France Becomes First European Nation to Publicly Destroy Ivory, 3 Tons Crushed

By pulverizing 3 metric tons of illegal ivory in front of the Eiffel Tower on Thursday, France became the newest addition to a growing list of nations taking a stance against poaching and wildlife crime by publicly destroying part of its ivory stockpile.

The illicit ivory, which was worth an estimated $1.4 million on the black market, was fed into a grinding machine and crushed to dust in front of a crowd on onlookers that included government officials and environmental activists. The public ivory crush is Europe's first. 

Piles of elephant tusks, both raw and polished, seized by French customs agents over the last two decades were displayed on blue tarpaulins before being fed into the grinder and hauled off for incineration, Reuters reported.

Though largely a symbolic move, publicly destroying ivory is a way for governments to send a message to poachers and traffickers.

"We are resolved to continue the fight against trafficking, and to remove any temptation to recover the seized ivory" for the contraband market, said French Environment Minister Philippe Martin, according to the AFP. Martin was in attendance at the event and was pictured posing with a large elephant tusk before it as fed into the pulverizer.

The amount of ivory French customs officials seize each year varies, but a customs agent the Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, where the bulk of the illegal ivory is confiscated in France, told The Associated Press that the criminal appetite for illegal ivory does not change.

Africa's iconic elephants are being massacred at unprecedented rates by poachers who profit from high demand for ivory and ivory goods in Asian countries such as China and Thailand.

Tanzania lost two-thirds of its elephant population in the Selous ecosystem in the last four years alone, according to the World Wildlife Fund.

In 2012, an estimated 22,000 African elephants were poached for their tusks, which can sell on the illegal market for more than $1,000 per pound, according to the AP.

While destroying ivory does send a message that governments will not tolerate or profit from illegal ivory, the practice does have its critics, who say that decreasing the overall ivory stockpile increases the black market price, thus making it more lucrative for poachers and ivory traffickers.

"These burnings of stockpiles are actually attracting more criminals into it," Dan Stiles, a researcher in Kenya who studies the ivory trade, told the AP. "These people are speculators. They're banking on extinction."

Earlier this year Hong Kong - where much of the ivory smuggled out of Africa passes en route to mainland China - said it plans to destroy 28 tons of confiscated ivory, the largest ivory crush of its kind. Hong Kong's move came after China publicly destroyed 6 tons of illegal ivory in January.

In November 2013 the US publicly destroyed 6 tons of seized ivory in Denver. The Philippines destroyed 15 metric tons of its seized ivory earlier last year.