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ELEPHANT GROWLS | 0:00:02 | 0:00:04 | |
ELEPHANT TRUMPETS | 0:00:04 | 0:00:06 | |
'Our most iconic African species are being pushed towards extinction, | 0:00:06 | 0:00:12 | |
'killed by poachers | 0:00:12 | 0:00:14 | |
'to supply an illegal trade worth up to £15 billion a year.' | 0:00:14 | 0:00:19 | |
Oh, that's sickening. | 0:00:19 | 0:00:20 | |
'On the front line of this war are Africa's elephants, | 0:00:20 | 0:00:24 | |
'slaughtered for their ivory.' | 0:00:24 | 0:00:26 | |
'Despite a ban on the international ivory trade, | 0:00:27 | 0:00:30 | |
'the killing is only getting worse.' | 0:00:30 | 0:00:32 | |
'30,000 are shot every year, and if that continues, | 0:00:33 | 0:00:38 | |
'they could be gone from the wild within 25 years.' | 0:00:38 | 0:00:42 | |
'I can't bear to think | 0:00:45 | 0:00:47 | |
'we might lose these wise and emotionally-intelligent animals.' | 0:00:47 | 0:00:52 | |
Bulletproof for you... | 0:00:53 | 0:00:55 | |
'So I'm investigating the violent and murky world | 0:00:55 | 0:00:58 | |
'of the illegal ivory trade.' | 0:00:58 | 0:01:00 | |
'Who's doing the killing?' | 0:01:02 | 0:01:03 | |
-That is quite a weight of lead there, too, isn't it? -Yes. | 0:01:03 | 0:01:06 | |
'And who's doing the buying and selling?' | 0:01:06 | 0:01:08 | |
This is our guy. | 0:01:08 | 0:01:10 | |
'Are we, in the UK, part of the problem?' | 0:01:10 | 0:01:12 | |
It's going to exactly the same market as the modern poached ivory. | 0:01:12 | 0:01:17 | |
'And if so, how can I prove it?' | 0:01:17 | 0:01:20 | |
Six out of nine pieces, illegal. | 0:01:20 | 0:01:22 | |
'Armed with the facts and the evidence, | 0:01:22 | 0:01:25 | |
'it's time to do everything we can...' | 0:01:25 | 0:01:28 | |
-PROTESTERS YELL: -Save our elephants! | 0:01:28 | 0:01:30 | |
'..for Africa's elephants.' | 0:01:30 | 0:01:31 | |
If we're going to stop the killing of elephants, | 0:01:43 | 0:01:45 | |
I need to understand the global trail of poached ivory. | 0:01:45 | 0:01:50 | |
It's spring 2016, | 0:01:51 | 0:01:53 | |
and I'm responding to a call that could put me onto that trail. | 0:01:53 | 0:01:57 | |
At Heathrow, Customs have seized a consignment of fresh ivory. | 0:02:01 | 0:02:05 | |
It's been smuggled in suitcases | 0:02:05 | 0:02:07 | |
by two passengers transferring through the airport. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:10 | |
This is our operational office. | 0:02:10 | 0:02:12 | |
'I've been invited, by Border Force's Grant Miller, | 0:02:14 | 0:02:17 | |
'to join zoologist Alex Rhodes as he takes samples from the ivory.' | 0:02:17 | 0:02:22 | |
Goodness, it's all here. | 0:02:23 | 0:02:25 | |
This is just shy of 140 kilos of ivory | 0:02:25 | 0:02:29 | |
that was detected at the UK border. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:31 | |
'This haul could fetch up to £120,000 on the black market. | 0:02:32 | 0:02:37 | |
'Some has been roughly worked into beads and bangles, | 0:02:37 | 0:02:42 | |
'but there are also raw tusks cut up into sections.' | 0:02:42 | 0:02:45 | |
I didn't expect to see this in England. | 0:02:49 | 0:02:52 | |
I mean, this, to me, seems like a foreign problem, | 0:02:52 | 0:02:55 | |
but it's here on our own ground. | 0:02:55 | 0:02:58 | |
This has something immediate and very brutal about it and... | 0:02:58 | 0:03:04 | |
you know, this is dried meat, | 0:03:04 | 0:03:05 | |
this is from inside the elephant's body, isn't it? | 0:03:05 | 0:03:07 | |
-Absolutely. -It's just... | 0:03:07 | 0:03:09 | |
It even has a smell to it | 0:03:09 | 0:03:11 | |
that suggests that this didn't happen very long ago. | 0:03:11 | 0:03:14 | |
A third of an elephant's tusk is embedded deep in its head, | 0:03:15 | 0:03:19 | |
so the only way to remove it is by killing the animal. | 0:03:19 | 0:03:22 | |
You can see the hack marks here... | 0:03:24 | 0:03:25 | |
where, with a knife or with a machete, | 0:03:25 | 0:03:28 | |
they've used it to cleave the tusk away from the head of the animal. | 0:03:28 | 0:03:31 | |
That's right. | 0:03:31 | 0:03:32 | |
Part of Alex's work is to collect samples of recent seizures | 0:03:32 | 0:03:36 | |
for DNA analysis. | 0:03:36 | 0:03:38 | |
What we're going to do here is we're going to take the meat off it. | 0:03:38 | 0:03:41 | |
It doesn't matter if it comes off in pieces. | 0:03:41 | 0:03:43 | |
Yeah, that's perfect. | 0:03:43 | 0:03:45 | |
'The DNA will be compared to a genetic map of African elephants | 0:03:45 | 0:03:49 | |
'to pinpoint where these animals were shot.' | 0:03:49 | 0:03:52 | |
Is there a sort of quantity of material | 0:03:52 | 0:03:54 | |
we're looking here for, Alex? | 0:03:54 | 0:03:55 | |
Cos I'm not particularly relishing this task, I can tell you. | 0:03:55 | 0:03:58 | |
HUGH SIGHS | 0:04:00 | 0:04:01 | |
If you look closely, you can see this is actually a skull here. | 0:04:01 | 0:04:04 | |
Oh, my God. | 0:04:04 | 0:04:05 | |
'The compiled data points to the latest poaching hot spots in Africa, | 0:04:06 | 0:04:11 | |
'which helps focus anti-poaching efforts on the ground.' | 0:04:11 | 0:04:14 | |
Hugh, I think you're probably there. | 0:04:14 | 0:04:17 | |
HUGH EXHALES | 0:04:17 | 0:04:18 | |
Well, that was horrible. | 0:04:18 | 0:04:20 | |
I just hope it's useful. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:22 | |
Well, don't we all? | 0:04:22 | 0:04:24 | |
Don't we all? | 0:04:25 | 0:04:26 | |
I didn't come here today | 0:04:33 | 0:04:35 | |
expecting to scrape dead meat off an elephant's tusk. | 0:04:35 | 0:04:39 | |
I've never touched an elephant's tusk before | 0:04:41 | 0:04:44 | |
and...I-I don't know, I came looking for... | 0:04:44 | 0:04:48 | |
I don't know, some kind of insight or understanding | 0:04:48 | 0:04:50 | |
and I actually feel now viscerally connected to the problem. | 0:04:50 | 0:04:54 | |
Last year alone, Border Force made 182 seizures of ivory in the UK. | 0:04:56 | 0:05:02 | |
Worldwide, the tusks of around 5,000 elephants were intercepted. | 0:05:02 | 0:05:08 | |
But that's just a fraction of the smuggled ivory | 0:05:08 | 0:05:10 | |
that goes undetected to its destination. | 0:05:10 | 0:05:13 | |
I need to get to the grim starting point | 0:05:18 | 0:05:21 | |
in the international trail of illegal ivory. | 0:05:21 | 0:05:24 | |
The DNA testing of ivory hauls, like the one at Heathrow, | 0:05:25 | 0:05:28 | |
shows that 78% of recently poached ivory | 0:05:28 | 0:05:33 | |
is from the savannah elephants of Tanzania and Mozambique. | 0:05:33 | 0:05:36 | |
So I'm heading to the heart of this killing zone... | 0:05:37 | 0:05:41 | |
the Niassa Reserve in northern Mozambique. | 0:05:41 | 0:05:44 | |
It's vast - twice the size of Wales. | 0:05:49 | 0:05:52 | |
There's only the odd settlement and no big tourist industry. | 0:05:52 | 0:05:56 | |
In fact, very few people at all. | 0:05:56 | 0:05:58 | |
We've just dropped down through the clouds | 0:06:00 | 0:06:03 | |
and the landscape just looks amazing here. | 0:06:03 | 0:06:05 | |
It's the wildest bit of Africa I've ever seen. | 0:06:05 | 0:06:08 | |
We really are in the middle of nowhere. | 0:06:08 | 0:06:10 | |
'The reserve is jointly managed by the Mozambican Government | 0:06:12 | 0:06:16 | |
'and the Wildlife Conservation Society.' | 0:06:16 | 0:06:18 | |
-Hi, Rob. -Hugh, welcome to the Niassa Reserve. | 0:06:18 | 0:06:21 | |
Thank you very much. | 0:06:21 | 0:06:22 | |
'Rob Craig is the reserve manager.' | 0:06:22 | 0:06:25 | |
-Popping in the back? -Just jump in here, yeah. | 0:06:25 | 0:06:27 | |
'With the help of around 100 rangers, | 0:06:27 | 0:06:29 | |
'his job is to protect this huge area.' | 0:06:29 | 0:06:31 | |
'To get a handle on the scale of the challenge, | 0:06:34 | 0:06:36 | |
'he's taking me up onto one of the spectacular outcrops.' | 0:06:36 | 0:06:40 | |
I think that's the most incredible African view I've ever seen, Rob. | 0:06:47 | 0:06:51 | |
-That's Niassa. -Yep. | 0:06:51 | 0:06:53 | |
There's wild dogs there, leopards, hyenas, antelopes. | 0:06:53 | 0:06:56 | |
You've got, obviously, the elephants and there's over 1,000 lions. | 0:06:56 | 0:07:01 | |
And why is it so special for Africa's savannah elephants? | 0:07:01 | 0:07:04 | |
Um, I think it's just... it is one of the key refuges, | 0:07:04 | 0:07:07 | |
one of the key wilderness areas, | 0:07:07 | 0:07:09 | |
where elephants can roam in the wild still. | 0:07:09 | 0:07:12 | |
So, how bad has it been, then? | 0:07:12 | 0:07:14 | |
I mean, obviously, we've lost a lot of elephants here. | 0:07:14 | 0:07:17 | |
In 2011, our estimate was about 12,000 elephants. | 0:07:17 | 0:07:21 | |
-In Niassa? -In Niassa Reserve alone... | 0:07:21 | 0:07:24 | |
and we've now... In a count we did in 2014, exactly three years later, | 0:07:24 | 0:07:29 | |
we had dropped to 4,441. | 0:07:29 | 0:07:31 | |
So nearly two thirds of the elephants | 0:07:31 | 0:07:33 | |
-have already gone in just the last three years? -Mm-hm. | 0:07:33 | 0:07:37 | |
-That's a tragedy, isn't it? -Yep. | 0:07:37 | 0:07:39 | |
At the start of the 20th century, | 0:07:42 | 0:07:44 | |
there were around 10 million elephants in Africa. | 0:07:44 | 0:07:47 | |
In 1989, with just 600,000 left, the world finally took decisive action. | 0:07:48 | 0:07:55 | |
Delegates from more than 100 countries | 0:07:57 | 0:07:59 | |
have agreed to ban all trade in ivory. | 0:07:59 | 0:08:02 | |
The decision was taken at the United Nations... | 0:08:02 | 0:08:04 | |
The price of ivory fell and elephant numbers actually began to recover. | 0:08:04 | 0:08:08 | |
But from the start of the new millennium, | 0:08:08 | 0:08:11 | |
demand in Asia has boomed | 0:08:11 | 0:08:12 | |
and poaching has returned to devastating levels. | 0:08:12 | 0:08:16 | |
ENGINE RATTLES, HUGH MOUTHS | 0:08:19 | 0:08:22 | |
'Jamie Wilson runs the surveillance | 0:08:22 | 0:08:24 | |
'for a stretch of the reserve bordering Tanzania. | 0:08:24 | 0:08:28 | |
'He's offered to take me up in his microlight.' | 0:08:28 | 0:08:30 | |
Wow, incredible view from up here! | 0:08:41 | 0:08:44 | |
The microlight is a great tool for us to use, to see what's going on. | 0:08:45 | 0:08:50 | |
We've been seeing all the elephant signs, all these trails and tracks. | 0:08:50 | 0:08:54 | |
-All those tracks are made by elephants, are they? -Yes. | 0:08:54 | 0:08:57 | |
And because of the pressure of the poaching, | 0:08:57 | 0:09:00 | |
they've become nocturnal and they're hiding now. | 0:09:00 | 0:09:03 | |
We should be seeing them now, but they're all hiding in the trees. | 0:09:03 | 0:09:07 | |
So, they've become much harder to spot | 0:09:07 | 0:09:09 | |
since the poaching got really bad? | 0:09:09 | 0:09:11 | |
In neighbouring Tanzania, across the river, | 0:09:12 | 0:09:15 | |
over 60% of the country's elephants have been killed | 0:09:15 | 0:09:18 | |
in just the last seven years. | 0:09:18 | 0:09:21 | |
As poachers there have found it harder to track down their target, | 0:09:21 | 0:09:24 | |
they've come over into Mozambique. | 0:09:24 | 0:09:27 | |
My problem in this area is the cross-border poaching. | 0:09:27 | 0:09:31 | |
They hit and run across the border and I can't follow or do anything. | 0:09:31 | 0:09:34 | |
So, you're basically in the front line | 0:09:34 | 0:09:36 | |
as the poachers come across from Tanzania? | 0:09:36 | 0:09:38 | |
That's exactly the word I was looking for, the front line. | 0:09:38 | 0:09:41 | |
Yeah, we might actually see some elephants here, | 0:09:42 | 0:09:44 | |
I can see some signs. | 0:09:44 | 0:09:46 | |
There's a mud wallow right there, you can actually see it. | 0:09:47 | 0:09:49 | |
Oh, yeah. I can actually see the elephants' footprints in the mud. | 0:09:49 | 0:09:54 | |
Ah, there's some, look. You can see them running into those trees there. | 0:09:54 | 0:09:59 | |
-Yeah, I can see them, yeah. -You can see their backs. | 0:09:59 | 0:10:02 | |
Yeah, four or five, just moving through the bush. | 0:10:02 | 0:10:05 | |
Wow. My first Niassa elephants. | 0:10:06 | 0:10:09 | |
I can see them. | 0:10:10 | 0:10:11 | |
There they are. | 0:10:15 | 0:10:16 | |
Now that we've located some of the elusive Niassa elephants, | 0:10:23 | 0:10:27 | |
I'm hoping I might get closer to them. | 0:10:27 | 0:10:29 | |
(There we are.) | 0:10:31 | 0:10:32 | |
(Wow.) | 0:10:35 | 0:10:36 | |
(It's absolutely fantastic to see them.) | 0:10:39 | 0:10:42 | |
(Now, there's something about elephants that's so universal. | 0:10:45 | 0:10:49 | |
(Familiar. Everybody in the world knows what elephants look like. | 0:10:49 | 0:10:53 | |
(They've seen them on TV, | 0:10:53 | 0:10:55 | |
(they've read stories about them when they were kids. | 0:10:55 | 0:10:57 | |
(But to get this close to elephants that are truly wild | 0:10:57 | 0:11:02 | |
(in such a beautiful place, there's nothing like it. | 0:11:02 | 0:11:05 | |
(My heart's thumping.) | 0:11:05 | 0:11:06 | |
(We were just on our way back to camp | 0:11:25 | 0:11:27 | |
(and in the last of the evening light...) | 0:11:27 | 0:11:29 | |
(..we saw this young bull... | 0:11:30 | 0:11:32 | |
(out here, chomping at the grasses, quite happy.) | 0:11:32 | 0:11:35 | |
(But to me, away from the herd, out here on his own...) | 0:11:36 | 0:11:40 | |
(..he somehow looks really vulnerable.) | 0:11:41 | 0:11:43 | |
'The next morning, I find out just how vulnerable these elephants are. | 0:11:51 | 0:11:56 | |
'Rob wants to show me the reality of poaching, here, in the reserve.' | 0:11:56 | 0:12:00 | |
-This is where we start to walk? -This is where we start. So, we're going to head straight this way. | 0:12:01 | 0:12:05 | |
A few weeks ago, | 0:12:05 | 0:12:07 | |
this village reported the sound of shots fired in the bush nearby. | 0:12:07 | 0:12:12 | |
Leading the way are the reserve rangers | 0:12:13 | 0:12:16 | |
who first followed up the report. | 0:12:16 | 0:12:18 | |
I can smell dead things. | 0:12:28 | 0:12:30 | |
Wow. | 0:12:32 | 0:12:33 | |
Here we go. Here we go. | 0:12:34 | 0:12:37 | |
'Part of Rob's work is to confirm the cause of death | 0:12:38 | 0:12:42 | |
'for any elephant carcasses reported by the rangers.' | 0:12:42 | 0:12:45 | |
There's nothing left. | 0:12:47 | 0:12:48 | |
Nothing at all. | 0:12:50 | 0:12:51 | |
Every single bone...picked clean. | 0:12:54 | 0:12:58 | |
It's obviously been completely ravaged and torn apart by hyenas | 0:12:59 | 0:13:03 | |
and vultures and predators. | 0:13:03 | 0:13:05 | |
FLIES BUZZ | 0:13:05 | 0:13:08 | |
You're looking for, like, evidence of how it died | 0:13:08 | 0:13:10 | |
and looking for bullet holes and... | 0:13:10 | 0:13:12 | |
Is that any kind of...? That's not a bullet hole, is it? | 0:13:12 | 0:13:15 | |
-AK. AK-47? -Yes. | 0:13:18 | 0:13:20 | |
Yeah. There's two shooters. | 0:13:32 | 0:13:33 | |
-Two shooters. -The team would be bigger. | 0:13:33 | 0:13:35 | |
Of course. | 0:13:35 | 0:13:37 | |
'A typical gang will include a couple of men to cut out the tusks | 0:13:37 | 0:13:41 | |
'and carry them away. | 0:13:41 | 0:13:43 | |
'Between all of them, | 0:13:43 | 0:13:45 | |
'they'll probably share as little as £100 for their work.' | 0:13:45 | 0:13:49 | |
-One small tusk on a subadult. -Mm. | 0:14:03 | 0:14:06 | |
Either they're getting a very good price for their ivory, | 0:14:06 | 0:14:09 | |
or they just don't mind what they shoot. | 0:14:09 | 0:14:11 | |
Yeah. | 0:14:11 | 0:14:12 | |
-HUGH SIGHS -Yeah. | 0:14:12 | 0:14:14 | |
I guess in some ways it's a relief that I wasn't confronted | 0:14:17 | 0:14:22 | |
with a more grisly scene here | 0:14:22 | 0:14:24 | |
of something that had happened... very recently. | 0:14:24 | 0:14:28 | |
But, unfortunately, there is a grisly scene playing out in my head | 0:14:28 | 0:14:31 | |
and that's the scene of what actually happened here, | 0:14:31 | 0:14:35 | |
when this young male with a single small tusk | 0:14:35 | 0:14:39 | |
ran into a gang of poachers, | 0:14:39 | 0:14:41 | |
shooting him with at least six or seven shots and hacking out | 0:14:41 | 0:14:44 | |
that one little tusk. | 0:14:44 | 0:14:46 | |
It's a horrible scene, it's a horrible thing to think about, | 0:14:46 | 0:14:48 | |
but the real horror is that this isn't just ONE scene, | 0:14:48 | 0:14:51 | |
this scene's being played out all over Africa, day after day, | 0:14:51 | 0:14:56 | |
30,000 times a year. | 0:14:56 | 0:14:59 | |
This will happen 80 times today in Africa. | 0:15:00 | 0:15:03 | |
I want to know WHO'S killing elephants so blatantly | 0:15:24 | 0:15:27 | |
in a national reserve. | 0:15:27 | 0:15:29 | |
When I start asking around, one of Jamie's scouts, Gustavo, | 0:15:30 | 0:15:34 | |
mentions a recent encounter with local Mozambique border guards. | 0:15:34 | 0:15:38 | |
Running for 350km along the edge of the reserve, | 0:16:11 | 0:16:16 | |
the river Ruvuma marks the border between Tanzania and Mozambique. | 0:16:16 | 0:16:20 | |
The border guards are employed by the Government | 0:16:20 | 0:16:23 | |
to monitor and patrol this boundary. | 0:16:23 | 0:16:26 | |
But Gustavo's story suggests there may be something else | 0:16:26 | 0:16:30 | |
going on at this stretch of river. | 0:16:30 | 0:16:32 | |
To dig deeper, | 0:16:32 | 0:16:33 | |
we drive to a nearby village where the local border guards are based, | 0:16:33 | 0:16:37 | |
and one of them lets me through the checkpoint. | 0:16:37 | 0:16:40 | |
As tradition dictates, | 0:16:44 | 0:16:46 | |
my translator Alberto and I go to talk to the chief first. | 0:16:46 | 0:16:50 | |
THEY SPEAK LOCAL LANGUAGE | 0:16:50 | 0:16:51 | |
Have you heard about the problems | 0:16:53 | 0:16:55 | |
of elephants being killed in the reserve | 0:16:55 | 0:16:57 | |
and their ivory being taken away? | 0:16:57 | 0:16:59 | |
Are people still coming into the reserve now to kill elephants | 0:17:15 | 0:17:18 | |
or has it stopped? | 0:17:18 | 0:17:20 | |
It feels to me that the chief knows more, but doesn't want to speak out. | 0:17:27 | 0:17:32 | |
With 8,000 elephants killed in their reserve in the last five years, | 0:17:32 | 0:17:36 | |
the villagers must know something. | 0:17:36 | 0:17:38 | |
'And when Alberto does some discreet asking around, | 0:17:41 | 0:17:44 | |
'one local farmer says he IS prepared to talk to me.' | 0:17:44 | 0:17:48 | |
So we can speak in private, Khamati suggests that we head to his fields. | 0:17:49 | 0:17:54 | |
Do elephants come here often, or not so much now? | 0:17:56 | 0:17:59 | |
And who are the people who are coming to shoot the elephants? | 0:18:03 | 0:18:06 | |
Do they live in the reserve or do they come from outside the reserve? | 0:18:06 | 0:18:09 | |
So, Tanzanian poachers... | 0:18:29 | 0:18:31 | |
-Yes. -..are coming over the river... | 0:18:31 | 0:18:34 | |
Yes. | 0:18:34 | 0:18:36 | |
..and they pick up guns from the border guards? | 0:18:36 | 0:18:38 | |
Khamati tells me that once the poachers have done their work, | 0:19:12 | 0:19:16 | |
they hand the guns back to the border guards and smuggle the ivory | 0:19:16 | 0:19:20 | |
across the river into Tanzania. | 0:19:20 | 0:19:22 | |
I don't want to create problems for the villagers | 0:19:24 | 0:19:27 | |
by openly challenging the guards here... | 0:19:27 | 0:19:30 | |
but I CAN test how well they're monitoring | 0:19:30 | 0:19:32 | |
illegal crossings of the border. | 0:19:32 | 0:19:35 | |
There's no official border point here, | 0:19:35 | 0:19:38 | |
so I wonder what'll happen if I try and cross, | 0:19:38 | 0:19:42 | |
clearly in their view, without any papers. | 0:19:42 | 0:19:45 | |
We're nearly halfway. | 0:19:46 | 0:19:48 | |
What sort of things do people bring across the river? | 0:19:57 | 0:20:00 | |
They can bring some crops, bicycles, motorbike. | 0:20:00 | 0:20:04 | |
-Motorbikes? -Yes. | 0:20:04 | 0:20:06 | |
Things to buy and sell. | 0:20:06 | 0:20:07 | |
OK. | 0:20:10 | 0:20:12 | |
Tanzania, we're nearly there. | 0:20:12 | 0:20:14 | |
Ooh... | 0:20:17 | 0:20:19 | |
Salama! | 0:20:19 | 0:20:20 | |
I'm on Tanzanian soil. | 0:20:24 | 0:20:26 | |
Well, that was easy. | 0:20:27 | 0:20:28 | |
If you want to get illegal ivory | 0:20:30 | 0:20:32 | |
across the river into Tanzania and away, | 0:20:32 | 0:20:35 | |
it couldn't be easier. | 0:20:35 | 0:20:37 | |
Who's going to stop you? | 0:20:37 | 0:20:39 | |
The people who should stop it, the border guards, | 0:20:39 | 0:20:42 | |
they're involved. | 0:20:42 | 0:20:44 | |
So, what hope is there for the elephants of the Niassa Reserve | 0:20:47 | 0:20:52 | |
that I've been with for the last couple of days, | 0:20:52 | 0:20:54 | |
that I've seen looking so stunning in that incredible landscape, | 0:20:54 | 0:20:58 | |
but also lying slaughtered in the bush? | 0:20:58 | 0:21:02 | |
The slaughter's just going to go on. | 0:21:03 | 0:21:06 | |
Once across the river, | 0:21:10 | 0:21:11 | |
the ivory flows into a well-established web of traffickers, | 0:21:11 | 0:21:16 | |
travelling north through Tanzania. | 0:21:16 | 0:21:17 | |
At each stage, it's passed up the criminal chain. | 0:21:19 | 0:21:22 | |
Evidence suggests it can often be handed on | 0:21:23 | 0:21:25 | |
from Tanzanians to Chinese kingpins, | 0:21:25 | 0:21:28 | |
who know it can fetch up to £1,000 a kilo on the Asian market. | 0:21:28 | 0:21:33 | |
It's hard to get a fix on the ivory during this murky journey... | 0:21:34 | 0:21:39 | |
until it reaches a pinch point as it leaves the continent. | 0:21:39 | 0:21:43 | |
And a mountain of evidence suggests that Kenya | 0:21:43 | 0:21:45 | |
is one of the key exit points. | 0:21:45 | 0:21:47 | |
I'm on my way to Mombasa port | 0:22:02 | 0:22:04 | |
because it's clear that a lot of ivory | 0:22:04 | 0:22:06 | |
is getting out through Mombasa. | 0:22:06 | 0:22:08 | |
In fact, in the last year, there've been two enormous seizures, | 0:22:08 | 0:22:11 | |
but they weren't actually at the port, | 0:22:11 | 0:22:13 | |
they were at the other end, on arrival - | 0:22:13 | 0:22:15 | |
one of them in Thailand and the other in Singapore. | 0:22:15 | 0:22:19 | |
"Thailand seizes 500 elephant tusks worth £4 million, which were hidden | 0:22:19 | 0:22:24 | |
"in sacks of tea leaves on a ship from Kenya." | 0:22:24 | 0:22:27 | |
So, they got through Mombasa without being detected. | 0:22:27 | 0:22:31 | |
And I want to find out just how leaky this port is. | 0:22:31 | 0:22:34 | |
Mombasa is the busiest port in east Africa, | 0:22:34 | 0:22:38 | |
with over a million containers passing through here every year. | 0:22:38 | 0:22:42 | |
The port authorities are notoriously sensitive about journalists. | 0:22:43 | 0:22:47 | |
But I have managed to get permission to film with the sniffer dog squad. | 0:22:47 | 0:22:52 | |
-Hi, Mark. -Hello. -Hello again. | 0:22:53 | 0:22:56 | |
'Mark Kinyua is in charge | 0:22:56 | 0:22:57 | |
'of the unit of two dogs and their handlers.' | 0:22:57 | 0:23:00 | |
Thank you. Good to meet you. | 0:23:00 | 0:23:01 | |
'Diva and Rum can detect the faintest scent of ivory. | 0:23:01 | 0:23:06 | |
'But there are thousands of containers | 0:23:06 | 0:23:08 | |
'passing through here every day | 0:23:08 | 0:23:10 | |
'and these two dogs also have to cover the airport | 0:23:10 | 0:23:13 | |
'and a long stretch of the Kenya coastline.' | 0:23:13 | 0:23:17 | |
Ah, it's wood. 100% wood. Incredible smell! | 0:23:18 | 0:23:21 | |
How many days a week are you here with your dogs? | 0:23:22 | 0:23:24 | |
Yesterday we were here, | 0:23:24 | 0:23:26 | |
so sometimes we come four days in a week, three days in a week, | 0:23:26 | 0:23:28 | |
depending on the amount of work outside. | 0:23:28 | 0:23:31 | |
And what's the biggest number of containers you would look at | 0:23:31 | 0:23:34 | |
in a single day's work? | 0:23:34 | 0:23:36 | |
Perhaps...four or something... | 0:23:36 | 0:23:38 | |
-OK. -Yes. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:39 | |
So, two, three, four days a week... | 0:23:39 | 0:23:42 | |
-Two, three, four containers a day. -Exactly. | 0:23:42 | 0:23:44 | |
Customs and the port's X-ray container scanning unit | 0:23:46 | 0:23:48 | |
decide which containers to send for further checks by the dogs. | 0:23:48 | 0:23:53 | |
So, how much success have you had with the sniffer dog team, | 0:23:54 | 0:23:57 | |
here, in Mombasa port? | 0:23:57 | 0:23:58 | |
Isn't part of the problem here | 0:24:02 | 0:24:04 | |
that it's a tiny amount of containers that | 0:24:04 | 0:24:05 | |
you're actually searching? | 0:24:05 | 0:24:07 | |
-I mean, 15 or 20 a week at the most? -Exactly. | 0:24:07 | 0:24:10 | |
You've just seen - how many containers are we going through...? | 0:24:10 | 0:24:13 | |
I think three, four now. | 0:24:13 | 0:24:15 | |
Three or four this morning, and none of them are destined for Asia. | 0:24:15 | 0:24:18 | |
-And none of them are destined for Asia. -All right. -Yes, yes. | 0:24:18 | 0:24:20 | |
It's clear to me that Mark and his dogs | 0:24:21 | 0:24:24 | |
are looking for needles in haystacks | 0:24:24 | 0:24:26 | |
and I don't think they're being given | 0:24:26 | 0:24:29 | |
the right haystacks to look in. | 0:24:29 | 0:24:30 | |
Now that I'm inside the port, | 0:24:32 | 0:24:34 | |
I've got a chance to do a bit more digging. | 0:24:34 | 0:24:37 | |
I tracked down the X-ray scanner | 0:24:37 | 0:24:39 | |
that's meant to be checking containers | 0:24:39 | 0:24:41 | |
at one of the main entries into the port. | 0:24:41 | 0:24:43 | |
Well, we're just outside the scanning unit here. | 0:24:45 | 0:24:49 | |
It's this big shed. | 0:24:49 | 0:24:50 | |
The really interesting thing | 0:24:50 | 0:24:52 | |
is that there's a huge queue of containers there | 0:24:52 | 0:24:54 | |
to go into the port and it doesn't really look as if a lot of them | 0:24:54 | 0:24:57 | |
are being diverted through the scanner. | 0:24:57 | 0:25:00 | |
Hi. | 0:25:00 | 0:25:01 | |
'It's not long before our camera | 0:25:01 | 0:25:03 | |
'attracts the attention of the head of scanning.' | 0:25:03 | 0:25:06 | |
I'm Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall from the BBC. | 0:25:06 | 0:25:08 | |
'With a little encouragement, | 0:25:08 | 0:25:10 | |
'he agrees to show me how his scanner works.' | 0:25:10 | 0:25:13 | |
So, what we shall do... | 0:25:13 | 0:25:15 | |
I'll scan an import consignment, | 0:25:15 | 0:25:18 | |
-because this is an import consignment. -OK. | 0:25:18 | 0:25:21 | |
'He instructs one of the lorries to drive through the scanner.' | 0:25:21 | 0:25:25 | |
Come and see, come and see. | 0:25:32 | 0:25:33 | |
OK, I think it's pretty obvious what's in that one! | 0:25:33 | 0:25:35 | |
'The scanner can clearly be an effective tool. | 0:25:35 | 0:25:38 | |
'The question is - how's it being used?' | 0:25:38 | 0:25:42 | |
So, I'm just trying to establish | 0:25:42 | 0:25:44 | |
what the percentage of full containers | 0:25:44 | 0:25:49 | |
leaving Mombasa is being scanned. | 0:25:49 | 0:25:52 | |
What normally happens is that there's no container | 0:25:52 | 0:25:57 | |
that is completely exempt from scanning, | 0:25:57 | 0:26:00 | |
but for the authorised economic operators, | 0:26:00 | 0:26:04 | |
who we normally select at a random basis, yeah...? | 0:26:04 | 0:26:08 | |
-Ah. -..a number of their containers for scanning. | 0:26:08 | 0:26:11 | |
Ah. So, authorised economic operators, | 0:26:11 | 0:26:13 | |
is that mainly tea companies? | 0:26:13 | 0:26:15 | |
-Tea. Tea. -Only tea? | 0:26:15 | 0:26:17 | |
-Tea. -It's tea? We're talking about tea? | 0:26:17 | 0:26:18 | |
So, everything's scanned except the tea companies, | 0:26:18 | 0:26:21 | |
who are tested on a random basis? | 0:26:21 | 0:26:24 | |
It's interesting that two loads of ivory | 0:26:24 | 0:26:29 | |
were intercepted in Thailand and Singapore that had come from Mombasa | 0:26:29 | 0:26:35 | |
and they were both in consignments of tea. | 0:26:35 | 0:26:38 | |
I will not respond to that. | 0:26:39 | 0:26:40 | |
-You don't want to talk about that at all? -I don't want to talk about it. | 0:26:43 | 0:26:46 | |
How confident are you personally | 0:26:46 | 0:26:49 | |
that no ivory is leaving Kenya through the port of Mombasa - | 0:26:49 | 0:26:53 | |
either in the last few months | 0:26:53 | 0:26:54 | |
and it won't happen for the next few months? | 0:26:54 | 0:26:56 | |
100%. 100%. | 0:26:56 | 0:26:59 | |
I find it hard to share the head of scanning's confidence about that. | 0:27:01 | 0:27:05 | |
Even when the scanner IS working, | 0:27:06 | 0:27:09 | |
the exemption of certain companies from routine scanning | 0:27:09 | 0:27:12 | |
is clearly a problem. | 0:27:12 | 0:27:13 | |
Especially as they deal in the very product | 0:27:15 | 0:27:18 | |
in which large hauls of ivory have twice recently been found... | 0:27:18 | 0:27:22 | |
Tea. | 0:27:22 | 0:27:23 | |
CAR HORNS BEEP | 0:27:24 | 0:27:27 | |
We've been putting some feelers out and we've been in touch | 0:27:28 | 0:27:31 | |
with a few local journalists, | 0:27:31 | 0:27:32 | |
trying to find out a bit more about what's really going on at the port | 0:27:32 | 0:27:36 | |
and one of our contacts has come back, saying he's found someone | 0:27:36 | 0:27:40 | |
who works at the port who might be prepared to talk to us | 0:27:40 | 0:27:43 | |
and could throw some light on the whole situation. | 0:27:43 | 0:27:46 | |
'We've agreed a rendezvous at a mall car park.' | 0:27:49 | 0:27:53 | |
OK. Let me just walk over... | 0:27:53 | 0:27:55 | |
..and get in the back. | 0:27:56 | 0:27:57 | |
'The source - | 0:27:59 | 0:28:00 | |
'who's directly involved with checking containers at the port - | 0:28:00 | 0:28:03 | |
'is extremely nervous.' | 0:28:03 | 0:28:05 | |
Good afternoon, it's... I'm Hugh. | 0:28:09 | 0:28:12 | |
'We agree to relocate to somewhere less conspicuous.' | 0:28:13 | 0:28:17 | |
Do you...? Do you mind if I ask you a few questions then? | 0:28:18 | 0:28:22 | |
How do you think it might be possible | 0:28:22 | 0:28:24 | |
that people are managing to get ivory through the system | 0:28:24 | 0:28:28 | |
at Mombasa port, | 0:28:28 | 0:28:29 | |
past the scanners and past the inspections? | 0:28:29 | 0:28:32 | |
Do you want to park here and we can just continue to chat? | 0:28:42 | 0:28:45 | |
So, the containers that are vulnerable | 0:28:55 | 0:28:57 | |
are the ones from the big companies, | 0:28:57 | 0:28:59 | |
-that it's the same over and over again. -Exactly, because... | 0:28:59 | 0:29:01 | |
-It's like the routine. -Mm-hm and... | 0:29:01 | 0:29:03 | |
What about when it gets to the port? | 0:29:11 | 0:29:13 | |
Somebody at the port must know | 0:29:13 | 0:29:14 | |
that that particular container mustn't be scanned. | 0:29:14 | 0:29:18 | |
People can be induced not to scan the container? | 0:29:27 | 0:29:29 | |
This isn't evidence against any particular individual, | 0:29:35 | 0:29:39 | |
but it does suggest the billions being made in this trade | 0:29:39 | 0:29:42 | |
buys enough turned heads at international borders like Mombasa | 0:29:42 | 0:29:46 | |
for tonnes of ivory to get through. | 0:29:46 | 0:29:49 | |
From here, the vast majority of smuggled ivory | 0:29:52 | 0:29:55 | |
makes its way east towards Asia... | 0:29:55 | 0:29:57 | |
..where one city has long been a central hub | 0:29:59 | 0:30:01 | |
for the Asian ivory trade. | 0:30:01 | 0:30:03 | |
Ivory has been part of the culture here for centuries. | 0:30:07 | 0:30:11 | |
But modern consumption really began to take off | 0:30:11 | 0:30:14 | |
under the British administration, | 0:30:14 | 0:30:16 | |
during the boom years of the Hong Kong economy | 0:30:16 | 0:30:19 | |
from the 1960s onwards. | 0:30:19 | 0:30:21 | |
By 1987, Hong Kong's ivory workshops were consuming over a third | 0:30:22 | 0:30:27 | |
of the world's raw ivory. | 0:30:27 | 0:30:29 | |
I'm just heading out for a little explore. | 0:30:31 | 0:30:35 | |
A bit of Hong Kong antiques window shopping. | 0:30:35 | 0:30:37 | |
I just want to get a feel for what's on offer | 0:30:37 | 0:30:40 | |
in this famously cosmopolitan city. | 0:30:40 | 0:30:42 | |
The international ban in 1989 | 0:30:44 | 0:30:46 | |
was meant to stop the flow of fresh African ivory. | 0:30:46 | 0:30:49 | |
But, here in Hong Kong, | 0:30:50 | 0:30:52 | |
there's still a legal domestic trade in pre-'89 ivory, | 0:30:52 | 0:30:56 | |
with 371 businesses licensed to sell it. | 0:30:56 | 0:31:00 | |
So, where's all this ivory coming from? | 0:31:03 | 0:31:06 | |
Have the traders found ways of beating the ban? | 0:31:06 | 0:31:09 | |
Of laundering newly-poached African ivory? | 0:31:09 | 0:31:12 | |
Can we come in? | 0:31:13 | 0:31:14 | |
Is it OK to come in and do a little bit of filming? | 0:31:16 | 0:31:18 | |
-No, no, no. -No? -No. -Why not? | 0:31:18 | 0:31:21 | |
This trader isn't at all keen to talk to me, | 0:31:21 | 0:31:24 | |
and quickly shuts up shop. | 0:31:24 | 0:31:27 | |
In fact, most of the traders here | 0:31:28 | 0:31:30 | |
are clear about their attitude to cameras. | 0:31:30 | 0:31:33 | |
Then, in a row of smart antique shops, | 0:31:35 | 0:31:38 | |
I see a particularly spectacular window display. | 0:31:38 | 0:31:42 | |
Wow. | 0:31:42 | 0:31:43 | |
That is staggering. | 0:31:44 | 0:31:45 | |
It's just incredible craftsmanship. | 0:31:47 | 0:31:49 | |
Ivory is clearly a remarkable material, | 0:31:52 | 0:31:55 | |
and the sheer skill and time required to work it | 0:31:55 | 0:31:59 | |
explains why some of the larger pieces here | 0:31:59 | 0:32:02 | |
are priced at over 1 million US dollars. | 0:32:02 | 0:32:05 | |
But this isn't elephant ivory. | 0:32:06 | 0:32:09 | |
Mammoth tusks. | 0:32:13 | 0:32:14 | |
"Our artworks are carved out from rare mammoth tusks | 0:32:16 | 0:32:19 | |
"that have been frozen for tens of thousands of years." | 0:32:19 | 0:32:22 | |
Mammoth ivory is entirely legal here. | 0:32:24 | 0:32:27 | |
So is elephant ivory from before the 1989 ban. | 0:32:27 | 0:32:31 | |
And here is a problem. | 0:32:32 | 0:32:34 | |
Because - if it's recently carved - | 0:32:34 | 0:32:36 | |
mammoth ivory, pre-1989 ivory and freshly poached ivory | 0:32:36 | 0:32:42 | |
all look the same. | 0:32:42 | 0:32:44 | |
Customs seizures here suggest that new ivory | 0:32:46 | 0:32:49 | |
is regularly being smuggled into Hong Kong. | 0:32:49 | 0:32:52 | |
It seems possible that Hong Kong traders could be passing off | 0:32:52 | 0:32:56 | |
African poached ivory as the legal stuff. | 0:32:56 | 0:32:59 | |
-Hi, Alex. How are you? -How's it going? | 0:32:59 | 0:33:01 | |
'For clues on how they might be able to do this, | 0:33:01 | 0:33:04 | |
'I'm meeting up with Hong Kong wildlife campaigner Alex Hofford.' | 0:33:04 | 0:33:08 | |
I guess what I can see straight away, just wandering round, | 0:33:09 | 0:33:12 | |
is that it's a little bit of a minefield, | 0:33:12 | 0:33:14 | |
what's legal and what's isn't. | 0:33:14 | 0:33:16 | |
But I imagine, if I walk into a shop, | 0:33:16 | 0:33:18 | |
someone's going to tell me that it's legal. | 0:33:18 | 0:33:19 | |
Yeah, I mean, that's the thing. | 0:33:19 | 0:33:21 | |
It's that it's actually very, very difficult for law enforcement, | 0:33:21 | 0:33:25 | |
for the media, for NGOs and for the public, | 0:33:25 | 0:33:27 | |
for anybody to really understand what the hell's going on. | 0:33:27 | 0:33:30 | |
Is it pre-convention, or is it from after 1989? Who knows? | 0:33:30 | 0:33:33 | |
And it's a big mess right now. | 0:33:33 | 0:33:35 | |
So, what we know has been happening is that... | 0:33:35 | 0:33:38 | |
The amount of ivory that was in Hong Kong at the time of the ban in 1990 | 0:33:38 | 0:33:42 | |
was 670 tonnes. OK? | 0:33:42 | 0:33:45 | |
And then it went down quite sharply and then it plateaued out. | 0:33:45 | 0:33:48 | |
And it's been plateauing ever since. And the reason it's plateauing | 0:33:48 | 0:33:51 | |
is because the traders have been feeding poached ivory from Africa | 0:33:51 | 0:33:54 | |
into their existing stockpiles. | 0:33:54 | 0:33:56 | |
And so that's where the laundering's been going on. | 0:33:56 | 0:33:58 | |
They're buying from the criminal networks, | 0:33:58 | 0:34:00 | |
perhaps the Triads... Right? | 0:34:00 | 0:34:02 | |
..who are then buying from the other Triad groups in Africa, | 0:34:02 | 0:34:05 | |
who are buying it off the poachers. | 0:34:05 | 0:34:07 | |
So that's the supply chain. | 0:34:07 | 0:34:09 | |
How many traders or shops have been successfully prosecuted | 0:34:09 | 0:34:12 | |
and put out of business for selling illegal ivory? | 0:34:12 | 0:34:15 | |
-None. -Not one? | 0:34:15 | 0:34:16 | |
Not one, no. | 0:34:16 | 0:34:18 | |
There's a lot of loopholes. | 0:34:18 | 0:34:19 | |
You know, the traders, they basically know how to play the game. | 0:34:19 | 0:34:23 | |
They've been playing the game since 1989 | 0:34:23 | 0:34:25 | |
and so they know every trick in the book. | 0:34:25 | 0:34:28 | |
'To connect the Hong Kong ivory trade | 0:34:28 | 0:34:30 | |
'with the killing of African elephants, | 0:34:30 | 0:34:33 | |
'I need to prove that the shops here | 0:34:33 | 0:34:35 | |
'are constantly restocking their shelves with fresh ivory. | 0:34:35 | 0:34:38 | |
'I can't really do that with a camera crew in tow, | 0:34:39 | 0:34:42 | |
'so I'm going undercover.' | 0:34:42 | 0:34:44 | |
So I'm going ivory shopping. | 0:34:44 | 0:34:46 | |
But to do that convincingly, I need a cover story. | 0:34:46 | 0:34:50 | |
And this is it. | 0:34:50 | 0:34:51 | |
My name's Hugh Edmund, | 0:34:51 | 0:34:53 | |
and I've started a business called Far Flung Foods. | 0:34:53 | 0:34:56 | |
"Exotic foods and gifts for adventurous spirits." | 0:34:56 | 0:34:59 | |
But the real connection between Far Flung Foods and ivory | 0:34:59 | 0:35:03 | |
all boils down to one thing. | 0:35:03 | 0:35:05 | |
Chopsticks. | 0:35:05 | 0:35:07 | |
'My cover story is that I'm in the market for a lot of ivory chopsticks | 0:35:08 | 0:35:13 | |
'as gifts for my best clients.' | 0:35:13 | 0:35:15 | |
Hi, come on in. Have a seat. | 0:35:15 | 0:35:16 | |
'My undercover partner | 0:35:16 | 0:35:17 | |
'and translator for the day is local campaigner Willy.' | 0:35:17 | 0:35:21 | |
So, here's the next thing. | 0:35:21 | 0:35:23 | |
-We need to do some secret filming in there. -OK. | 0:35:24 | 0:35:27 | |
And I've got one very simple bit of kit, which I'd like you to use. | 0:35:27 | 0:35:31 | |
So we're recording now. | 0:35:31 | 0:35:33 | |
-In fact, we're probably pointing at our crew here. -OK. | 0:35:33 | 0:35:36 | |
If you're happy to wear this, | 0:35:36 | 0:35:38 | |
we should get very clear sound from both you and whoever we talk to. | 0:35:38 | 0:35:42 | |
-So, if you pop that in your pocket. -Yeah. -OK? | 0:35:42 | 0:35:44 | |
-Yeah. Perfect. -Let's do it. | 0:35:44 | 0:35:46 | |
DOOR CHIMES | 0:35:55 | 0:35:56 | |
-Morning. Thank you. AUTOMATED VOICE: -'Hello. Welcome.' | 0:35:56 | 0:35:59 | |
-Hello. -Hi, how are you? -I'm good, thank you. | 0:35:59 | 0:36:01 | |
Do you sell ivory chopsticks? | 0:36:01 | 0:36:03 | |
Yes, we do. | 0:36:03 | 0:36:04 | |
So, I have a business. | 0:36:04 | 0:36:06 | |
OK, yes. Yes. OK, yeah. | 0:36:06 | 0:36:08 | |
And so I might want quite a lot. | 0:36:08 | 0:36:10 | |
Sure, sure, yes. No problem at all, yes. | 0:36:10 | 0:36:12 | |
Maybe 50 pairs to begin with. | 0:36:12 | 0:36:14 | |
And this is elephant ivory, not mammoth? | 0:36:14 | 0:36:16 | |
-Yes. -It's elephant? -Elephant. -OK. | 0:36:16 | 0:36:19 | |
Do you think this would be easy for me to take this back to the UK? | 0:36:19 | 0:36:23 | |
4am? | 0:36:26 | 0:36:27 | |
4am, Heathrow? | 0:36:27 | 0:36:29 | |
-No customs? -Yeah, yeah. -Very clever. | 0:36:29 | 0:36:32 | |
'It's a useful tip if you're smuggling ivory into the UK. | 0:36:32 | 0:36:36 | |
'Which is, of course, illegal.' | 0:36:36 | 0:36:37 | |
How are you? Are you mostly mammoth, or mostly ivory here? | 0:36:37 | 0:36:40 | |
These look good. | 0:36:42 | 0:36:43 | |
So, I might want quite a lot. | 0:36:44 | 0:36:46 | |
Like, maybe 50 pairs. | 0:36:46 | 0:36:47 | |
OK. Thank you. | 0:36:50 | 0:36:51 | |
-Hi. -Hello. | 0:36:56 | 0:36:58 | |
I'm interested in buying quite a lot of chopsticks. | 0:36:58 | 0:37:02 | |
What does that literally say there? | 0:37:02 | 0:37:04 | |
This is from the Congo? | 0:37:08 | 0:37:10 | |
Is this new ivory? | 0:37:11 | 0:37:12 | |
Before 1989? | 0:37:16 | 0:37:17 | |
So the ivory's old, but are the chopsticks new? | 0:37:17 | 0:37:20 | |
That went well. A huge amount of product in there. | 0:37:27 | 0:37:30 | |
-Yeah. -Huge. I mean, thousands of figurines. | 0:37:30 | 0:37:33 | |
He said he's got a factory. | 0:37:33 | 0:37:34 | |
You know, the implication is that they're churning that stuff out, | 0:37:34 | 0:37:37 | |
they can do it to order. | 0:37:37 | 0:37:39 | |
They've got a factory ready to pump out new pieces of ivory on demand | 0:37:39 | 0:37:44 | |
to a customer's designs. | 0:37:44 | 0:37:45 | |
How's that possible 25 years after the Hong Kong stockpile of ivory | 0:37:47 | 0:37:52 | |
was supposed to stop growing in any way, shape or form? | 0:37:52 | 0:37:55 | |
I need to find out where these fresh supplies are coming from. | 0:38:00 | 0:38:03 | |
But my cover story's taken me as far as I can go, | 0:38:04 | 0:38:08 | |
and I need some more help. | 0:38:08 | 0:38:10 | |
Thanks so much for coming, guys. | 0:38:10 | 0:38:11 | |
'Ray and James - not their real names - | 0:38:11 | 0:38:14 | |
'are undercover operators ready to pose as credible buyers | 0:38:14 | 0:38:18 | |
'from the biggest Asian market of all - | 0:38:18 | 0:38:21 | |
'mainland China.' | 0:38:21 | 0:38:22 | |
I think my opportunities as a Westerner are really limited. | 0:38:22 | 0:38:26 | |
If they're going to open up, they need to have a sense | 0:38:26 | 0:38:29 | |
that they're talking to someone who's a bit of a player, | 0:38:29 | 0:38:31 | |
who's interested in doing a bigger bit of business with them. | 0:38:31 | 0:38:35 | |
And you guys are going to fit that bill so much better. | 0:38:35 | 0:38:37 | |
OK, so you basically want to buy tusks. | 0:38:45 | 0:38:48 | |
Yeah, I mean that's going to cut straight to the chase. | 0:38:48 | 0:38:50 | |
It's a camera pen. | 0:38:53 | 0:38:54 | |
I've got a little mic pack here, | 0:38:54 | 0:38:56 | |
with a light wire. | 0:38:56 | 0:38:58 | |
Really, really straightforward. | 0:38:58 | 0:39:01 | |
Really look forward to catching up with you later. | 0:39:01 | 0:39:03 | |
-Good luck, guys. -Good luck. -Yeah. Seriously. | 0:39:03 | 0:39:06 | |
While Ray and James hit the shops undercover, | 0:39:08 | 0:39:11 | |
I'm going for the best open interview I can get - | 0:39:11 | 0:39:15 | |
the company secretary of the Hong Kong Ivory Manufacturers Association | 0:39:15 | 0:39:20 | |
has agreed to be filmed at his workshop. | 0:39:20 | 0:39:22 | |
Thank you very much for inviting me in. | 0:39:23 | 0:39:26 | |
His name is Daniel Chan. | 0:39:26 | 0:39:27 | |
-Mammoth? -Yeah. -OK. | 0:39:32 | 0:39:34 | |
-This is mammoth material. -This is mammoth tusks, is it? | 0:39:42 | 0:39:44 | |
-Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. -Let's have a little look at them. -Yeah. | 0:39:44 | 0:39:48 | |
This is all mammoth? | 0:39:49 | 0:39:51 | |
Yeah. | 0:39:51 | 0:39:52 | |
-Is this also mammoth? -Yes. | 0:39:54 | 0:39:56 | |
Right. I'll take your word for it. | 0:39:56 | 0:39:58 | |
I've seen your figures, your carvings, | 0:39:58 | 0:40:00 | |
-in the cases on the way in. -Yeah, yeah, yeah. | 0:40:00 | 0:40:02 | |
Where is that ivory from? | 0:40:02 | 0:40:04 | |
-Well, let's have a look at it, and you can tell me. -OK. | 0:40:12 | 0:40:15 | |
OK. | 0:40:15 | 0:40:17 | |
-Mm. This is all elephant ivory? -Yeah. | 0:40:18 | 0:40:21 | |
So when were these made? | 0:40:21 | 0:40:23 | |
I really don't think so. These pieces are new. | 0:40:31 | 0:40:35 | |
Because there's just... | 0:40:38 | 0:40:40 | |
They didn't have that plastic wrapping technology in 1990. | 0:40:40 | 0:40:44 | |
Your telling me these pieces were made before 1990? | 0:40:47 | 0:40:50 | |
OK. | 0:40:53 | 0:40:54 | |
-These two? -These also. | 0:41:01 | 0:41:04 | |
He made these pieces? | 0:41:04 | 0:41:05 | |
-Yeah. -Really? In 1990? -Er, yeah. | 0:41:05 | 0:41:09 | |
So, all these really fresh, new-looking pieces, | 0:41:09 | 0:41:12 | |
shrink-wrapped in plastic, were made by your father? | 0:41:12 | 0:41:15 | |
It just seems very unlikely to me. | 0:41:16 | 0:41:18 | |
You're saying you have bought no ivory from elephants since 1990? | 0:41:21 | 0:41:25 | |
None? Zero? | 0:41:25 | 0:41:27 | |
Yeah? | 0:41:28 | 0:41:29 | |
Really? Preconvention ivory from Europe? Can you buy that? | 0:41:37 | 0:41:42 | |
-Yes. -That's legal? | 0:41:42 | 0:41:43 | |
Yes. Now. | 0:41:43 | 0:41:45 | |
Now. | 0:41:45 | 0:41:46 | |
Have you bought European ivory yourself? | 0:41:55 | 0:41:58 | |
-Yes. -When? | 0:42:00 | 0:42:01 | |
-You were buying and selling European ivory last year? -Yeah. | 0:42:04 | 0:42:07 | |
How can you prove that this ivory is preconvention or pre-1990? | 0:42:07 | 0:42:12 | |
How can you prove it? DANIEL SIGHS | 0:42:12 | 0:42:14 | |
So, you bought this preconvention ivory and it's from Europe? | 0:42:17 | 0:42:20 | |
Yeah, licensed. | 0:42:20 | 0:42:21 | |
You read for yourself. | 0:42:23 | 0:42:24 | |
Country of re-export, the Netherlands. | 0:42:24 | 0:42:27 | |
And the country of origin is Mozambique. | 0:42:27 | 0:42:29 | |
-Here. -"Preconvention specimen acquired during 1960 to 1970." | 0:42:29 | 0:42:34 | |
-Yeah. -Pretty vague. | 0:42:34 | 0:42:36 | |
It's been stamped, er... | 0:42:36 | 0:42:37 | |
..and licensed for re-export at the Hague. | 0:42:38 | 0:42:41 | |
If that's a legal document, why are you snatching it away from me? | 0:42:46 | 0:42:49 | |
You are not my customer. | 0:42:52 | 0:42:53 | |
And even now, I don't know, who are you? | 0:42:53 | 0:42:56 | |
Nonsense! | 0:42:57 | 0:42:58 | |
You wanted to show me your licence, so I thought you were happy for... | 0:42:58 | 0:43:01 | |
I showed you. I have a licence. | 0:43:01 | 0:43:03 | |
-OK, so I thought... -Because you are not my customer. | 0:43:03 | 0:43:06 | |
I cannot show to you. | 0:43:06 | 0:43:07 | |
This is private. | 0:43:07 | 0:43:09 | |
-I thought you... -Secret. OK? | 0:43:09 | 0:43:11 | |
'I think our conversation has reached its conclusion. | 0:43:13 | 0:43:16 | |
'But I have discovered one of the ways that ivory shops in Hong Kong | 0:43:17 | 0:43:22 | |
'are being re-stocked. | 0:43:22 | 0:43:23 | |
'And it's one which clearly has the potential | 0:43:23 | 0:43:26 | |
'to launder poached ivory, too.' | 0:43:26 | 0:43:28 | |
So, it seems that you can bring ivory into Hong Kong | 0:43:30 | 0:43:33 | |
if it's preconvention ivory and particularly from the EU, | 0:43:33 | 0:43:37 | |
there's...a paperwork, a system, that allows you to bring it in. | 0:43:37 | 0:43:41 | |
So, they can bring in EU ivory and rework it and sell it legally. | 0:43:41 | 0:43:46 | |
You know, I feel pretty uneasy about that. | 0:43:47 | 0:43:49 | |
I mean, that's basically... | 0:43:49 | 0:43:52 | |
the idea that Europe's off-loading its stocks of ivory | 0:43:52 | 0:43:55 | |
that it's no longer particularly interested in, | 0:43:55 | 0:43:57 | |
in order to make money and, at the same time, fuel the ivory trade. | 0:43:57 | 0:44:02 | |
OK, it's legal, | 0:44:02 | 0:44:04 | |
but it's still perpetuating the supply of ivory to Hong Kong | 0:44:04 | 0:44:08 | |
and adding extra possible cover for illegal imports. | 0:44:08 | 0:44:11 | |
I don't think that's a very responsible thing | 0:44:11 | 0:44:13 | |
for the EU to be doing. | 0:44:13 | 0:44:14 | |
Ray and James are back from their undercover trawl, | 0:44:16 | 0:44:20 | |
and I'm wondering if they've unearthed | 0:44:20 | 0:44:22 | |
any evidence of recently-poached African ivory. | 0:44:22 | 0:44:25 | |
I've got you back lit again. | 0:44:25 | 0:44:28 | |
Can't wait to see what you've got. | 0:44:28 | 0:44:29 | |
-Yes. -And, er... Any good? | 0:44:29 | 0:44:32 | |
-Yeah. -Let's have a look. | 0:44:32 | 0:44:33 | |
We went to shop number three and we just asked, | 0:44:34 | 0:44:39 | |
"We want some raw material for ivory tusks." | 0:44:39 | 0:44:42 | |
This is the boss? | 0:44:58 | 0:44:59 | |
This is ivory here, isn't it? | 0:45:02 | 0:45:03 | |
That's a lot of ivory. | 0:45:05 | 0:45:06 | |
-Oh, my God. Can I pause it there? -Yes. | 0:45:08 | 0:45:11 | |
Wow. | 0:45:12 | 0:45:13 | |
That's a lot of ivory. | 0:45:14 | 0:45:15 | |
That was just lying on the floor? | 0:45:18 | 0:45:19 | |
Wow. | 0:45:21 | 0:45:23 | |
So that's also from Europe? | 0:45:32 | 0:45:34 | |
Old ivory from Europe again - | 0:45:37 | 0:45:40 | |
dozens of whole tusks this time. | 0:45:40 | 0:45:42 | |
Like Mr Chan, this dealer says it's legal. | 0:45:42 | 0:45:46 | |
But what's shocking here is the scale of it. | 0:45:46 | 0:45:48 | |
He's got access to 200 tonnes of ivory in France. | 0:45:55 | 0:45:59 | |
-Yes. -All old ivory. | 0:45:59 | 0:46:01 | |
All old ivory. | 0:46:01 | 0:46:02 | |
It seems that quite a lot of people in Europe are selling their ivory | 0:46:16 | 0:46:19 | |
and quite a lot of it's ending up here in Hong Kong. | 0:46:19 | 0:46:22 | |
It certainly sounds a less risky way to bring ivory into Hong Kong | 0:46:28 | 0:46:32 | |
than bringing freshly-poached African ivory. | 0:46:32 | 0:46:35 | |
But it could also be a cover for freshly-poached African ivory. | 0:46:35 | 0:46:39 | |
Fascinating and, I think, really useful stuff. | 0:46:39 | 0:46:42 | |
Thank you so much. | 0:46:42 | 0:46:43 | |
-Thank you. -Real pleasure working with you. -My pleasure. | 0:46:43 | 0:46:47 | |
The ivory trade here is clearly being replenished and fuelled | 0:46:52 | 0:46:56 | |
by material coming from right under our noses in Europe, | 0:46:56 | 0:47:00 | |
and all apparently legal. | 0:47:00 | 0:47:02 | |
With Hong Kong's lax enforcement - | 0:47:03 | 0:47:05 | |
zero prosecutions to date, remember - | 0:47:05 | 0:47:08 | |
it would be so easy to quietly add recently-poached African ivory | 0:47:08 | 0:47:13 | |
to your pile of recently-imported European ivory. | 0:47:13 | 0:47:16 | |
I'm on my way to the airport. | 0:47:16 | 0:47:18 | |
I'm flying back to the UK tonight, | 0:47:18 | 0:47:21 | |
and I've literally just downloaded a video clip, | 0:47:21 | 0:47:24 | |
sent by one of our contacts in Hong Kong, | 0:47:24 | 0:47:27 | |
of some undercover filming they did. | 0:47:27 | 0:47:29 | |
And it's quite clearly the same trader | 0:47:29 | 0:47:31 | |
who was talking to my guys from the mainland | 0:47:31 | 0:47:34 | |
about the European ivory. | 0:47:34 | 0:47:36 | |
It's the same office, same guy. | 0:47:36 | 0:47:38 | |
And, actually, here you can just see it's the same tusks. | 0:47:38 | 0:47:42 | |
So it must be very recently. | 0:47:42 | 0:47:44 | |
But in this clip, he says quite clearly here, | 0:47:44 | 0:47:47 | |
"I can get ivory from Africa any time. | 0:47:47 | 0:47:50 | |
"And I can sell it to you." | 0:47:50 | 0:47:52 | |
So, the question I've been pondering, | 0:47:59 | 0:48:01 | |
about whether this preconvention European ivory | 0:48:01 | 0:48:04 | |
that's being imported legally into Hong Kong | 0:48:04 | 0:48:07 | |
could be being used as cover for illegal African ivory, | 0:48:07 | 0:48:11 | |
seems to be answered here. | 0:48:11 | 0:48:12 | |
He's selling European ivory, he's offering to sell African ivory. | 0:48:14 | 0:48:18 | |
The two are being mingled by the same dealer, in the same office. | 0:48:18 | 0:48:22 | |
And if he's doing it, it seems likely others are doing it, too. | 0:48:23 | 0:48:27 | |
The sheer quantity of European ivory reaching Asia | 0:48:28 | 0:48:32 | |
has been a real eye-opener. | 0:48:32 | 0:48:33 | |
And my next question is, "How much of it's coming from the UK?" | 0:48:36 | 0:48:40 | |
Historically, we've certainly been deeply involved | 0:48:43 | 0:48:47 | |
with the ivory trade. | 0:48:47 | 0:48:48 | |
In this London warehouse, where tusks have been coming in | 0:48:48 | 0:48:51 | |
since the days of Charles II, the latest consignments | 0:48:51 | 0:48:54 | |
are cut up for the first stage of their transformation | 0:48:54 | 0:48:57 | |
into ivory-backed brushes, mirrors and combs. | 0:48:57 | 0:49:01 | |
To satisfy the fancies of an expanding middle class, | 0:49:01 | 0:49:04 | |
between 1860 and 1920, Britain imported the tusks | 0:49:04 | 0:49:09 | |
of an estimated 1.1 million African elephants. | 0:49:09 | 0:49:13 | |
That's more than twice as many elephants | 0:49:13 | 0:49:16 | |
as are alive in Africa today. | 0:49:16 | 0:49:18 | |
The sale or export of raw ivory is now banned in the UK. | 0:49:20 | 0:49:24 | |
But, surprising as it may seem, | 0:49:26 | 0:49:27 | |
the trade in antique ivory pieces is still legal. | 0:49:27 | 0:49:30 | |
Although the Conservative Party promised to press for a total ban | 0:49:32 | 0:49:36 | |
on the UK ivory market in both their 2010 and 2015 manifestos, | 0:49:36 | 0:49:41 | |
here we are in the summer of 2016, and it still hasn't happened. | 0:49:41 | 0:49:45 | |
And you can find ivory pieces on sale all over Britain - | 0:49:47 | 0:49:50 | |
in auctions, antique shops and increasingly online. | 0:49:50 | 0:49:55 | |
So who's doing the buying? | 0:49:56 | 0:49:58 | |
And where does UK ivory end up? | 0:49:58 | 0:50:00 | |
Come in. | 0:50:00 | 0:50:01 | |
'I've asked auctioneer and TV antiques expert James Lewis | 0:50:01 | 0:50:05 | |
'to help me take a look at the market.' | 0:50:05 | 0:50:08 | |
Just have a seat. | 0:50:08 | 0:50:09 | |
I've been looking at some of the online auctions that you mentioned. | 0:50:10 | 0:50:13 | |
What's your estimate of how many ivory pieces | 0:50:13 | 0:50:16 | |
get sold in the UK in the average week? | 0:50:16 | 0:50:18 | |
500 to 1,000 pieces, I should think. | 0:50:19 | 0:50:21 | |
-Really? -Yeah. -So, sort of 20,000 to 50,000 pieces a year? | 0:50:21 | 0:50:25 | |
Really? Do you have any sense of who the buyers normally are? | 0:50:25 | 0:50:29 | |
Yeah, as an auctioneer, when you're on the rostrum, | 0:50:29 | 0:50:32 | |
you see the live bidding numbers flashing up on your screen. | 0:50:32 | 0:50:37 | |
And in the top right-hand corner, there's a code. A country code. | 0:50:37 | 0:50:41 | |
So you know exactly where those bids are coming from. | 0:50:41 | 0:50:43 | |
And when you get a solid block - | 0:50:43 | 0:50:45 | |
something carved, that has a weight to it - | 0:50:45 | 0:50:48 | |
that's where the Chinese and Vietnamese are buying it. | 0:50:48 | 0:50:50 | |
-So they're ending up on sale in the same countries that are... -Yeah. | 0:50:50 | 0:50:54 | |
-..that have a high demand for illegal ivory. -Yeah. | 0:50:54 | 0:50:57 | |
Tell me exactly what the rules are here. | 0:50:57 | 0:51:00 | |
I mean, people selling this, what are they allowed to sell? | 0:51:00 | 0:51:03 | |
What are they not allowed to sell? | 0:51:03 | 0:51:04 | |
Anything really pre-1947 is legal to sell. | 0:51:04 | 0:51:09 | |
-That's the critical date? -That's the rule. -I mean, some of them, | 0:51:09 | 0:51:13 | |
it's not really clear how old they are at all. | 0:51:13 | 0:51:15 | |
They don't even necessarily put a date on anything here. | 0:51:15 | 0:51:18 | |
Yeah, see that's the problem. It is so difficult. | 0:51:18 | 0:51:20 | |
It's not like a piece of silver that has a hallmark, where you can say, | 0:51:20 | 0:51:24 | |
"That dates to that year." | 0:51:24 | 0:51:26 | |
And when it's so difficult, it's difficult to enforce the law | 0:51:26 | 0:51:29 | |
and it's difficult to ensure that you're not breaking the law. | 0:51:29 | 0:51:34 | |
'I show James what's on sale over the next couple of days. | 0:51:34 | 0:51:38 | |
'I'm wondering if he can spot any pieces | 0:51:38 | 0:51:40 | |
'that might be breaking the law.' | 0:51:40 | 0:51:42 | |
Let's just scroll down and stop at anything | 0:51:42 | 0:51:44 | |
that you think looks particularly interesting, James. | 0:51:44 | 0:51:47 | |
I mean, here's a solid ivory piece. | 0:51:47 | 0:51:49 | |
I'm quite suspicious of that. | 0:51:49 | 0:51:51 | |
It's got the pale colour, it's got the inked beard. | 0:51:51 | 0:51:55 | |
It-it hasn't faded at all. | 0:51:55 | 0:51:58 | |
So, if I wanted to prove beyond doubt | 0:51:58 | 0:52:01 | |
that there is illegal, post-1947 ivory | 0:52:01 | 0:52:04 | |
being traded in the UK on sites like this, | 0:52:04 | 0:52:07 | |
buying this piece and getting it dated could prove that? | 0:52:07 | 0:52:11 | |
-Yeah. It's worth giving it a go. -OK. | 0:52:11 | 0:52:14 | |
'This piece is one of dozens being auctioned live online today.' | 0:52:14 | 0:52:19 | |
60. 70. | 0:52:19 | 0:52:21 | |
-AUCTIONEER: -'Five.' -Do you want to bid? -Yeah. | 0:52:21 | 0:52:24 | |
-Somebody's also very keen on this piece. -Yeah. | 0:52:24 | 0:52:26 | |
Do you want to go to 140? | 0:52:26 | 0:52:28 | |
We're going up in tens now. Yeah. | 0:52:28 | 0:52:30 | |
'140. Internet there, 140.' | 0:52:30 | 0:52:32 | |
-Ooh, they're telling us we've won. -GAVEL BANGS | 0:52:32 | 0:52:34 | |
-Yep, there we go. -Oh, we've got it. Gosh. -OK. | 0:52:34 | 0:52:37 | |
'With the help of James's keen eye, | 0:52:37 | 0:52:39 | |
'I buy several more pieces that look a bit suspect.' | 0:52:39 | 0:52:42 | |
Available for... | 0:52:42 | 0:52:43 | |
'I'm sending them off for the one test | 0:52:43 | 0:52:45 | |
'that can prove their age and legality beyond doubt. | 0:52:45 | 0:52:49 | |
'Radiocarbon dating.' | 0:52:49 | 0:52:51 | |
It will be interesting to see how old this piece turns out to be, | 0:52:51 | 0:52:55 | |
but there's really no question that European ivory | 0:52:55 | 0:52:58 | |
is heading over to China and other Asian countries, | 0:52:58 | 0:53:01 | |
where it's continuing to stimulate a market | 0:53:01 | 0:53:04 | |
-that definitely includes illegal ivory. -Yeah. | 0:53:04 | 0:53:06 | |
Exactly the same market as the modern poached ivory. | 0:53:06 | 0:53:11 | |
So how much UK ivory is making its way to Asia? | 0:53:13 | 0:53:17 | |
Official figures from the Hong Kong Government | 0:53:18 | 0:53:20 | |
show that, last year, over 2,500 pieces of UK ivory | 0:53:20 | 0:53:25 | |
arrived in Hong Kong alone - | 0:53:25 | 0:53:27 | |
more than twice as many as the previous year. | 0:53:27 | 0:53:30 | |
The radiocarbon dating work on my UK ivory purchases is complete. | 0:53:34 | 0:53:39 | |
So I'm heading to Oxford University | 0:53:39 | 0:53:41 | |
to meet Professor Chris Ramsey for the big result. | 0:53:41 | 0:53:44 | |
-Chris. Hi. -Ah, hello. -How are you? -Very nice to meet you. | 0:53:46 | 0:53:49 | |
-Very nice to see you. How's it going? -Good. | 0:53:49 | 0:53:51 | |
Oh, and here they are. | 0:53:51 | 0:53:52 | |
Yes, that's right. So these are the ivories. | 0:53:52 | 0:53:55 | |
So you've taken a tiny amount of ivory from each object. | 0:53:55 | 0:53:58 | |
What have you done with it then? | 0:53:58 | 0:53:59 | |
Yeah, so that powdered ivory is just purified and converted into a form | 0:53:59 | 0:54:04 | |
that we can then measure it on our accelerator mass spectrometer. | 0:54:04 | 0:54:07 | |
-The accelerator mass spectrometer? -That's right. | 0:54:07 | 0:54:09 | |
This vast machine collects | 0:54:09 | 0:54:12 | |
and counts the carbon-14 atoms from our samples, | 0:54:12 | 0:54:16 | |
which will give us the date when the ivory being tested | 0:54:16 | 0:54:19 | |
was still growing on a living elephant. | 0:54:19 | 0:54:22 | |
Just to be clear, I'm looking for anything that's post-1947. | 0:54:22 | 0:54:27 | |
I'd like to start with the piece | 0:54:27 | 0:54:28 | |
that's described as 17th to 18th-century here. | 0:54:28 | 0:54:32 | |
What does your carbon testing tell us it is? | 0:54:32 | 0:54:34 | |
Right. That date is coming through at 1972 to 1974. | 0:54:34 | 0:54:40 | |
-You're kidding! -With a very small probability in the 1960s. | 0:54:40 | 0:54:43 | |
So it's definitely after 1950. | 0:54:43 | 0:54:47 | |
Wow. | 0:54:47 | 0:54:48 | |
OK. On to the tiger. | 0:54:49 | 0:54:51 | |
So, this is one which is probably pre-1950. | 0:54:51 | 0:54:55 | |
It could be anything from about sort of 1700, later. | 0:54:55 | 0:54:58 | |
-But quite likely Victorian period. -OK. | 0:54:58 | 0:55:01 | |
What about this African lady's head? | 0:55:01 | 0:55:04 | |
That's one is the most likely, 1978 to 1980. | 0:55:04 | 0:55:09 | |
Really? Late '70s. | 0:55:09 | 0:55:11 | |
Wow. OK. | 0:55:11 | 0:55:12 | |
'The date proves that this ivory piece is illegal in the UK. | 0:55:12 | 0:55:17 | |
'But it's not the date when the elephants died. | 0:55:17 | 0:55:19 | |
'It's when the ivory actually formed in the elephant's head. | 0:55:19 | 0:55:23 | |
'So these illegal pieces could have come from animals | 0:55:23 | 0:55:26 | |
'that died much more recently.' | 0:55:26 | 0:55:28 | |
Lastly, this sort of lantern, candle burner. | 0:55:28 | 0:55:33 | |
So this is either sort of '62, '63, or the 1980s - 1980, '82. | 0:55:33 | 0:55:38 | |
Another illegal piece of ivory. | 0:55:38 | 0:55:41 | |
So, four out of nine pieces definitely illegal, | 0:55:41 | 0:55:46 | |
shouldn't be on sale. | 0:55:46 | 0:55:47 | |
And another two, even though the ivory's older, | 0:55:47 | 0:55:50 | |
are illegal by virtue of being recently reworked. | 0:55:50 | 0:55:53 | |
I don't know about you, Chris, but I find that pretty extraordinary. | 0:55:55 | 0:55:58 | |
It shouldn't really be for sale at all. | 0:55:58 | 0:56:01 | |
These results are really shocking. | 0:56:05 | 0:56:08 | |
This is modern ivory. | 0:56:08 | 0:56:10 | |
It could be from elephants that were killed in Africa | 0:56:10 | 0:56:13 | |
in the last ten years. | 0:56:13 | 0:56:14 | |
That's worrying enough. | 0:56:14 | 0:56:16 | |
But, actually, I think the real problem | 0:56:16 | 0:56:18 | |
is the sheer quantity of UK ivory | 0:56:18 | 0:56:21 | |
that's now streaming into the Asian market. | 0:56:21 | 0:56:23 | |
More than 2,500 pieces arrived in Hong Kong last year. | 0:56:23 | 0:56:28 | |
This ivory's all going to restock and stimulate the same Asian market | 0:56:28 | 0:56:33 | |
that we know is selling poached ivory from Africa. | 0:56:33 | 0:56:37 | |
I think that makes us part of the problem. | 0:56:37 | 0:56:40 | |
Now, we have a government who's pledged twice now | 0:56:40 | 0:56:43 | |
to end the UK ivory trade. So why hasn't that happened? | 0:56:43 | 0:56:48 | |
I think we deserve an answer to that question. | 0:56:48 | 0:56:50 | |
And I'm going to make it my business to get one. | 0:56:50 | 0:56:54 | |
'Next time, I venture into the murky world of illegal wildlife dealers.' | 0:56:54 | 0:56:59 | |
He's just sent us a picture of 1 million worth of rhino horns. | 0:56:59 | 0:57:02 | |
'Following the scent deep undercover in Vietnam.' | 0:57:02 | 0:57:05 | |
I can see straight away that this is real. | 0:57:05 | 0:57:08 | |
Real, yeah. | 0:57:08 | 0:57:10 | |
'I experience the war on poaching first-hand.' | 0:57:11 | 0:57:14 | |
I guess this is it. I'm on the front line now. | 0:57:14 | 0:57:16 | |
'And back home...' | 0:57:16 | 0:57:17 | |
-Good. Nice to see you again. -Good to see you. | 0:57:17 | 0:57:19 | |
'..the case against the UK ivory trade hots up.' | 0:57:19 | 0:57:22 | |
Here is our government finally saying something about ivory, | 0:57:22 | 0:57:26 | |
and spectacularly missing the point. | 0:57:26 | 0:57:28 | |
'So I take the fight all the way to the top.' | 0:57:28 | 0:57:31 | |
Minister. Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. | 0:57:31 | 0:57:33 | |
-Oh, hello. Hi. -How are you? | 0:57:33 | 0:57:35 |