TNAG-2130-FCO40-3045-Hong-Kong-and-the-ivory-trade-1990 — Page 33

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BACKGROUND

1.

In an interview on the 'Today' programme and at a press conference in London Zoo on 21 February (widely reported in today's newspapers) Dr Richard Leakey, Head of Kenya's Wildlife Department, claimed that the entry by the UK on behalf of Hong Kong of the six-month Reservation against the CITES Appendix I listing of the African elephant had led directly to a resurgence of poaching in Kenya and Tanzania. He said that Kenya alone had lost 25 elephants in the past month, and that Kenya and Tanzania had intercepted shipments of new ivory, totalling some 15 tons, which were destined

for Hong Kong.

2.

Leakey is in the UK to raise funds for Kenya's national parks and may well be over-stating the poaching problem. Nevertheless, these allegations strike at the very heart of our defence of the Reservation, which is that the ban on imports of ivory into Hong Kong will ensure that there is no incentive for poaching and no threat to living elephants. Leakey claims that poachers have simply heard that trade has started up again and are unaware that there is no import market in Hong Kong. In reply we should continue to point out the existence of the total import ban on ivory and the other controls on trade introduced by Hong Kong to combat illegal trade. There have been so far no exports of ivory from Hong Kong since the Reservation was entered. There is no logical reason for a Hong Kong trader to want to risk illegally importing more ivory only to have to illegally export it when the current stock of ivory in Hong Kong

totals some 474 tonnes.

3.

According to Leakey those arrested in possession of the 15 tons of ivory have said that it was destined for Hong Kong. We have seen no evidence of any Hong Kong involvement but have asked the Hong Kong Customs to step up checks on imports. However, if evidence is produced of complicity in poaching or illegal importing by Hong Kong traders we shall have need to investigate.

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