On the eve of World Elephant Day, Singapore began destroying nine tonnes of ivory on Tuesday. The destruction of this stock, made up among other things of tusks of 300 African elephants, aims to prevent this ivory from returning to the market.
It is the largest operation of its kind carried out worldwide for several years. The Singapore National Parks Authority, behind this project, wants to avoid supplying the black market with ivory.
Singapore crushes ivory from around 300 elephants to deter illegal trade https://t.co/JpkE8C6l8c
- The PECO Council (@ConseilduPECO) August 11, 20208.8 tonnes of ivory seized in 2019
The operation was entrusted to an industrial rock crusher. It will take three to five days to destroy this stock, seized between 2014 and 2019. The residues will then be incinerated. "This ivory destruction operation illustrates Singapore's strong determination to combat the illicit trade in wildlife," said the national parks authority.
The bulk of the stock comes from a record seizure in 2019. No less than 8.8 tonnes of ivory had been recovered by the authorities, for an amount of nearly $ 17.6 million. The global ivory trade has been banned almost everywhere since 1989, after the drastic drop in elephant populations in Africa in the late 1980s.
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