More than 300 kilograms of elephant tusks have been confiscated in Vietnam. Namibia and Zimbabwe meanwhile have lost their vote to allow ivory trade.
Elephant tusks confiscated in Hong Kong in 2014Image: picture-alliance/dpa/A. Hofford
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Customs officials at Noi Bai Airport confirmed on Monday that 309 kilograms of tusks were confiscated in Vietnam's capital, Hanoi, on Saturday.
Deputy director of the Hanoi Customs Department, Nguyen Truong Giang, said the ivory had been flown in on an Ethiad flight from the United Arab Emirates.
The tusks had been inventoried as hydraulic toughened glass and signed for by a Vietnamese company, he added.
'Major threat'
"Illegal trade in ivory continues to be a major threat to the survival of elephant populations in Africa," wildlife trade monitoring network Traffic said in a statement.
"Traffickers continue to move ivory into and through Vietnam, and this seizure highlights the country's role in the illegal ivory trade," the statement added.
World wakes up to illegal wildlife trade
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Vietnam is a frequent transport point for ivory, where it is often smuggled onwards to China. Almost 7 tonnes were seized in 2009 in Vietnam's largest recorded bust.
According to experts, some ivory is sold for $770 to $1,200 (685 to 1,070 euros) per kilogram within Vietnam.
Namibia and Zimbabwe lose ivory trade vote
Confirmation of the discovery on Monday came as Namibia and Zimbabwe lost their fight to sell their ivory stockpiles.
The two countries, which are both home to healthy elephant populations, had lobbied for the right to sell off stockpiles accrued from natural deaths to fund projects in communities that live close to elephants.
"[The meeting] votes in committee against proposals of Namibia and Zimbabwe to allow international commercial trade in their elephants," the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) said in a statement at its conference in Johannesburg.
In the secret ballots, Namibia's proposal lost 73 to 27 and Zimbabwe's 80 to 21 - both far short of the two-thirds required to pass.
International trade in ivory has been banned since 1989, but legal domestic markets have continued in some countries around the world, and CITES has twice allowed sales of African ivory stockpiles to Japan and China, in 1999 and 2008.
Wildlife trafficking funds warlords and criminals
The growing slaughter of endangered tigers, elephants and rhinos by well-organized criminal syndicates is no longer just an environmental concern. It filters money into the hands of warlords, undermining global security.
Image: AP
Poaching wildlife poses a 'grave menace'
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon this week reported to the UN Security Council that heavily armed and sophisticated gangs of wildlife traffickers pose a "grave menace" to central Africa. The UN chief urged governments in Africa to recognize that the illegal slaughter of elephants, rhinos, tigers and other species posed a direct threat to national and regional security.
Image: AP
Spiraling illegal trade
Conservation groups have recorded an explosion in the illegal trade in elephant tusks and rhino horns in recent years. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), global smuggling in ivory has doubled since 2007. An estimated 17,000 African elephants were killed in 2011 alone, the IUCN said.
Image: AP
Rebel groups enter fray
One of the biggest concerns, experts say, is the entry of armed rebel groups and crime syndicates in wildlife trafficking. UN chief Ban Ki-moon singled out Uganda's Lord Resistance Army in his report, saying it used the ivory trade to buy arms, fund criminal activities, and that some of those weapons might be coming from Libya.
Image: AP
Large-scale killings
Conservationists say the emergence of heavily armed gangs in the illegal trade has brought with it a new level of cruelty on a massive scale. In March this year, officials in Chad reported gangs slaughtering 86 elephants, including pregnant females, with machine guns in a single week.
Image: KAREL PRINSLOO/AP/dapd
Rhinos at risk
Conservationists say rhinos, which are killed for their horns, are at particular risk. Volker Holmes, head of species conservation at the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Germany says that until a decade ago, only about 12 rhinos were poached each year. That has exploded to 700 rhinos killed each year, he said, adding that the species are being pushed to "local extinction."
Image: picture alliance/WILDLIFE
Political instability fuels poaching
The surge in poaching in recent years has largely been seen in Central Africa. The UN report said many of the gangs and crime networks are taking advantage of political instability across the region. "Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad and Gabon in particular are facing this problem," UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said.
Image: Picture-Alliance /dpa
The ivory trail
Much of the illegal ivory and tiger skins taken by traffickers is sold through middlemen and transported to Kenya, Tanzania and Mozambique. From there, it's shipped to east and southeast Asia with the Philippines and Vietnam playing important roles as transit routes.
Image: picture-alliance/dpa
China drives demand for ivory
Much of the illegal ivory ends up in China. Conservation groups say China is the world's largest ivory market. Some estimate the country accounts for as much as 70 percent of global demand. The country's rising economic power is said to be driving the trade as hundreds of millions of newly wealthy Chinese seek to buy ivory carvings, sculptures, jewelry and gifts.
