EIA: China's blood ivory carving factories

In this two part series I interview Allan Thornton, founder of Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), the agency behind groundbreaking investigations that contributed significantly to both ivory and rhino horn bans in the previous poaching crisis of the eighties.

Part 1 on Huffington Post: China’s blood ivory carving factories. Read full story

“And in China,” adds Thornton. “Ivory figurines are a popular way of making non-cash bribes to civil servants.”

EIA has been investigating the illegal ivory trade in China since 1999, and during a series of investigations between the years 2010 and 2014, EIA interviewed half a dozen ivory traders in one particular area, none of whom knew each other, and when the Asian undercover investigator asked them how much of the ivory is illegal, their response was the same:

“At least 90% of the ivory in China is illegal.”

Part 2 on Africa Geographic: China, Tanzania and the blood ivory blacklist. Read full story.

“We haven’t heard of any consequence against them for making those statements to us. It’s not rocket science to track down and identify these key players. As noted in that report, the President of Tanzania was given a key list of players in the ivory trade in 2012, and so we still hope President Kikwete will take action against the big fish. And we also hope the President of China will take action to ban the domestic ivory trade. And that is our goal.” explains Thornton.