A groundbreaking undercover investigation on transnational ivory trafficking in mainland China and Hong Kong

Near the end of 2014, the Elephant Action League (now Earth League International) recognized the need for an investigation in mainland China and Hong Kong, focusing on the ivory trade. The goal was to expose how illegal ivory infiltrates the legal ivory market and to identify regulatory loopholes that facilitate this crossover. The primary objective was to assess the state of China’s ivory trade, with particular attention to the intersection of legal and illegal markets. The operation was partially funded by Paul Allen’s Vulcan Foundation.

In that period, each year, an estimated 25,000 to 50,000 elephants were poached across Africa. A 2014 study estimated that the illegal killing rate, or poaching rate, was about 6.8% of Africa’s total elephant population, equating to around 33,630 elephants killed annually. Whether the actual number of elephants poached was closer to 25,000 or 50,000, even the lower estimate exceeds the elephant birth rate, directly threatening the survival of Africa’s elephant populations.

China remains the world’s largest ivory market. Despite regulations aimed at controlling the domestic legal ivory trade, the ivory industry has continued to expand. When China revived its legal ivory market in 2008 through the CITES-approved purchase of 62 tons of African ivory, a thriving illegal market was already operating. Rather than curbing illegal trade as intended, the expanded legal market inadvertently provided new avenues for illegal ivory to be laundered, further fueling the illicit trade.

Main findings (published in 2015):

• Legitimate businesses and business people participate in and facilitate the laundering of illicit ivory through the legal ivory market by such means as 1) importing supposedly pre-ban, antique, and trophy hunting ivory, 2) the manipulation of the ivory registration system within China, 3) trading ivory privately and illegally without following the government’s guidelines and restrictions, and 4) the use of the existing huge illegal raw ivory stocks (>1,000 tons) in the hands of a few traders. 

• Chinese traders import ivory mainly via Hong Kong (or purchase worked ivory in Hong Kong), “legalize” it, and re-export the ivory to mainland China.

• The company Beijing Mammoth Art Co LTD (ivory imports, retail sales, carving factory, trophy hunting), one of the most powerful ivory traders in China, and chosen as the main target of this investigation, confirmed to ELI investigators that they are connected to a company in Hong Kong called Tung’s Carving Gallery (Tung Pit Wang), to import and work ivory in Hong Kong. The trader then re-exports the worked ivory to his business in Beijing to avoid Chinese ivory quotas and to facilitate import permitting. According to a source familiar with the ivory industry (a maker of ivory carving machines) Beijing Mammoth Art also provides ivory to 300 illegal small carving facilities in and around Beijing.

• Among the galaxy of various connections, Beijing Mammoth Art is also linked to Beijing Tian Hao Bo Rui International Sports Exchange LTD (another importer in Beijing), Safari Taxidermy
  

  

   

  in Limpopo Province, South Africa, and another company, supposedly owned by Beijing Mammoth’s “boss,” that brokered the purchase and importation of live elephants to Chimelong Safari Park in Guangzhou from Zimbabwe.

• Data shows how during the past two years Beijing Mammoth Art and Beijing Tian Hao Bo Rui have been importing ivory and trophies from all over Africa, including South Africa, Central African Republic, Mozambique, Somalia, Sudan and Tanzania.

• According to our sources, over 1,000 metric tons of illegal ivory is being stockpiled in secret locations and warehouses in China by investors and traders who, regardless what the Chinese government decides, are still betting on future profits.

• Through their trophy hunting connections in South Africa, the associates of Beijing Mammoth Art are apparently able to import rhino horns using a new method. After the rhino has been killed the whole animal is preserved by a taxidermist as a trophy. The full body mount is then sent to China and is imported legally as a hunting trophy. Once inside the country the real horn is removed and replaced with a fake one.

• Rhino horn was available for sale in every facility visited by the investigative team. Rhino horn is still in high demand throughout China, with traders indicating they can sell it as quickly as they can acquire it.

• ELI investigators also assessed the availability of other rare wildlife products because at the demand end of the trade chain (China), ivory traders consistently deal with multiple wildlife products. An ivory carver and trader in Beijing – also a collector of hunting trophies and rare wildlife products from around the world – also showed ELI investigators tiger teeth and tiger bone wine. Objects made of rhino horn and tiger teeth were showed to ELI investigators multiple times, often as pictures via the app WeChat.

• There is evidence that the social pressure to end the ivory trade from the international community, and now the Chinese government, is mounting and having an effect on the market. Ivory traders in China were supposedly scheduled to meet in November of 2015 to discuss the future of the ivory trade, both legal and illegal.

• We do want to express our appreciation to the Chinese government for its agreement to work toward closing down the domestic ivory trade, heightening efforts to reduce both the legal and illegal ivory markets, continuing efforts to reduce demand, and pledging to help solve the elephant poaching crisis.