Delegates allegedly purchase ivory in Tanzania
In March of 2013, an entourage of Chinese delegates, joined by President Xi Jinping, travelled to Tanzania. Officially, the delegation was to promote economic ties between the two countries.
The Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a non-government environmental advocacy group based out of London, UK, has now come forward with accusations that these Chinese delegates used the trip to procure a large shipment of illegal ivory.
The EIA alleges that in the weeks leading up to the arrival of President Xi Jinping and the delegation group, which consisted of other government officials and business leaders, Chinese buyers purchased thousands of pounds of poached elephant tusks. Later, these tusks were sent to China in diplomatic bags on the president’s plane.
The connection, which triggered the EIA investigation, became clear in January of this year. Ivory dealings in Dar es Salaam drastically increased following the arrival of a Chinese naval fleet in the port city. One dealer told EIA officials that he had profited $50,000 off the visit. A reason for the strong presence of ivory trade within Tanzania is the lack of security in the country.
…this financial relationship is fuelling elephant killings.
Chinese officials claim that the report by the EIA has no grounds. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei has expressed strong dissatisfaction, according to the Associated Press.
Assad Mwambene, a spokesman for the Tanzanian government, says that he is extremely frustrated by the allegations.
“Everybody knows we have been at the forefront of fighting this illegal trade,” claimed Mwambene.
Tanzania is the largest producer of poached ivory in the world. In the past four years, the country’s elephant population has decreased more than any other country on Earth, losing an estimated 10,000 elephants in 2013 alone.
China happens to be the world leader in the importing of illegally acquired ivory. The Chinese government has also been lobbying to allow legal domestic trade of ivory for years, arguing that this will devastate poaching practices and protect the elephant population.
Tanzania Elephant Protection officials have claimed that there is a correlation between China’s involvement in African economics and the slaughtering of African elephants. They claim that this financial relationship is fuelling elephant killings.
The EIA has tracked corruption and government collusion in the illegal trade within Tanzania since 2005, when President Jakaya Kikwete took office. Since then, it is estimated that the elephant population within Tanzania has plummeted from 142,000 to 55,000. On Tanzania’s Selous Game Reserve – a massive protected reserve in the southern part of the country – the elephant population has dropped by 67 per cent since 2009 to an all time recorded low of 13,000.
Ivory is widely used in China for jewelry, ornaments, and religious sculptures. The trade of Ivory was officially banned in 1989 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Both China and Tanzania are signatories.