An estimated 100 African elephants are killed every day by poachers seeking ivory, meat and body parts, leaving only 400,000 remaining, environmentalists estimate. A large chunk of the demand for ivory comes from Asian countries such as China and Vietnam, where it is turned into jewels and ornaments.
As well as taking a tough stance on transited products, Singapore said last year it would ban the domestic trade in ivory from September 2021.
“Elephant poaching is at crisis levels in Asia and Africa due to the illegal trade,” said R. Raghunathan, CEO of World Wide Fund for Nature Singapore.
Raghunathan said the city state’s ivory crush and other initiatives underlined its determination to “stamp out the illicit transit of wildlife products through Singapore”.
Neighbouring Malaysia destroyed 9.55 tonnes of seized elephant tusks in 2016.
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