Traffic: Malaysia a key conduit in global illegal ivory trade

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia has been regarded as the world's primary ivory smuggling transit country, with many shipments passing through ports undetected, according to anti-wildlife-trafficking watchdog Traffic.
Its Southeast Asia Senior Programme Manager Kanitha Krishnasamy revealed that between January 2003 to May 2014 alone, the country has been linked to 66 confiscations worldwide totalling 63,419kg (63 tonnes) of ivory.
"Only 19 of the seizures were made in Malaysia. The remaining 47 occurred outside the country, mostly after shipments passed undetected through Malaysia's ports.
"The sheer volume of ivory flowing through the ports has flagged us as a country of concern at the global level. Getting tough on the traffickers involved in smuggling ivory into should be a top priority for enforcement agencies," she said in a statement today.
Krishnasamy said the report showed that the Malaysia-linked seizures involved the import, export and re-export of ivory from at least 23 countries and territories around the world.
Just last week, 12 suspects were arrested in connection with the smuggling of 114 pieces of cut ivory and other wildlife parts, that were seized from premises in the country.
While commending the seizure, Krishnasamy has urged the government to intensify its collaboration and communication with ivory source and consumer countries, and enhance its profiling techniques to detect high-risk shipments.
"Malaysia is one of eight countries of 'primary concern' that has been identified by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) as being most heavily implicated in the illegal trade in ivory.

"With no open ivory markets, Malaysia's role is purely one of transit. It can extricate itself from this situation if its National Ivory Action Plan focuses efforts on tracking and dismantling the criminal networks,'' she said.