory have passed through at least two Malaysian ports since 2003, earning the country an unsavoury reputation as a transhipment hub for the multi-million ringgit trade and the figure involves only those seized.

Wildlife monitoring trade network Traffic regional director Dr William Schaedla said Malaysia had become a major hub for illegal ivory trade in the last few years.

This could have been caused by stricter enforcement measures in neighbouring countries, leading smugglers to venture through Malaysian ports, he said.

“Smugglers tend to move to an easier' place. If enforcement in other countries heats up, then they will find a soft spot elsewhere,” he said.

It was reported that 794 African ivory tusks were confiscated by Hong Kong authorities on Monday after they arrived by sea from Malaysia. The tusks, weighing 1.9 tonnes and estimated to be worth around HK$13mil (RM4.97mil), was concealed in a consignment declared as non-ferrous products for factory use.

The seizure came after last week's report that more than 1,000 elephant tusks were seized by Tanzanian authorities. The tusks were hidden in a strong-smelling container of anchovies destined for Malaysia.

The huge amount of ivory being shipped accounts for thousands of elephants killed in the past few decades. Some tusks come from freshly-killed animals while others are from stockpiles.

Dr Schaedla said it was vital that Malaysia increased its regional cooperation and exchange of information with Asean countries via the Asean Wildlife Enforcement Network.

He also suggested that customs officers improve their communication mechanisms by using the Ecomessage system set up by Interpol. (Ecomessage is a database to coordinate international efforts to combat environmental crime, including illegal trafficking of wildlife.)

Local enforcement agencies should gather intelligence or information and bring it to the National Central Bureau (NCB) located at the federal police headquarters in Bukit Aman.

Dr Schaedla said Malaysian customs officers should also work with the World Customs Organisation's regional intelligence liaison offices to exchange information and intelligence effectively.

However, Dr Schaedla commended the Customs Department for heightening its enforcement measures of late, saying: “Malaysia is now quite serious about wildlife crime but still has a long way to go.”

Traffic has identified Malaysia as “a country of concern” in its latest Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) report.

Records of confiscated ivory shipments showed several seizures in other countries had transited through Penang and Pasir Gudang, which were considered “high-volume” ports.

Among the countries that seized ivory shipments after transiting through Malaysian ports were Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, Vietnam and Thailand.

The latter two are themselves known transit hubs for the illegal ivory trade, according to Traffic reports.

A general manager of a shipping company said there were around 50,000 to 100,000 containers which entered ports for transit in a month, adding that the containers were allowed to be stored free in the container yard for 28 days.

He claimed that Customs officers would only conduct an X-ray inspection on containers if they had a tip-off.

According to the World Wildlife Fund Global website, there could have been as many as three to five million African elephants in the 1930s and 1940s.

However, today, only some 300,000 elephants roam southern Africa and considerably fewer in West Africa.

Uggah: We’re taking steps to check ivory smuggling
The Star 3 Sep 11;

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia is taking serious steps to detect and stop the illegal shipping of ivory through its ports, said Datuk Seri Douglas Uggah Embas.

The Natural Resources and Environment Minister said he had ordered the Wildlife and National Parks Department (Perhilitan) to compile a report on the situation, after engaging with other enforcement authorities.

“They will discuss with the Customs Department and port authorities. We will get to the bottom of this,” he told The Star.

Malaysia’s strategic location meant many ships constantly transit through its ports, Uggah said, adding that it was not fair to label the country as a smuggling hub.

It was difficult to stop smugglers as there were many entry points.

“The ships can stop anywhere. But it does not mean Malaysians are involved,” he said, adding that the report would be out soon.

Wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic deputy regional director Chris Shepherd welcomed Uggah’s move to engage with the authorities.

“Malaysia is a transit country. This is the opportunity to disrupt the trade chain,” he said.

He said that the next step should be to find the players involved and go after them.

Shepherd reminded the Govern­ment to ensure it worked together with its counterparts in source and consumer countries for ivory.

“If there is no international cooperation, it will never be crippled,” he said, adding that the massive volumes and rate of ivory being shipped pointed to a “well-organised” smuggling network.

The ivory is poached from a large part of the African range, including Central Africa, South Africa and around the Congo Basin, with China being the main destination country.

Ivory is in high demand in China for various purposes including luxury items, religious and ornamental carvings.

The 61st meeting of the Conven­tion on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) standing committee last month indicated 2010 had seen the highest levels of elephant poaching since 2002.


1,069 elephant tusks seized in two months
V. Shankar Ganesh New Straits Times 2 Sep 11;

PUTRAJAYA: More than 1,000 elephant tusks were seized by Malaysian authorities when they foiled two attempts to smuggle them in at the Pasir Gudang and Butterworth ports over the last two months.

In the first case on July 8, the Wildlife and National Parks Department and Customs Department seized a container of 405 African elephant tusks declared as plywood at the Pasir Gudang Port.

Natural Resources and Environment Ministry corporate communications head P. Yamuna said in a statement the ship ferrying the container was from an African port and had transited in Singapore.

The second case was on Aug 21 at Butterworth Port, where 664 African elephant tusks were discovered in a container from the United Arab Emirates. The items in the container were declared as used plastics.

She said Customs was investigating both seizures for false declaration and smuggling while the Wildlife and National Parks Department was investigating under the Wildlife Conservation Act 2010 and the International Trade In Endangered Species Act 2008.

Yamuna said the ministry was also working closely with Interpol, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora secretariats and Asean Wildlife Law Enforcement Network to combat wildlife smuggling.

She said the recent successes were based on information provided by Interpol and this was an example of support from Interpol and other non-governmental organisations.

Yamuna said these were among the efforts by the authorities to put a stop to wildlife smuggling, adding that the ministry was deeply concerned with allegations that Malaysia was being recognised as the international transit point for the activity.

The New Straits Times recently reported that Malaysia was on its way to becoming a hub for international wildlife smuggling following the seizure of hundreds of pieces of ivory tusks in Tanzania and Hong Kong. The tusks had arrived from a Malaysian port.

Traffic, a global wildlife trade monitoring network, disclosed that on Tuesday, Hong Kong Customs officials found the tusks, weighing 1.9 tonnes, concealed inside a shipping container.

Traffic Elephant and Rhino Programme coordinator Tom Milliken, in a statement on Wednesday, had said it was time for Malaysia to get tough on international ivory smugglers, who were tarnishing the country's reputation.

Describing the reports as unfair, Yamuna said the department had doubled its efforts to fight wildlife smuggling and would be fine tuning and beefing up existing integration, cooperation and information networking with other national and international law enforcement agencies.

She said Customs was the main agency that regulated the import and export of goods.