The world's largest ivory seizure in recent years has been carried out in Singapore: XNUMX tons of elephant tusks seized
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves himThe Drug Rehabilitation Center in Singapore made the plargest seizure of smuggled ivory occurred in recent years worldwide.
Il illegal cargo it was discovered by the authorities in a container arriving from the Republic of Congo and bound for Vietnam. Officially the container said it was transporting timber: actually smuggled elephant tusks and pangolin scales.
Following the checks, officials have indeed found almost nine tons of fangs from as many as 300 elephants and more than ten tons of pangolin scales.
The ivory trade, with rare exceptions, was banned in the late 80s to protect African elephants, whose population has dropped dramatically over the past fifty years, from millions to just 600 animals.
Despite the bans, ivory remains a coveted material as it can be shaped to make exotic jewelry and furnishings and the ivory trade is very profitable: the value of the fangs seized last Sunday was estimated at over 17 million dollars.
In addition to the ivory, the container also transported 12 tons of flakes from around 2 pangolins, worth nearly $ 50 million.
I pangolin are the busiest mammals in the world and the illegal trade in these small animals has resulted in the inclusion of all pangolin species in the lists of animals at risk of extinction.
Although the trapping and trading of pangolins is banned almost all over the world, the demand for these animals remains high due to the delicacy of their meat and the therapeutic power attributed to their scales. The trafficking in pangolins it follows the routes from Africa to Asia, the same as those of elephant and rhino tusks.
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Tatiana Maselli
