African Tusks Destroyed In Galle Face Green
Sri Lanka became the first’s country in Asia Pacific to destroy 400 million worth tons of Ivory today. Ivory came from a single shipment of 359 tusks, weighing 1.5 tons, which was seized by customs authorities at the Port of Colombo in May 2012. The shipment was in transit from Kenya to Dubai. DNA testing later showed that the tusks came from Tanzania.
An event was held today at Galle Face Green followed with a religious observance with the presence of Minister of Sustainable Development and Wildlife Gamini Jayawickremea Perera, Minister of Finance Ravi Karunanayake, and CITES Secretary-General John Scanlon. This key event highlighted that Sri Lanka would flout the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the body that regulates the global wildlife trade. Since 1989, 14 countries have destroyed over 130 tons of ivory. In the past 3 years alone, 11 countries have destroyed 80 tons.
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