Hong Kong to Destroy 28 Tons of Ivory, Crush Will Be Largest Ever Done

Nearly all of Hong Kong's stockpile of illegal ivory will be destroyed, officials there said Thursday.

About 28 metric tons of confiscated ivory will be crushed and incinerated within two years time, officials said, amid pressure from conservation groups to destroy the stockpile in the wake of high-profile ivory crushes in the US and China.

In a statement, the Hong Kong Government's Endangered Species Advisory Committee of the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department (AFCD) said that its ivory stockpile - which reportedly weighs in at 29.6 metric tons - has become a "management burden" and a "security risk" and will be destroyed.

"It is expected that the disposal can start in the first half of 2014 and be completed in about one to two years," the AFDC said.

Hong Kong's destruction of 28 tons of ivory will be the largest of its kind anywhere in the world. The amount of ivory being destroyed more than doubles the combined amount destroyed by China and the US in two recent and highly-publicized ivory crushes.

"Reducing consumer demand for ivory reduces the incentive for poachers to massacre elephants and for traffickers to engage in illegal ivory trade. Destroying stockpiles of seized ivory, as the recent examples of the US and China have demonstrated, is a great way to raise awareness about the elephant poaching crisis and reminds current and potential buyers to eschew ivory," Wayne Pacelle, the CEO of Humane Society International, said in a blog post Friday. "So many people don't connect their purchase of ivory with the epidemic of poaching, and we are reminding people that you can draw a straight line from the purchase of this product to the killing of elephants in their native habitats."

Hong Kong said that it will keep a small portion of its seized ivory for "scientific, enforcement, identification and education purposes" as allowed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

A 1989 CITES ruling banned the trade of ivory, but it is difficult to distinguish ivory that has been in trade prior to 1989, which is still legal, from ivory that has entered the market after that.

Most of the ivory confiscated in Hong Kong is believed to be en route to China, where ivory goods are regarded as a status symbol.

As one of the world's busiest ports, Hong Kong sees a huge volume of cargo going coming into and out of its territory.

Ivory, rhino horn and other wildlife contraband frequently slip through Hong Kong customs. But illegal shipments are found all the time.

In autumn of 2013, a total of 189 ivory tusks were found smuggled in boxes marked as containing crops sent to Hong Kong from Cote d'Ivoire, Africa. The photo above is from that seizure. 

In August 2013, Hong Kong customs officials seized an illicit cache of elephant tusks, rhino horns and leopard skins with an estimated value of $5.2 million.

More than 1,200 polished ivory tusks were found in the illicit shipment, along with 13 black and white rhino horns and five leopard skins.

"Hong Kong is a very busy shipping port and smugglers might think there is a good chance of smuggling in contraband," Vincent Wong Sui-hang, group head of customs port control, told the South China Morning Post at the time. "But we have the capability and are determined to smash the smuggling rings."

Also in 2013, Hong Kong customs officials seized a 2-ton cache of ivory. Valued at $2.2 million, the seizure was the largest Hong Kong had seen since 2010, The Associated Press reported at the time.