A massive consignment of ivory from the port of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, is about to be auctioned in Vietnam, but nobody in the Tanzanian authority seems to know anything about it. A senior customs agency official in Hai Phong City, Vu Hoang Duong, said that the illegally-imported elephant tusks from Tanzania may be auctioned after the Vietnamese Institute for Ecology and Natural Resources completes certain tests

The consignment of tusks initially left the port of Dar es Salaam in late January this year, was transported by sea via Malaysia, and finally landed at the Dinh Vu Port in Hai Phong on February 28. The tusks, packed in 114 cardboard boxes labelled recycled plastic totalled 1,244 pieces (6,232 kg). The consignment was seized by customs authorities from a ship anchored at the Hai Phong Port.

Peculiarly, the government in Dar es Salaam has said it is completely unaware of the loss of their ivory, and of the impending auction.

According to one Tanzanian authority wherever animal trophies are illegally exported or imported from one country to another, the consignment is seized, the smuggler(s) arrested, and the consignment is auctioned. According to Ezekiel Maige, The Deputy Minister for Tourism and Natural Resources, revenue earned from the auction is then divided according to any standing agreements between the country where the consignment originated and the country of destination.

That sounds very fishy to me. If this were true it would be the perfect way of moving illegal goods – especially if you are a corrupt government official.  In all my years working on CITES trade issues, I have ever heard of such an arrangement – especially concerning CITES listed species. What I’ve observed is that any animal trophies smuggled from one country being seized in another, are handled according to international law. The disposal of the specimens, animals or trophies are agreed by the two countries. Usually ivory is returned to country of origin or stored in vaults for safe keeping.  It is indeed very strange that Vietnam would auction ivory seized from any country without even informing the relevant authorities of the country of origin.
The saddest part of the story is that Tanzanians are lamenting the loss of billions of Tanzanian shillings through an auction in Vietnam.

Nobody seems to be concerned that this ivory may represents over 600 individual elephants, where they came from, how they died, nor the fate of the people involved in the illicit trade.

Vietnamese authorities are said to have been unable to contact the director of Phuc Thien Ngan company, Vu Ngoc Tuan, who is the registered consignee of the tusks. However, one local newspaper said it interviewed Tuan in his office on Monday this week.According to the newspaper, Tuan said he knew nothing of the tusks, and that he had no business relationship with the sender of the tusks. He said authorities have not been able to contact him because he has been busy in recent days.

It is likely that an international smuggling network is at work here and Vietnam where recent reports of soaring ivory prices is likely to be driving the illegal killings of elephants and illicit ivory trade. Prices in Vietnam were reported to be as high as $1863/kg for small cut pieces and $1500/kg for whole tusks, with carved pieces even higher. The legal trade of ivory last year in Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa attraceted prices on tenth of this!

While the Tanzanian’s may just want the money, it is important that the source of this ivory is identified. Genetic tests can determine if this ivory is coming from Tanzania or elsewhere like DR Congo where elephant populations have crashed from 100,000 to fewer than 20,000 in the last 50 years. In conservation circles Tanzania is known to be notorious for illegal trade in birds, ivory, skins, apes and timber from other countries.