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ELEPHANT GRUNTS | 0:00:02 | 0:00:03 | |
'Our most iconic African species are being pushed towards extinction. | 0:00:06 | 0:00:11 | |
'Killed by poachers to supply an illegal trade | 0:00:12 | 0:00:16 | |
'worth up to £15 billion a year.' | 0:00:16 | 0:00:18 | |
Oh, it's sickening. | 0:00:18 | 0:00:20 | |
'Bearing the brunt of this onslaught are Africa's elephants, | 0:00:20 | 0:00:24 | |
'shot down for their ivories. | 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. | 0:00:34 | 0:00:37 | |
'And if that continues, | 0:00:37 | 0:00:38 | |
'they could be gone from the wild within 25 years.' | 0:00:38 | 0:00:42 | |
'Now, I'm on the search for solutions.' | 0:00:47 | 0:00:49 | |
Can we get after this guy? | 0:00:49 | 0:00:51 | |
'I reach the front line of Africa's poaching war...' | 0:00:51 | 0:00:53 | |
I guess I better get this on. | 0:00:53 | 0:00:55 | |
'..and plunge into the shady underworld | 0:00:55 | 0:00:58 | |
'of criminal dealers in Asia.' | 0:00:58 | 0:00:59 | |
-I can see straightaway that this is... -Real. -..real. | 0:00:59 | 0:01:02 | |
'I witness the plight facing another | 0:01:02 | 0:01:05 | |
'of Africa's most vulnerable species...' | 0:01:05 | 0:01:07 | |
GUNSHOTS | 0:01:07 | 0:01:09 | |
'..and the work being done to try and stop the killing.' | 0:01:09 | 0:01:12 | |
I can see the carcass right here. That's a very grisly sight. | 0:01:12 | 0:01:16 | |
'I want to find out if the desire for rhino horn | 0:01:16 | 0:01:18 | |
'and ivory can be halted.' | 0:01:18 | 0:01:19 | |
-Good morning, your Royal Highness. -Nice to see you again. -Good to see you. | 0:01:19 | 0:01:22 | |
It is fixable and we can do something about it. | 0:01:22 | 0:01:24 | |
What action can be taken | 0:01:24 | 0:01:26 | |
to end this lethal trade? | 0:01:26 | 0:01:28 | |
I have taken sides in this debate... | 0:01:29 | 0:01:31 | |
Because now is the time for us to do all we can | 0:01:31 | 0:01:34 | |
to save Africa's most iconic species. | 0:01:34 | 0:01:38 | |
I've been trying to find out how we can save Africa's elephants | 0:01:47 | 0:01:50 | |
from the slide towards extinction. | 0:01:50 | 0:01:53 | |
So far, I've followed the ivory trail from the poaching hot spot | 0:01:54 | 0:01:57 | |
of northern Mozambique... | 0:01:57 | 0:02:00 | |
to the thriving ivory markets of Asia. | 0:02:00 | 0:02:03 | |
I found evidence that poached African ivory | 0:02:04 | 0:02:07 | |
is restocking the shops in Hong Kong. | 0:02:07 | 0:02:09 | |
And I've discovered that huge amounts of historic ivory | 0:02:15 | 0:02:18 | |
have been coming over from closer to home. | 0:02:18 | 0:02:20 | |
Back in the UK, | 0:02:28 | 0:02:29 | |
I've been looking into our own legal market in carved ivory antiques. | 0:02:29 | 0:02:34 | |
What's your estimate of how many ivory pieces get sold | 0:02:34 | 0:02:37 | |
in the UK in the average week? | 0:02:37 | 0:02:39 | |
500 to 1,000 pieces, I should think. | 0:02:39 | 0:02:42 | |
-Really? -Yeah. | 0:02:42 | 0:02:43 | |
There's clear evidence that serious quantities are being | 0:02:43 | 0:02:46 | |
bought up and shipped out to Asia. | 0:02:46 | 0:02:48 | |
When you get a solid block, | 0:02:49 | 0:02:51 | |
something carved that has a weight to it, | 0:02:51 | 0:02:53 | |
that's where the Chinese and Vietnamese are buying it. | 0:02:53 | 0:02:56 | |
Official figures show that last year, | 0:02:56 | 0:02:59 | |
over 2,500 pieces of UK ivory arrived in Hong Kong alone. | 0:02:59 | 0:03:03 | |
Once it gets there, | 0:03:06 | 0:03:07 | |
it's fuelling the very same market | 0:03:07 | 0:03:09 | |
that's selling poached African ivory. | 0:03:09 | 0:03:11 | |
I'm convinced that sending so much ivory from the UK | 0:03:13 | 0:03:17 | |
into the Asian market is making us complicit | 0:03:17 | 0:03:20 | |
with the killing of elephants in Africa, | 0:03:20 | 0:03:22 | |
making it more likely that today and tomorrow somebody will go | 0:03:22 | 0:03:26 | |
into the bush with a gun and kill an elephant for its ivory. | 0:03:26 | 0:03:30 | |
So what can we do about that? | 0:03:30 | 0:03:32 | |
Well, our government has promised twice now, in 2010 and 2015, | 0:03:32 | 0:03:37 | |
to ban the ivory trade. | 0:03:37 | 0:03:39 | |
I'm looking at the 2015 manifesto right here. | 0:03:39 | 0:03:43 | |
"We will press for a total ban on ivory sales." | 0:03:43 | 0:03:46 | |
So why hasn't this happened yet? | 0:03:46 | 0:03:49 | |
I think the best way to find out is to ask our government | 0:03:49 | 0:03:52 | |
for an interview for this programme, | 0:03:52 | 0:03:55 | |
to tell me and to tell you what they're going to do about | 0:03:55 | 0:03:58 | |
the ivory problem. | 0:03:58 | 0:03:59 | |
So here goes. "Dear, Minister..." | 0:04:01 | 0:04:03 | |
Now I'm turning my attention to the battle to save another species | 0:04:06 | 0:04:09 | |
under just as much pressure as the elephant. | 0:04:09 | 0:04:13 | |
I am heading for South Africa's Kruger National Park. | 0:04:13 | 0:04:15 | |
On the way, I've stopped at a game reserve in Swaziland to try | 0:04:17 | 0:04:20 | |
and get close to one of these animals. | 0:04:20 | 0:04:23 | |
Rhino. | 0:04:23 | 0:04:25 | |
-Oh, yes. Fantastic. -Yeah. | 0:04:25 | 0:04:28 | |
He's stunning, Bongani, thank you so much for bringing me here. | 0:04:30 | 0:04:33 | |
That's incredible. Look at him. | 0:04:33 | 0:04:35 | |
What a beautiful animal. | 0:04:38 | 0:04:40 | |
He's got a magnificent horn on him. | 0:04:40 | 0:04:42 | |
Yeah, it's one of my favourite. It's not easy to find. | 0:04:42 | 0:04:46 | |
Beautiful. Absolutely lovely. | 0:04:46 | 0:04:48 | |
'The voracious demand for rhino horn in Asia means the levels of poaching | 0:04:50 | 0:04:55 | |
'in South Africa have gone through the roof, | 0:04:55 | 0:04:57 | |
'from 13 rhino killed in 2007 to almost 1,200 last year.' | 0:04:57 | 0:05:04 | |
I've been finding out about | 0:05:04 | 0:05:06 | |
the illegal trade in rhino horn and poaching and the grisly end | 0:05:06 | 0:05:11 | |
that so many of these animals come to. | 0:05:11 | 0:05:13 | |
Just to see one standing here today looking so fine, | 0:05:13 | 0:05:17 | |
-it's just great. -Yeah, it's magical. | 0:05:17 | 0:05:21 | |
It is, magical. | 0:05:21 | 0:05:22 | |
At the start of the 20th century, | 0:05:25 | 0:05:27 | |
there were around half a million rhino. | 0:05:27 | 0:05:30 | |
But today, there are just 29,000 left, | 0:05:30 | 0:05:33 | |
and a third of them live in one famous South African reserve. | 0:05:33 | 0:05:38 | |
So this is the Kruger Park, the busiest game reserve in Africa, | 0:05:38 | 0:05:42 | |
with over a million visitors every year. | 0:05:42 | 0:05:45 | |
And I get a sense of how busy it is, it's lunchtime here, | 0:05:45 | 0:05:48 | |
the restaurant terrace is getting busy, | 0:05:48 | 0:05:50 | |
I can hear the clinking of cutlery, the scraping of chairs. | 0:05:50 | 0:05:54 | |
But this is also the busiest place in Africa for the killing of rhinos, | 0:05:54 | 0:05:59 | |
with between two or three animals being lost every day | 0:05:59 | 0:06:02 | |
for over a year now. It's happening right here. | 0:06:02 | 0:06:05 | |
Protecting the rhino here has become | 0:06:07 | 0:06:09 | |
an urgent, multi-million dollar effort, | 0:06:09 | 0:06:12 | |
funded by the South African government | 0:06:12 | 0:06:14 | |
and international philanthropists. | 0:06:14 | 0:06:16 | |
It includes helicopters, a military-style command | 0:06:16 | 0:06:21 | |
and an army of rangers who regularly | 0:06:21 | 0:06:23 | |
engage poachers in deadly firefights. | 0:06:23 | 0:06:25 | |
There's even a team to gather crime scene evidence from the carcass | 0:06:27 | 0:06:30 | |
of every poached rhino, and I'm joining them for the day. | 0:06:30 | 0:06:34 | |
I don't know how many dead rhinos I'm going to see today. | 0:06:37 | 0:06:41 | |
I don't really want to see ANY dead rhinos, but I have to. | 0:06:41 | 0:06:45 | |
That's why I'm here, to see for myself just how bad the problem | 0:06:45 | 0:06:48 | |
of poaching is here in Kruger. | 0:06:48 | 0:06:50 | |
-This way, 250. -250 more? | 0:06:56 | 0:07:00 | |
Yeah. | 0:07:00 | 0:07:01 | |
I can see the carcass right here, | 0:07:04 | 0:07:07 | |
just between these two bushes. Oh, that's a very grisly sight. | 0:07:07 | 0:07:10 | |
Park ranger Russell has witnessed the alarming escalation | 0:07:12 | 0:07:16 | |
of poaching here first-hand. | 0:07:16 | 0:07:19 | |
How many times have you seen a dead rhino here in the park? | 0:07:19 | 0:07:22 | |
-Many times. -So the way this has been cut | 0:07:23 | 0:07:26 | |
tells you that this has been done | 0:07:26 | 0:07:28 | |
by experienced poachers? | 0:07:28 | 0:07:29 | |
-Yes. -How long will it take them to remove the horns? | 0:07:29 | 0:07:32 | |
I can estimate based on the distance. | 0:07:33 | 0:07:36 | |
If they kill a rhino and we have to respond, about 1km. | 0:07:36 | 0:07:41 | |
When you get there now, they are finished. | 0:07:41 | 0:07:44 | |
So the time it takes you to walk or run 1km | 0:07:44 | 0:07:47 | |
-after you've heard a shot... -Yeah. | 0:07:47 | 0:07:51 | |
-..the horn's gone? -It's gone, yes. | 0:07:51 | 0:07:52 | |
Just 200 metres away, we find a second carcass, | 0:07:54 | 0:07:58 | |
and the team have a backlog of three more | 0:07:58 | 0:08:01 | |
to try and examine before the end of the day. | 0:08:01 | 0:08:04 | |
The documenting of this slaughter has, | 0:08:05 | 0:08:08 | |
for the Kruger Park autopsy team, become routine. | 0:08:08 | 0:08:11 | |
Today, they managed to find some evidence. | 0:08:13 | 0:08:16 | |
Wow, that is heavy. That is quite a lump of lead, isn't it? | 0:08:19 | 0:08:23 | |
'This bullet could be used to prosecute poachers. | 0:08:23 | 0:08:25 | |
'But convictions are rare, | 0:08:27 | 0:08:29 | |
'unless the poachers are caught in possession of rhino horns. | 0:08:29 | 0:08:33 | |
'And the ones from these poor animals could already | 0:08:33 | 0:08:36 | |
'be thousands of miles away.' | 0:08:36 | 0:08:38 | |
Just outside the park, | 0:08:45 | 0:08:47 | |
people in the town of Hoedspruit are taking more direct action. | 0:08:47 | 0:08:51 | |
They want to try and stop the poaching before it happens. | 0:08:51 | 0:08:54 | |
Steven. Ja... | 0:08:54 | 0:08:56 | |
I'm joining farmers, private rhino rangers | 0:08:56 | 0:08:59 | |
and the local police on one of their regular night-time operations. | 0:08:59 | 0:09:04 | |
We are going to look for weapons, rhino horn, | 0:09:04 | 0:09:07 | |
any suspicious stuff around rhino poaching. | 0:09:07 | 0:09:11 | |
You're going to need this tonight. | 0:09:11 | 0:09:14 | |
Bulletproof for you. | 0:09:14 | 0:09:16 | |
I guess I better get this on. | 0:09:16 | 0:09:19 | |
The fact that everyone's going to be wearing these tonight | 0:09:19 | 0:09:22 | |
says something at least about the seriousness | 0:09:22 | 0:09:26 | |
of the operation. | 0:09:26 | 0:09:28 | |
I guess this is it, I'm on the front line now. | 0:09:28 | 0:09:31 | |
'First, we set up a roadblock on one of the main routes into Kruger.' | 0:09:31 | 0:09:35 | |
THEY CHATTER | 0:09:39 | 0:09:41 | |
Any spaces capable of hiding guns or rhino horn are thoroughly checked. | 0:09:41 | 0:09:45 | |
TYRES SCREECH | 0:09:45 | 0:09:47 | |
ENGINE ROARS | 0:09:49 | 0:09:51 | |
What's happened here? | 0:09:52 | 0:09:53 | |
'Suddenly, a car approaching the roadblock | 0:09:53 | 0:09:56 | |
'has done a rapid U-turn.' | 0:09:56 | 0:09:57 | |
Just goes to show that there's serious stuff going on here, | 0:09:59 | 0:10:02 | |
nobody's going to drive away from a roadblock | 0:10:02 | 0:10:04 | |
unless they've got something to hide. | 0:10:04 | 0:10:06 | |
What's the news, Rankin? | 0:10:07 | 0:10:09 | |
-He's got away? -He got away, ja. | 0:10:09 | 0:10:11 | |
When somebody makes a really quick getaway like that, | 0:10:15 | 0:10:17 | |
what sort of hunch does that give you about what they could be up to? | 0:10:17 | 0:10:20 | |
Weapons. Weapons. | 0:10:20 | 0:10:23 | |
Normally, rifles and stuff, | 0:10:23 | 0:10:25 | |
to come and shoot, or to come and drop off for poachers. | 0:10:25 | 0:10:29 | |
-Frustrating. -Yeah, it is, very frustrating. | 0:10:29 | 0:10:31 | |
The second phase of the operation gets underway. | 0:10:34 | 0:10:38 | |
The team have been tipped off that poachers may be | 0:10:38 | 0:10:40 | |
hiding at a camp on a nearby farm. | 0:10:40 | 0:10:43 | |
'Illegal guns have been found on previous raids | 0:10:47 | 0:10:49 | |
'on farm camps like this one.' | 0:10:49 | 0:10:51 | |
There's a guy running across the roof. | 0:10:51 | 0:10:53 | |
'A large migrant population is drawn to this area from Mozambique | 0:10:57 | 0:11:01 | |
'and Zimbabwe to try and scrape a living picking fruit.' | 0:11:01 | 0:11:05 | |
There's the door. We can go in there. | 0:11:05 | 0:11:08 | |
Look at this. It's one of the crudest shelters I've ever seen. | 0:11:08 | 0:11:12 | |
These people must be pretty desperate. Desperate for work, | 0:11:13 | 0:11:16 | |
desperate for money, desperate for something. | 0:11:16 | 0:11:19 | |
What have you got there? | 0:11:21 | 0:11:22 | |
There's a person here. Unbelievable. | 0:11:25 | 0:11:27 | |
This man has good reason to be hiding, | 0:11:31 | 0:11:34 | |
-but it's nothing to do with poaching. -Work permit? | 0:11:34 | 0:11:37 | |
MAN MUTTERS | 0:11:38 | 0:11:40 | |
Then you are here illegally. | 0:11:41 | 0:11:43 | |
When you see how they are living here... | 0:11:43 | 0:11:46 | |
it's too hard, isn't it? Really tough. | 0:11:46 | 0:11:50 | |
IN ENGLISH: | 0:11:51 | 0:11:53 | |
Three men have been arrested tonight | 0:12:08 | 0:12:10 | |
and charged with being illegal immigrants. | 0:12:10 | 0:12:13 | |
This evening started as a hunt for poachers, but it's become | 0:12:15 | 0:12:19 | |
a sobering insight into some deeply-rooted social problems. | 0:12:19 | 0:12:22 | |
I haven't seen anything this evening that connects any of these guys | 0:12:26 | 0:12:30 | |
to rhino poaching at all. | 0:12:30 | 0:12:33 | |
But I have seen | 0:12:34 | 0:12:36 | |
some pretty desperate people being rounded up | 0:12:36 | 0:12:40 | |
and taken away from their very miserable living quarters. | 0:12:40 | 0:12:44 | |
HE SIGHS | 0:12:47 | 0:12:49 | |
It was a fairly uncomfortable evening | 0:12:49 | 0:12:51 | |
to see these guys being dragged around | 0:12:51 | 0:12:53 | |
and pulled down here. | 0:12:53 | 0:12:55 | |
Sometimes on these raids, | 0:12:57 | 0:12:59 | |
they do find guns and they do find things that connect people | 0:12:59 | 0:13:03 | |
living in these circumstances to the poaching of rhinos. | 0:13:03 | 0:13:07 | |
And I guess, actually, from what I've seen, | 0:13:08 | 0:13:10 | |
that's not hard to believe, not because of anyone | 0:13:10 | 0:13:13 | |
I've met tonight or any of these guys behind me, | 0:13:13 | 0:13:16 | |
but just because if you multiply up these desperate circumstances | 0:13:16 | 0:13:20 | |
a few thousand times, then, yeah, | 0:13:20 | 0:13:23 | |
you're going to find a few people who are desperate enough, | 0:13:23 | 0:13:25 | |
for the promise of money, | 0:13:25 | 0:13:27 | |
to pick up a gun and go into the bush and shoot a rhino. | 0:13:27 | 0:13:32 | |
And on one level, you have to ask yourself... | 0:13:32 | 0:13:36 | |
who could blame them? | 0:13:36 | 0:13:38 | |
I can see that there is a war being fought | 0:13:42 | 0:13:44 | |
in and around the Kruger National Park. | 0:13:44 | 0:13:46 | |
It's fuelled by the huge amount of money that flows from rhino horn. | 0:13:48 | 0:13:52 | |
Over 200 poachers are reported to have been killed in gunfights | 0:13:52 | 0:13:56 | |
with rangers in the park. | 0:13:56 | 0:13:58 | |
And there are battles outside too. | 0:13:59 | 0:14:03 | |
A third of South Africa's rhino are on private game reserves, | 0:14:03 | 0:14:07 | |
and I've just heard of an incident | 0:14:07 | 0:14:09 | |
involving one of the private security firms | 0:14:09 | 0:14:12 | |
that protects them, called Protrack. | 0:14:12 | 0:14:14 | |
I don't really have any detail at the moment but I'm on my way | 0:14:16 | 0:14:19 | |
to Protrack's offices now to see if I can find out a bit more. | 0:14:19 | 0:14:22 | |
I've arranged to meet the operations manager, Shaene Tintinger. | 0:14:23 | 0:14:30 | |
-Hi, Shaene. How's it going? -Good. | 0:14:30 | 0:14:33 | |
-Good to meet you. -How are you? | 0:14:33 | 0:14:34 | |
I heard there was an incident | 0:14:34 | 0:14:35 | |
but I haven't heard any detail yet, Shaene. | 0:14:35 | 0:14:37 | |
Yeah, one of our guys got shot while on duty protecting rhinos. | 0:14:37 | 0:14:43 | |
This was a fatal shooting? | 0:14:43 | 0:14:45 | |
I don't think, initially, it was. | 0:14:45 | 0:14:47 | |
He was shot in the leg, but because of the circumstances, | 0:14:47 | 0:14:51 | |
I think he bled to death. | 0:14:51 | 0:14:52 | |
It sounds like, in the last few years, | 0:14:52 | 0:14:54 | |
the escalation around the protection of rhino has just been crazy. | 0:14:54 | 0:14:58 | |
I mean, you're in pretty much a war situation. | 0:14:58 | 0:15:01 | |
The amount of armed contacts are escalating hugely. | 0:15:01 | 0:15:04 | |
So that tells us one thing. | 0:15:04 | 0:15:06 | |
The poachers are coming a bit more prepared for contact. | 0:15:06 | 0:15:09 | |
How inevitable is it that this situation | 0:15:09 | 0:15:12 | |
-gets worse rather than better? -Absolutely inevitable. | 0:15:12 | 0:15:15 | |
It is going to get worse. | 0:15:15 | 0:15:18 | |
What makes you so convinced of that? | 0:15:18 | 0:15:19 | |
Because of the value that rhino horn carries. | 0:15:19 | 0:15:23 | |
You've got to relate this problem to, eh, | 0:15:23 | 0:15:26 | |
serious drug cartel and drug smuggling, | 0:15:26 | 0:15:28 | |
and people die because of that stuff. | 0:15:28 | 0:15:31 | |
People die because of diamonds, people die because of gold. | 0:15:31 | 0:15:35 | |
Rhino horn has a higher value than any of those things I've mentioned. | 0:15:35 | 0:15:39 | |
It carries a higher value. | 0:15:39 | 0:15:41 | |
So, where there's high value and high reward, | 0:15:41 | 0:15:46 | |
people are prepared to do high-risk things to get that. | 0:15:46 | 0:15:49 | |
Fighting off poachers with military-grade defences | 0:15:52 | 0:15:55 | |
might slow down the killing of rhinos and elephants, | 0:15:55 | 0:15:59 | |
but I don't think it's going to save these species. | 0:15:59 | 0:16:02 | |
The value of the end products is just too high, | 0:16:03 | 0:16:06 | |
and there are too many people willing | 0:16:06 | 0:16:08 | |
to take risks for the money involved. | 0:16:08 | 0:16:10 | |
Behind the poaching are the traffickers and dealers, | 0:16:12 | 0:16:15 | |
raking in the big cash from ivory and rhino horn, | 0:16:15 | 0:16:18 | |
so who are these people? | 0:16:18 | 0:16:19 | |
Morning. | 0:16:19 | 0:16:22 | |
'I want to try and infiltrate the shady world | 0:16:22 | 0:16:24 | |
'of the international wildlife criminal. | 0:16:24 | 0:16:27 | |
'So I've come to the Wildlife Justice Commission in the Hague.' | 0:16:29 | 0:16:32 | |
-Hi. -Hello. -How's it going? | 0:16:36 | 0:16:38 | |
-Hugh. -Hi. TJ. | 0:16:38 | 0:16:40 | |
TJ, nice to meet you. | 0:16:40 | 0:16:42 | |
By the way, are those your real names? | 0:16:42 | 0:16:44 | |
THEY LAUGH | 0:16:44 | 0:16:45 | |
-Ah, no. -They're not? | 0:16:45 | 0:16:47 | |
'This NGO operates undercover to investigate | 0:16:48 | 0:16:51 | |
'some of the world's biggest dealers. | 0:16:51 | 0:16:54 | |
'They present their evidence | 0:16:54 | 0:16:56 | |
'to the governments of the countries concerned, | 0:16:56 | 0:16:58 | |
'pressing them to take action.' | 0:16:58 | 0:17:00 | |
What sort of social media sites are being used? | 0:17:00 | 0:17:03 | |
We monitor WeChat and we monitor traders using WeChat. | 0:17:03 | 0:17:06 | |
So, WeChat is very big in Asia? | 0:17:06 | 0:17:09 | |
It is. This is not behind closed doors. | 0:17:09 | 0:17:11 | |
-This happens in the open. -We're not talking about the darknet here? | 0:17:11 | 0:17:14 | |
This is just free, open trading on WeChat, Asian WeChat, | 0:17:14 | 0:17:19 | |
which is one of the busiest social network sites in the world? | 0:17:19 | 0:17:22 | |
Do you want us to show you how easy it is? | 0:17:22 | 0:17:23 | |
Yeah, please. | 0:17:23 | 0:17:25 | |
'I'm joining their current investigation | 0:17:25 | 0:17:28 | |
'of big-time Vietnamese dealers. | 0:17:28 | 0:17:30 | |
'And for that, I need a fake online identity.' | 0:17:30 | 0:17:33 | |
What do you have in mind? | 0:17:33 | 0:17:34 | |
Something vaguely close to Hugh. | 0:17:34 | 0:17:36 | |
Have you got a good Chinese name that sounds a bit like Hugh? | 0:17:36 | 0:17:38 | |
THEY CHUCKLE | 0:17:38 | 0:17:39 | |
Little Wu. | 0:17:39 | 0:17:41 | |
-Little Wu. -Why don't you call it Little Wu? | 0:17:41 | 0:17:43 | |
I can be Little Wu. | 0:17:43 | 0:17:45 | |
TJ creates my Little Wu profile | 0:17:45 | 0:17:47 | |
and sends a message to a new lead they suspect | 0:17:47 | 0:17:50 | |
of being a major boss in wildlife crime. | 0:17:50 | 0:17:53 | |
IN FAR-EASTERN LANGUAGE: | 0:17:55 | 0:17:57 | |
PHONE CHIMES Oh, is that...? That was a ping. | 0:18:01 | 0:18:03 | |
-DISTORTED VOICE: -We just got approval from our friend in Vietnam. | 0:18:03 | 0:18:07 | |
-Little Wu is in! -Little Wu is in. | 0:18:07 | 0:18:10 | |
The trader has posted a grim trail of the goods he has on offer, | 0:18:10 | 0:18:15 | |
and now Little Wu has joined his group, ready to do business. | 0:18:15 | 0:18:19 | |
You can see that he posts every day. | 0:18:19 | 0:18:23 | |
Gosh, so this is just today's postings? | 0:18:23 | 0:18:25 | |
That's today's postings. This guy sells tigers, he sells pangolins, | 0:18:25 | 0:18:29 | |
he sells ivory, he sells rhino horn. | 0:18:29 | 0:18:32 | |
I can see some tiger penises. | 0:18:32 | 0:18:35 | |
A tiger being skinned. | 0:18:35 | 0:18:38 | |
-Ivory. -Yeah, they are the tips of ivory. | 0:18:38 | 0:18:41 | |
And all the pictures of actual real rhino horns, | 0:18:42 | 0:18:45 | |
and they are all on scales. | 0:18:45 | 0:18:47 | |
Would it be interesting to ask him if there are any of those left? | 0:18:47 | 0:18:51 | |
-Yeah, definitely. -Great. | 0:18:51 | 0:18:52 | |
So, our friend has contacted us back, | 0:18:54 | 0:18:57 | |
we can play the message that he sent us. | 0:18:57 | 0:18:59 | |
RECORDING OF MAN SPEAKING FAR-EASTERN LANGUAGE | 0:19:01 | 0:19:04 | |
So, he's asking, "Do you want the whole rhino horn? | 0:19:06 | 0:19:10 | |
"Approximately how many kilos are you looking for?" | 0:19:10 | 0:19:13 | |
He's just sent us more pictures. | 0:19:13 | 0:19:16 | |
-Ugh. -These are the big horns over here. | 0:19:16 | 0:19:19 | |
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, | 0:19:19 | 0:19:22 | |
-11 horns. -11 rhino horns! We didn't see that picture before. | 0:19:22 | 0:19:26 | |
-You haven't seen that picture before? -I haven't seen that picture, no. | 0:19:26 | 0:19:29 | |
So just come in now is a picture of 11 big rhino horns. | 0:19:29 | 0:19:33 | |
Oh, sickening. | 0:19:33 | 0:19:34 | |
Jesus. | 0:19:36 | 0:19:37 | |
There's nearly 1 million worth of rhino horn | 0:19:38 | 0:19:41 | |
sitting on the table there. | 0:19:41 | 0:19:42 | |
About a million US. | 0:19:42 | 0:19:44 | |
I've seen a lot of shocking things today, | 0:19:44 | 0:19:45 | |
but for some reason, that picture is the worst of the lot | 0:19:45 | 0:19:48 | |
and it really gets to me. | 0:19:48 | 0:19:50 | |
Well, it actually gets to me as well because that's the | 0:19:50 | 0:19:53 | |
single largest amount of horns | 0:19:53 | 0:19:54 | |
I've seen in one photograph from a trader. | 0:19:54 | 0:19:56 | |
Are you serious? | 0:19:56 | 0:19:57 | |
We've never seen that many horns in one photograph. | 0:19:57 | 0:20:00 | |
-Can we get after this guy? -Yeah, most definitely. | 0:20:03 | 0:20:05 | |
But we need to go to Vietnam for that. | 0:20:08 | 0:20:10 | |
OK. Let's do it. | 0:20:10 | 0:20:13 | |
Evidence from intercepted hauls at customs | 0:20:18 | 0:20:21 | |
point to one country as the biggest importer and user of rhino horn. | 0:20:21 | 0:20:25 | |
It's where the man we're after runs his business. | 0:20:26 | 0:20:29 | |
Vietnam. | 0:20:29 | 0:20:30 | |
I've come to its capital a couple of days ahead of Tony and TJ. | 0:20:36 | 0:20:40 | |
I want to understand why rhino horn is in such high demand here. | 0:20:40 | 0:20:44 | |
The common explanation is that it's used as traditional medicine, | 0:20:47 | 0:20:52 | |
although since it's made of the same stuff | 0:20:52 | 0:20:54 | |
as our fingernails and hair, keratin, | 0:20:54 | 0:20:56 | |
I can't imagine it has much effect. | 0:20:56 | 0:20:58 | |
When I meet local wildlife campaigner Wen Bu | 0:21:00 | 0:21:03 | |
on Hanoi's Medicine Street, | 0:21:03 | 0:21:05 | |
she tells me I'm looking in the wrong place. | 0:21:05 | 0:21:08 | |
It's become way too expensive to use as a remedy. | 0:21:08 | 0:21:11 | |
If you buy rhino horn, you show us how rich you are. | 0:21:11 | 0:21:14 | |
Because rhino horn is very expensive. | 0:21:14 | 0:21:16 | |
Between 35 to 50,000 US dollars for a kilo. | 0:21:16 | 0:21:22 | |
Up to 50,000 a kilo? | 0:21:24 | 0:21:26 | |
Yes. So it's only used by a very small, very wealthy group of people. | 0:21:26 | 0:21:31 | |
So I would say the number one reason we believe the rhino horn's used for | 0:21:31 | 0:21:36 | |
is for social status. | 0:21:36 | 0:21:38 | |
It's really about an elite group of people showing off | 0:21:38 | 0:21:40 | |
their status to each other? | 0:21:40 | 0:21:42 | |
If you organise a party at your house with VIP guests, | 0:21:42 | 0:21:47 | |
you use rhino horn, | 0:21:47 | 0:21:49 | |
grind them up and mix with wine and drink it. | 0:21:49 | 0:21:52 | |
-And it's showing off. -So the right clothes with the right labels, | 0:21:52 | 0:21:57 | |
the smart car and rhino horn at your parties, | 0:21:57 | 0:22:01 | |
that really establishes that you're a top player, a member of the elite? | 0:22:01 | 0:22:04 | |
Yes, yes. | 0:22:04 | 0:22:05 | |
So making a rhino horn cocktail has become the way to show off | 0:22:06 | 0:22:11 | |
for the new super-rich of Vietnam. | 0:22:11 | 0:22:13 | |
I want to find out how easy it is to get hold of, | 0:22:14 | 0:22:18 | |
but I need to be careful. | 0:22:18 | 0:22:20 | |
Investigative work by foreigners in this one-party police-run state | 0:22:20 | 0:22:24 | |
is strictly illegal. | 0:22:24 | 0:22:26 | |
Being caught would quickly land me in jail. | 0:22:26 | 0:22:30 | |
I'm just sewing a button on this shirt. | 0:22:30 | 0:22:33 | |
It's all rigged up with a tiny little lens inside there. | 0:22:35 | 0:22:40 | |
So, this is obviously for undercover filming. | 0:22:40 | 0:22:42 | |
Look at that. That will do, I think. | 0:22:42 | 0:22:45 | |
My cover story is that I'm a businessman | 0:22:46 | 0:22:49 | |
looking for an exotic new product to impress my rich clients. | 0:22:49 | 0:22:53 | |
Far Flung Foods is the name of my business. | 0:22:54 | 0:22:58 | |
I've got my business card. It's got the website address. | 0:22:58 | 0:23:01 | |
I've created a little one page "coming soon" website. | 0:23:01 | 0:23:04 | |
I've contacted an investigative reporter | 0:23:06 | 0:23:08 | |
who's agreed to help me out. | 0:23:08 | 0:23:10 | |
Hi, thanks for setting this up. | 0:23:13 | 0:23:15 | |
Shall I jump in? | 0:23:15 | 0:23:16 | |
'He's approached a dealer through his local contacts, | 0:23:16 | 0:23:19 | |
'offering to introduce a wealthy foreigner | 0:23:19 | 0:23:22 | |
'who wants to buy rhino horn. That's me.' | 0:23:22 | 0:23:25 | |
And do you know where we're going to meet this guy? | 0:23:25 | 0:23:28 | |
It's probably like the inside of coffee. | 0:23:28 | 0:23:31 | |
-A coffee shop? -Yeah, a coffee shop. | 0:23:31 | 0:23:33 | |
'I need to come across as upbeat, friendly and genuinely keen to buy.' | 0:23:33 | 0:23:38 | |
-Hello. -Hello. -How are you? I'm Hugh. | 0:23:38 | 0:23:41 | |
'But that's not how I feel inside.' | 0:23:41 | 0:23:43 | |
'Change of plan. | 0:23:49 | 0:23:50 | |
'He wants to take us to his house, and I've got to run with it. | 0:23:50 | 0:23:54 | |
'And I'm not the only one who's uneasy.' | 0:23:54 | 0:23:56 | |
'My cover seems to wash. | 0:24:24 | 0:24:26 | |
'And we're straight down to business.' | 0:24:27 | 0:24:29 | |
Oh, my goodness. I wasn't expecting this to happen quite so fast. | 0:24:33 | 0:24:36 | |
MAN LAUGHS | 0:24:36 | 0:24:38 | |
-I can see straightaway that this is... -Real. -..real. | 0:24:38 | 0:24:41 | |
Totally. Because you've got that... | 0:24:41 | 0:24:43 | |
-Yeah, because of... -The hairs. | 0:24:43 | 0:24:45 | |
And the way that the light comes through. | 0:24:45 | 0:24:48 | |
See that? It's extraordinary. | 0:24:48 | 0:24:51 | |
This one is like 57 million. | 0:25:07 | 0:25:09 | |
And this one, only 54. | 0:25:09 | 0:25:11 | |
'That's over £20,000 per kilo. | 0:25:12 | 0:25:16 | |
'In a country where the average wage is just £175 a month. | 0:25:16 | 0:25:20 | |
'I've seen all I need here. | 0:25:21 | 0:25:23 | |
'Now I've just got to find a reason not to do the deal.' | 0:25:23 | 0:25:27 | |
I'm very impressed. This is not about buying one thing today, | 0:25:27 | 0:25:31 | |
it's about trying to have a relationship. | 0:25:31 | 0:25:34 | |
Well done. Thank you. | 0:25:51 | 0:25:52 | |
It turns out that rhino horn is just a phone call away. | 0:25:57 | 0:26:00 | |
It's there for the taking. | 0:26:00 | 0:26:02 | |
I could have got cash out of my wallet this morning | 0:26:02 | 0:26:04 | |
and walked out with half a kilo of rhino horn, | 0:26:04 | 0:26:08 | |
and that trader would not have been remotely concerned | 0:26:08 | 0:26:11 | |
about who I was or why I was buying it. | 0:26:11 | 0:26:13 | |
He just wanted to sell it. | 0:26:13 | 0:26:14 | |
So actually, when it comes to the coal face of buying and selling | 0:26:14 | 0:26:18 | |
rhino horn, there's not much suspicion, not much anxiety. | 0:26:18 | 0:26:21 | |
If you've got the money and you want to buy it, you can have it. | 0:26:21 | 0:26:24 | |
It seems bizarre and alien to us in Europe that people would covet... | 0:26:24 | 0:26:30 | |
the horn of this animal. | 0:26:30 | 0:26:32 | |
But then there are centuries of tradition and mystique about it | 0:26:32 | 0:26:37 | |
here in Asia that add to that. | 0:26:37 | 0:26:39 | |
And if you put a layer on top of that, | 0:26:39 | 0:26:42 | |
of modern money madness and the obsession with status and wealth, | 0:26:42 | 0:26:46 | |
it seems that perhaps you get something | 0:26:46 | 0:26:49 | |
that means that people do want to hold on to this, | 0:26:49 | 0:26:52 | |
that it's going to be quite hard to shake from the culture. | 0:26:52 | 0:26:55 | |
My wildlife investigator friends Tony and TJ | 0:26:58 | 0:27:01 | |
have now arrived in Hanoi. | 0:27:01 | 0:27:03 | |
We're meeting at their hotel to plan our sting on Mr Big, | 0:27:04 | 0:27:09 | |
the man with 1 million worth of rhino horn for sale online. | 0:27:09 | 0:27:13 | |
Hi, how are you? | 0:27:13 | 0:27:14 | |
-Good, how are you? -Really good to see you again. | 0:27:14 | 0:27:17 | |
All the way the other side of the world from where we last met. | 0:27:17 | 0:27:19 | |
We've hardly started when we are interrupted by the hotel manager. | 0:27:22 | 0:27:27 | |
He's worked out we're filming and he's not happy about it. | 0:27:27 | 0:27:29 | |
It's vital he doesn't clock what we're doing. | 0:27:35 | 0:27:38 | |
Government officials are implicated in using rhino horn, | 0:27:38 | 0:27:41 | |
so being caught trying to expose the issue would be bad news. | 0:27:41 | 0:27:45 | |
We haven't got many options, | 0:27:46 | 0:27:48 | |
so we relocate to my hotel round the corner. | 0:27:48 | 0:27:50 | |
Come on in. If you sit backs to the window, | 0:27:53 | 0:27:56 | |
that's going to help us black you out. | 0:27:56 | 0:27:58 | |
What about the main target? | 0:27:58 | 0:28:00 | |
You're going to meet him face-to-face. | 0:28:00 | 0:28:01 | |
-DISTORTED VOICE: -That's correct. | 0:28:01 | 0:28:04 | |
And we're going to get some pictures of him and his products? | 0:28:04 | 0:28:07 | |
That's what we're hoping for, yes. | 0:28:07 | 0:28:08 | |
I can't wait to see that. | 0:28:08 | 0:28:09 | |
I can't wait to think that in the next 24 hours, | 0:28:09 | 0:28:13 | |
-we'll be bringing that in. -That'll be exciting. | 0:28:13 | 0:28:17 | |
I know your phones are pinging. I'm sure that's back at base. | 0:28:17 | 0:28:20 | |
Just to let you know, the police | 0:28:20 | 0:28:21 | |
have actually turned up at our hotel, so... | 0:28:21 | 0:28:24 | |
Are you kidding? | 0:28:24 | 0:28:25 | |
'This is a big problem. | 0:28:25 | 0:28:27 | |
'The first hotel have all our names, and if any of us are caught, | 0:28:27 | 0:28:31 | |
'we could be charged with espionage. | 0:28:31 | 0:28:34 | |
'Tony and TJ leave to grab their gear and make their escape. | 0:28:34 | 0:28:37 | |
'The bottom line is we have to get out of here - fast.' | 0:28:38 | 0:28:41 | |
I've never done anything like this before. | 0:28:43 | 0:28:46 | |
My heart's thumping right now. | 0:28:46 | 0:28:47 | |
'It's too risky to take the undercover gear with us.' | 0:28:47 | 0:28:50 | |
That's all staying here in Vietnam. | 0:28:50 | 0:28:53 | |
It's basically a total giveaway. | 0:28:53 | 0:28:56 | |
'But the secret footage from meeting the rhino horn dealer | 0:28:56 | 0:29:00 | |
'is too precious to ditch. I'm burying the memory card deep.' | 0:29:00 | 0:29:03 | |
Hopefully no-one is going to look in my dirty laundry. | 0:29:05 | 0:29:07 | |
Abandoning our sting on Mr Big | 0:29:14 | 0:29:16 | |
is a huge disappointment, but the thought of | 0:29:16 | 0:29:18 | |
a Vietnamese jail is even more motivating right now. | 0:29:18 | 0:29:21 | |
I just want to get out before the message reaches | 0:29:21 | 0:29:25 | |
the airport to stop us. | 0:29:25 | 0:29:26 | |
So, sitting down on the plane, due to take off in just a few minutes. | 0:29:32 | 0:29:37 | |
We're not quite there yet. | 0:29:37 | 0:29:39 | |
When the wheels leave the ground, that's when I'll feel all right. | 0:29:39 | 0:29:43 | |
That is us off the ground and in the air, | 0:29:56 | 0:29:58 | |
and there's only one way to describe how I feel right now. | 0:29:58 | 0:30:02 | |
-BLEEP -relieved. | 0:30:02 | 0:30:04 | |
Goodbye, Vietnam. | 0:30:04 | 0:30:06 | |
Amazingly, just three weeks after we left Hanoi in a hurry, | 0:30:18 | 0:30:22 | |
Tony managed to get a second undercover team into Vietnam. | 0:30:22 | 0:30:25 | |
I can't wait to find out what they've come back with | 0:30:26 | 0:30:29 | |
on Little Wu's nemesis, Mr Big. | 0:30:29 | 0:30:32 | |
Things went very well for us. | 0:30:32 | 0:30:34 | |
Excellent, they made contact with Mr Big? | 0:30:34 | 0:30:36 | |
-Yes, they did, yeah. -The same guy who sent those pictures of, | 0:30:36 | 0:30:40 | |
I think it was 11 rhino horns to Little Wu? | 0:30:40 | 0:30:43 | |
Any sign of them when you got there? | 0:30:43 | 0:30:44 | |
Unfortunately when we got there, he was out of rhino horn, | 0:30:44 | 0:30:47 | |
so we asked him what did he have available, and he had some ivory. | 0:30:47 | 0:30:51 | |
Really? So this is our guy? This is Mr Big? | 0:30:51 | 0:30:54 | |
-That's Mr Big. -Oh, my God. | 0:30:54 | 0:30:57 | |
So, he showed us about 440 kilos of ivory. | 0:30:57 | 0:31:01 | |
That's a lot of tusks on that pile. | 0:31:01 | 0:31:03 | |
-440 kilos?! -Yeah. | 0:31:03 | 0:31:06 | |
How many individual tusks, roughly, do you think that was? | 0:31:06 | 0:31:09 | |
I can't tell you the exact count, but in excess of 100. | 0:31:09 | 0:31:12 | |
Did he give a per-kilo price for that? | 0:31:12 | 0:31:15 | |
It basically worked out about half a million US for the whole lot. | 0:31:15 | 0:31:18 | |
-And he was quite keen to shift all of it, was he? -Yeah. | 0:31:18 | 0:31:22 | |
We still think the main market is China, | 0:31:22 | 0:31:25 | |
but what we have been told is that major traffickers | 0:31:25 | 0:31:27 | |
are now stockpiling ivory, because they think that the trade | 0:31:27 | 0:31:34 | |
will rebound eventually, so they are buying the commodities now, | 0:31:34 | 0:31:38 | |
buying the wildlife products now at a cheap price, | 0:31:38 | 0:31:41 | |
hoping to sell them in the future. | 0:31:41 | 0:31:43 | |
So we are looking at speculators here, | 0:31:43 | 0:31:45 | |
especially with this raw ivory? | 0:31:45 | 0:31:47 | |
'This intelligence that the kingpins | 0:31:47 | 0:31:50 | |
'of wildlife crime are speculating on | 0:31:50 | 0:31:52 | |
'a future ivory trade is pretty terrifying. | 0:31:52 | 0:31:56 | |
'Any market in ivory supports that speculation.' | 0:31:56 | 0:31:59 | |
And the legal UK ivory market is potentially huge. | 0:32:01 | 0:32:05 | |
-NEWSREEL NARRATOR: -In this London warehouse, from tusk to mirror, | 0:32:07 | 0:32:10 | |
everything goes at top speed. | 0:32:10 | 0:32:12 | |
We've travelled a long way from the African elephant. | 0:32:12 | 0:32:16 | |
Between 1860 and 1920, | 0:32:16 | 0:32:19 | |
Britain imported the tusks of over one million African elephants. | 0:32:19 | 0:32:23 | |
That's more than twice the number alive in Africa today. | 0:32:23 | 0:32:27 | |
Much of this now makes up our own stockpile of worked ivory. | 0:32:27 | 0:32:32 | |
Official records show thousands of such pieces | 0:32:32 | 0:32:35 | |
are being sold into Asian markets every year, | 0:32:35 | 0:32:38 | |
and that's just the legal stuff. | 0:32:38 | 0:32:41 | |
What's heading out of the UK under the radar? | 0:32:41 | 0:32:43 | |
I go to speak to the head of the Border Force wildlife team, | 0:32:44 | 0:32:47 | |
Grant Miller. | 0:32:47 | 0:32:49 | |
He shows me a small selection of the smuggled UK ivory | 0:32:49 | 0:32:52 | |
seized by his team, | 0:32:52 | 0:32:53 | |
all leaving the country without proper paperwork. | 0:32:53 | 0:32:56 | |
And these are all worked pieces of ivory here, are they? | 0:32:57 | 0:33:01 | |
These are the types of things that are being shipped out to | 0:33:01 | 0:33:03 | |
China and Hong Kong, likely to be re-carved, | 0:33:03 | 0:33:06 | |
reworked into an item that they actually want. | 0:33:06 | 0:33:10 | |
They can be anything from Victorian hairbrushes, | 0:33:10 | 0:33:12 | |
which can be a substantial weight of ivory at the back of it. | 0:33:12 | 0:33:15 | |
So that's your Chinese nationals who are just sourcing any ivory | 0:33:15 | 0:33:20 | |
they can to fuel the demand. | 0:33:20 | 0:33:21 | |
And this is an ongoing problem, week in, week out? | 0:33:21 | 0:33:24 | |
When did you last get a seizure? | 0:33:24 | 0:33:26 | |
Last week, I made 18 seizures of ivory at the UK border on export. | 0:33:26 | 0:33:31 | |
-18 in a week? -18 in a week. -All elephant ivory? | 0:33:31 | 0:33:34 | |
All elephant ivory going to China and going to Hong Kong. | 0:33:34 | 0:33:38 | |
Clearly, huge amounts of UK ivory is reaching Asia, | 0:33:39 | 0:33:43 | |
both legally and illegally. | 0:33:43 | 0:33:45 | |
And this is a trade that our government | 0:33:45 | 0:33:48 | |
has twice promised to ban. | 0:33:48 | 0:33:50 | |
It's a promise I first wrote to them about more than two months ago. | 0:33:50 | 0:33:55 | |
I've been pushing the Government for an interview to clarify their policy | 0:33:55 | 0:33:58 | |
on UK ivory, and I've finally had a reply from | 0:33:58 | 0:34:01 | |
the Ministry of the Environment. | 0:34:01 | 0:34:04 | |
"The minister will not be able to take part in your programme | 0:34:05 | 0:34:08 | |
"on this occasion." | 0:34:08 | 0:34:10 | |
Well, if there's one thing I've learnt trying to get interviews | 0:34:10 | 0:34:13 | |
with ministers, it's that the first no doesn't really count. | 0:34:13 | 0:34:16 | |
You have to keep trying. | 0:34:16 | 0:34:18 | |
Convert that no into a maybe and eventually get a yes. | 0:34:18 | 0:34:22 | |
So I've bashed out a reply straightaway. | 0:34:22 | 0:34:24 | |
"Dear Minister, I was very disappointed to hear | 0:34:25 | 0:34:28 | |
"that you've declined my request for a filmed interview." | 0:34:28 | 0:34:31 | |
The problem of historic ivory stocks is one the UK Government | 0:34:34 | 0:34:37 | |
seems reluctant to talk about. | 0:34:37 | 0:34:39 | |
But earlier this year, the government of Kenya | 0:34:41 | 0:34:44 | |
invited me to attend an event addressing just this issue. | 0:34:44 | 0:34:47 | |
-You can have it. -Yeah? -You can have it. | 0:34:48 | 0:34:50 | |
Just outside Nairobi, Kenya is preparing | 0:34:52 | 0:34:55 | |
to make an extraordinary statement to the world. | 0:34:55 | 0:34:58 | |
Hi there. | 0:35:02 | 0:35:04 | |
These 12 mounds make up virtually all of Kenya's ivory stockpile. | 0:35:04 | 0:35:09 | |
They are the accumulation of tusks seized from poachers | 0:35:12 | 0:35:15 | |
and collected from elephants that have died naturally. | 0:35:15 | 0:35:18 | |
And they are all about to go up in flames. | 0:35:23 | 0:35:26 | |
They're heavy. They are really heavy. | 0:35:29 | 0:35:32 | |
In charge of the logistics of this extraordinary event | 0:35:39 | 0:35:42 | |
is Patrick Omondi of the Kenyan Wildlife Service. | 0:35:42 | 0:35:46 | |
What's the total tonnage on this site? | 0:35:46 | 0:35:48 | |
How many tonness of ivory are you going to burn? | 0:35:48 | 0:35:50 | |
We are going to torch 105 tonnes. | 0:35:50 | 0:35:52 | |
-105 -tonnes. Yes, of ivory, and 1.35 tonnes of rhino horn. | 0:35:52 | 0:35:58 | |
-Gosh. -Yes. -Have you any idea what the value of that would be | 0:35:58 | 0:36:02 | |
if it was being traded internationally? | 0:36:02 | 0:36:05 | |
We, as a country, we have, eh, | 0:36:05 | 0:36:09 | |
not put a price to ivory. | 0:36:09 | 0:36:11 | |
We still believe ivory is worth more | 0:36:11 | 0:36:15 | |
when it is in a living elephant. | 0:36:15 | 0:36:18 | |
We lose approximately 35,000 elephants a year in Africa. | 0:36:18 | 0:36:23 | |
35,000 elephants. | 0:36:23 | 0:36:25 | |
And most of those, you don't get the ivory back? | 0:36:25 | 0:36:29 | |
Most of them, you don't get ivory back. | 0:36:29 | 0:36:31 | |
So if we had the stocks here, | 0:36:31 | 0:36:33 | |
I think we would be having three or four times... | 0:36:33 | 0:36:36 | |
-Really? -..of ivory. | 0:36:36 | 0:36:37 | |
Three or four times this if you'd managed | 0:36:37 | 0:36:39 | |
to collect all the ivory poached in Africa in just one year? | 0:36:39 | 0:36:42 | |
-In one year. -We'd be looking at four times as many piles. | 0:36:42 | 0:36:45 | |
-Yes, four times as many piles. -That's extraordinary. | 0:36:45 | 0:36:49 | |
Kenya deliberately refuses to acknowledge the cash value | 0:36:49 | 0:36:53 | |
of the ivory they're destroying, | 0:36:53 | 0:36:55 | |
but a bit of mental maths tells me that it's over £100 million worth. | 0:36:55 | 0:37:01 | |
In recent years, Botswana, South Africa, | 0:37:01 | 0:37:04 | |
Zimbabwe and Namibia were permitted one-off sales | 0:37:04 | 0:37:07 | |
of their ivory stockpiles to Asia. | 0:37:07 | 0:37:09 | |
Kenya's president Uhuru Kenyatta | 0:37:11 | 0:37:13 | |
is one of many who argues that these sales fuelled the demand for ivory | 0:37:13 | 0:37:18 | |
and lead to increased poaching all over Africa. | 0:37:18 | 0:37:21 | |
No-one has any business trading in ivory, | 0:37:23 | 0:37:27 | |
for this trade means death. | 0:37:27 | 0:37:31 | |
Death for our elephants and death for our natural heritage. | 0:37:31 | 0:37:37 | |
In destroying the ivory, | 0:37:37 | 0:37:39 | |
we reject once and for all those who think that our natural heritage | 0:37:39 | 0:37:45 | |
can be sold for money. | 0:37:45 | 0:37:47 | |
If you walked in on this scene and you haven't heard | 0:37:56 | 0:37:58 | |
any of the arguments or discussions about why this is happening, | 0:37:58 | 0:38:01 | |
you'd think this was the maddest thing you'd ever, ever seen. | 0:38:01 | 0:38:04 | |
The tusks of 8,000 African elephants going up in flames. | 0:38:06 | 0:38:10 | |
Why is it happening? | 0:38:10 | 0:38:11 | |
It's really hard to explain why it's happening, | 0:38:13 | 0:38:16 | |
and it's not completely clear whether this will change anything, | 0:38:16 | 0:38:20 | |
but there are a lot of people here, | 0:38:20 | 0:38:22 | |
including three African presidents, | 0:38:22 | 0:38:24 | |
who are determined that it WILL change something. | 0:38:24 | 0:38:27 | |
And, you know, right now, I feel it's got to change something. | 0:38:27 | 0:38:29 | |
I don't want to have been here and seen this | 0:38:29 | 0:38:32 | |
for it NOT to change something. | 0:38:32 | 0:38:34 | |
Watching the tusks of 8,000 elephants burn, | 0:38:43 | 0:38:46 | |
I can't help remembering the ivory of over a million elephants | 0:38:46 | 0:38:50 | |
that Britain took from Africa. | 0:38:50 | 0:38:52 | |
Isn't it now our responsibility to make sure that what remains | 0:38:54 | 0:38:59 | |
of our ivory plays no part in fuelling | 0:38:59 | 0:39:01 | |
the poaching of elephants in Africa today? | 0:39:01 | 0:39:04 | |
That's the question I want to ask our government. | 0:39:07 | 0:39:10 | |
But two weeks after my last e-mail to the minister, | 0:39:10 | 0:39:13 | |
I still don't have a reply. | 0:39:13 | 0:39:15 | |
So what is our government going to do about our stockpile? | 0:39:15 | 0:39:19 | |
Are we going to get the promised ban on the ivory trade? | 0:39:19 | 0:39:22 | |
I don't know, because I can't get them to talk about it. | 0:39:22 | 0:39:25 | |
They haven't even replied to my last request for an interview. | 0:39:25 | 0:39:29 | |
But I'm not giving up. I'm going to give it one more shot. | 0:39:29 | 0:39:32 | |
I'm going to write to the minister's boss, | 0:39:32 | 0:39:36 | |
the Secretary of State for the Environment. | 0:39:36 | 0:39:38 | |
"Dear Right Honourable... | 0:39:40 | 0:39:44 | |
"Andrea Leadsom." | 0:39:44 | 0:39:45 | |
There are some high-profile figures here in the UK working to try | 0:39:56 | 0:40:00 | |
and reduce the market value of ivory and rhino horn. | 0:40:00 | 0:40:05 | |
I'm on my way to meet one of the UK's figureheads | 0:40:08 | 0:40:12 | |
for conservation of rhino and elephant. | 0:40:12 | 0:40:16 | |
The fact that he's actually made himself available | 0:40:16 | 0:40:18 | |
for a TV ad that's been broadcast all over Asia | 0:40:18 | 0:40:21 | |
I think really shows the level of his commitment. | 0:40:21 | 0:40:24 | |
For some species, it's almost too late. | 0:40:27 | 0:40:30 | |
We could fill this stadium and many more | 0:40:30 | 0:40:33 | |
if we could stop the illegal trade. | 0:40:33 | 0:40:35 | |
Ask your friends and family never to buy rhino horn. | 0:40:37 | 0:40:40 | |
And together, we CAN save our wild rhinos. | 0:40:40 | 0:40:44 | |
-When the buying stops... -The killing can too. | 0:40:44 | 0:40:47 | |
This ad, by the NGO WildAid, | 0:40:49 | 0:40:51 | |
was played up to 70 times a day on Chinese state TV. | 0:40:51 | 0:40:55 | |
It's part of a strategy to try and change | 0:40:56 | 0:40:59 | |
the culture of desiring wildlife products, | 0:40:59 | 0:41:01 | |
called demand reduction. | 0:41:01 | 0:41:04 | |
Good morning, your Royal Highness. | 0:41:04 | 0:41:06 | |
-Good morning to you. How are you? -Good. | 0:41:06 | 0:41:08 | |
-Nice to see you. -Good to see you. | 0:41:08 | 0:41:10 | |
Where do you think the solution lies, the big picture solution? | 0:41:10 | 0:41:14 | |
The big picture solution is definitely in the demand side. | 0:41:14 | 0:41:17 | |
It is the key, but it's also the biggest and hardest thing to tackle. | 0:41:17 | 0:41:20 | |
And it's not something you can just fix really quickly. | 0:41:20 | 0:41:24 | |
We have to find a way of reducing the demand, | 0:41:24 | 0:41:26 | |
making it much less attractive. | 0:41:26 | 0:41:27 | |
You've felt so strongly about this that you've done something | 0:41:27 | 0:41:31 | |
which is quite unusual for a member of the royal family, | 0:41:31 | 0:41:35 | |
which is that you've stepped up and appeared in a TV ad | 0:41:35 | 0:41:38 | |
alongside two great sporting superstars. | 0:41:38 | 0:41:41 | |
Do you have any evidence that this demand reduction | 0:41:41 | 0:41:44 | |
and the kind of work you've been doing is really starting to bite? | 0:41:44 | 0:41:47 | |
I do. I think it is starting to bite. | 0:41:47 | 0:41:51 | |
If you look at what's happened with shark fin soup, Save the Whale, | 0:41:51 | 0:41:55 | |
all those sorts of campaigns, | 0:41:55 | 0:41:57 | |
they took a bit of time to get going, | 0:41:57 | 0:41:58 | |
but once they reached a certain level, they took off. | 0:41:58 | 0:42:01 | |
Ivory needs to become unfashionable and undesirable, and I still believe | 0:42:01 | 0:42:04 | |
that if we can get this campaign to the level it should be at, | 0:42:04 | 0:42:07 | |
it will turn the corner and it will start snowballing | 0:42:07 | 0:42:10 | |
into a real positive movement. | 0:42:10 | 0:42:12 | |
Back in southern Africa, many are arguing | 0:42:19 | 0:42:21 | |
that the strategy of demand reduction is failing | 0:42:21 | 0:42:24 | |
to save Africa's most threatened species. | 0:42:24 | 0:42:26 | |
I'm on my way to a farm outside Johannesburg whose owner advocates | 0:42:28 | 0:42:32 | |
a radically different approach | 0:42:32 | 0:42:34 | |
to safeguarding the future of the rhino. | 0:42:34 | 0:42:37 | |
This is home to the largest herd of rhino in the world. | 0:42:38 | 0:42:42 | |
They are owned by John Hume. | 0:42:42 | 0:42:44 | |
It's quite something to be able to look at rhinos | 0:42:54 | 0:42:56 | |
in these kind of numbers. | 0:42:56 | 0:42:58 | |
Oh, yes. | 0:42:58 | 0:42:59 | |
'John started his breeding project in 1992 | 0:42:59 | 0:43:03 | |
'with just five rhino. He now has over 1,300 of them.' | 0:43:03 | 0:43:07 | |
How would you describe the contribution | 0:43:08 | 0:43:10 | |
that you've made to rhino conservation, | 0:43:10 | 0:43:12 | |
helping the African rhino population? | 0:43:12 | 0:43:15 | |
Only in numbers, really, because I haven't spread them anywhere. | 0:43:15 | 0:43:18 | |
Which I could go on doing. | 0:43:18 | 0:43:20 | |
Buy more land, breed more rhinos. | 0:43:20 | 0:43:22 | |
But in order to do that, I'll need a lot of money, | 0:43:22 | 0:43:25 | |
and the security is now one-and-a-half times | 0:43:25 | 0:43:28 | |
what all the rest of the costs are put together. | 0:43:28 | 0:43:30 | |
So it's not sustainable. | 0:43:30 | 0:43:32 | |
Protection is easily your biggest expense? | 0:43:32 | 0:43:35 | |
Oh, yeah, by far. It's much bigger | 0:43:35 | 0:43:37 | |
than all the other expenses put together. | 0:43:37 | 0:43:40 | |
John wants to pursue a controversial way to pay for protecting his rhino. | 0:43:40 | 0:43:45 | |
He's been humanely removing their horns | 0:43:45 | 0:43:48 | |
and has built up reserves worth millions of pounds. | 0:43:48 | 0:43:52 | |
But, at the moment, he can't legally sell it. | 0:43:52 | 0:43:54 | |
I'm convinced that the only way | 0:43:55 | 0:43:58 | |
we're going to save rhinos is to legalise | 0:43:58 | 0:44:00 | |
the trade in their horns. | 0:44:00 | 0:44:02 | |
I understand completely how selling rhino horn will help | 0:44:02 | 0:44:06 | |
your business here, help you keep this thing going, | 0:44:06 | 0:44:09 | |
but I'm a bit less clear on how | 0:44:09 | 0:44:11 | |
it will help the African rhino generally. | 0:44:11 | 0:44:14 | |
That part is easy. | 0:44:14 | 0:44:16 | |
I do not believe that putting more horn on the market | 0:44:16 | 0:44:21 | |
is going to stimulate the demand. I believe the opposite. | 0:44:21 | 0:44:25 | |
The government has got 28 tonne of horn, I have five tonne of horn. | 0:44:25 | 0:44:30 | |
So we have over 30 tonne of horn. | 0:44:30 | 0:44:33 | |
We could easily, sustainably sell six or seven tonne | 0:44:33 | 0:44:38 | |
of horn into the demand, and thus, I believe, | 0:44:38 | 0:44:41 | |
lessen the demand into Kruger National Park. | 0:44:41 | 0:44:47 | |
Lessen the pressure on the wild rhino? | 0:44:47 | 0:44:49 | |
Lessen the pressure on the wild rhino. | 0:44:49 | 0:44:52 | |
The principal alternative argument | 0:44:52 | 0:44:54 | |
to commercialisation and open trade | 0:44:54 | 0:44:57 | |
in rhino horn is demand reduction. | 0:44:57 | 0:44:59 | |
Isn't this just the moment when demand reduction | 0:44:59 | 0:45:03 | |
might start to bite and, inevitably, | 0:45:03 | 0:45:05 | |
illegal trade has to end up in demand increase? | 0:45:05 | 0:45:09 | |
No, I'm sorry, I don't accept that at all. | 0:45:09 | 0:45:11 | |
What do you think I should do? | 0:45:11 | 0:45:14 | |
Sitting here, knowing that without selling my horn, | 0:45:14 | 0:45:17 | |
all of these 1,360 rhino are going to be dead in ten or 12 years' time. | 0:45:17 | 0:45:23 | |
-Poached? -What do you expect me to do? | 0:45:23 | 0:45:24 | |
-They'll be poached? -Poached or I'll be forced to sell them to people | 0:45:24 | 0:45:29 | |
who are not as legitimate as I am | 0:45:29 | 0:45:31 | |
and they will kill them for the black market, | 0:45:31 | 0:45:34 | |
because it's worth more on the black market. | 0:45:34 | 0:45:36 | |
Because you haven't won, yet, your demand reduction fight. | 0:45:36 | 0:45:40 | |
I've now visited four different countries in Africa and two in Asia, | 0:46:02 | 0:46:07 | |
and what have I found out? | 0:46:07 | 0:46:09 | |
What do I think? | 0:46:09 | 0:46:11 | |
It does seem to boil down to these two polar positions. | 0:46:14 | 0:46:18 | |
One of them, idealistic and high-minded | 0:46:18 | 0:46:22 | |
and hopeful that people can change, | 0:46:22 | 0:46:25 | |
cultures can change, and we don't have to go on | 0:46:25 | 0:46:28 | |
desiring objects made from our wildlife. | 0:46:28 | 0:46:31 | |
And the other position that says that's not realistic, | 0:46:32 | 0:46:35 | |
it's never going to happen, it's all about money. | 0:46:35 | 0:46:38 | |
If it pays, it stays. | 0:46:38 | 0:46:40 | |
We have to recognise the value of these animals, | 0:46:40 | 0:46:42 | |
it's the only way they're going to survive. | 0:46:42 | 0:46:45 | |
My heart says, "Let's get to a better place. | 0:46:45 | 0:46:48 | |
"Let's change the culture. | 0:46:48 | 0:46:50 | |
"Let's have a world where consuming wildlife is not the only thing | 0:46:50 | 0:46:55 | |
"that justifies its existence." | 0:46:55 | 0:46:58 | |
But if I'm going to get behind that, | 0:46:58 | 0:47:00 | |
I have to truly believe that this demand reduction mission | 0:47:00 | 0:47:04 | |
can really be achieved. | 0:47:04 | 0:47:06 | |
One country in the world consumes more ivory than any other. | 0:47:08 | 0:47:13 | |
And with a population of 1.3 billion, | 0:47:13 | 0:47:16 | |
there's plenty of potential for further customers. | 0:47:16 | 0:47:20 | |
I'm heading for a city in China | 0:47:20 | 0:47:21 | |
that's been at the centre | 0:47:21 | 0:47:23 | |
of the ivory carving industry for centuries. | 0:47:23 | 0:47:25 | |
I want to get under the skin of a culture that still values ivory. | 0:47:30 | 0:47:35 | |
And so I've arranged to meet a few people who own some. | 0:47:35 | 0:47:38 | |
-Hello. -Hi, Yami, how are you? | 0:47:38 | 0:47:40 | |
I understand that you've bought a few pieces of ivory. | 0:47:40 | 0:47:44 | |
I'd be really interested to see them. | 0:47:44 | 0:47:46 | |
This is a very light thing, isn't it? | 0:47:51 | 0:47:53 | |
It's very small. | 0:47:53 | 0:47:54 | |
'I show Yami, her son and friend | 0:47:54 | 0:47:56 | |
'some of the recent Wild Aid campaign videos. | 0:47:56 | 0:48:00 | |
'They feature big Asian stars | 0:48:00 | 0:48:01 | |
'pushing the message of demand reduction.' | 0:48:01 | 0:48:04 | |
Please, be ivory-free. | 0:48:07 | 0:48:10 | |
Hi, Catherine. 'Next, I meet Catherine and her daughter.' | 0:48:24 | 0:48:28 | |
When I watch the advert, | 0:48:28 | 0:48:29 | |
I understand they're actually killing the live animal | 0:48:29 | 0:48:33 | |
and just taking the tooth or horns. | 0:48:33 | 0:48:37 | |
Very shocking. | 0:48:37 | 0:48:38 | |
To see another way the message is being put across, | 0:48:39 | 0:48:42 | |
I join an ivory awareness event | 0:48:42 | 0:48:44 | |
at one of Guangzhou's huge shopping malls. | 0:48:44 | 0:48:46 | |
Events like this are regularly being held | 0:48:47 | 0:48:50 | |
in different cities across China. | 0:48:50 | 0:48:52 | |
Well, this is fun. We've got an interactive elephant | 0:48:54 | 0:48:56 | |
here in the mall. | 0:48:56 | 0:48:58 | |
Here comes the gun. Here comes the target. | 0:49:03 | 0:49:06 | |
And at the end of all the fun, | 0:49:06 | 0:49:07 | |
we hear a bang and the elephant goes down. | 0:49:07 | 0:49:09 | |
When did you first understand that ivory came only from elephants | 0:49:09 | 0:49:12 | |
that had been killed? | 0:49:12 | 0:49:15 | |
Do you think this can change the way people think about ivory? | 0:49:26 | 0:49:29 | |
There's also a change in attitude happening | 0:49:43 | 0:49:46 | |
at the top in China. | 0:49:46 | 0:49:47 | |
-NEWSREADER: -US President Barack Obama | 0:49:49 | 0:49:51 | |
and China's president Xi Jinping | 0:49:51 | 0:49:52 | |
have announced a commitment to ban commercial trade | 0:49:52 | 0:49:55 | |
of ivory in their respective countries. | 0:49:55 | 0:49:58 | |
President Xi still needs to commit to the timing of his ban, | 0:49:58 | 0:50:02 | |
but it feels like there is real momentum | 0:50:02 | 0:50:04 | |
for change here in China. | 0:50:04 | 0:50:06 | |
Are you sure that you will never buy ivory? | 0:50:06 | 0:50:09 | |
Yeah, I'm sure. | 0:50:09 | 0:50:10 | |
If the ivory trade were to be legalised now, | 0:50:10 | 0:50:14 | |
which is what some southern African countries are arguing for, | 0:50:14 | 0:50:17 | |
it would completely undermine this work. | 0:50:17 | 0:50:19 | |
I think the world needs to see what I'm seeing here. | 0:50:21 | 0:50:23 | |
We're asking people today if they want | 0:50:25 | 0:50:27 | |
to make a personal commitment never to buy ivory. | 0:50:27 | 0:50:29 | |
Would you like to do that today? | 0:50:29 | 0:50:32 | |
No problem, OK. | 0:50:32 | 0:50:34 | |
OK. That's good. | 0:50:34 | 0:50:35 | |
Two, three, and turn it over. | 0:50:35 | 0:50:37 | |
That looks great, but what does it say? | 0:50:40 | 0:50:42 | |
HE READS ALOUD IN OWN LANGUAGE | 0:50:42 | 0:50:44 | |
I've been really touched by these | 0:50:47 | 0:50:48 | |
pledges that have been made today. | 0:50:48 | 0:50:50 | |
You know, it gives me a lot of hope. | 0:50:50 | 0:50:52 | |
People today are telling me that | 0:50:52 | 0:50:54 | |
demand reduction CAN work, it is working, | 0:50:54 | 0:50:56 | |
and they want to be part of it, | 0:50:56 | 0:50:58 | |
and that's a message I'm very happy | 0:50:58 | 0:51:00 | |
to take out to the rest of the world. | 0:51:00 | 0:51:02 | |
It's become clear to me that the solution | 0:51:14 | 0:51:16 | |
to the killing of Africa's elephants relies | 0:51:16 | 0:51:19 | |
on the world pulling together to end the ivory trade. | 0:51:19 | 0:51:23 | |
In a few days' time, delegates from 183 countries | 0:51:23 | 0:51:27 | |
will be attending a wildlife trade conference | 0:51:27 | 0:51:30 | |
in Johannesburg called CITES. | 0:51:30 | 0:51:32 | |
Ivory is top of the agenda, | 0:51:33 | 0:51:36 | |
with some countries asking once again | 0:51:36 | 0:51:38 | |
to be allowed to sell their ivory stockpiles | 0:51:38 | 0:51:40 | |
and others pushing for an outright ban. | 0:51:40 | 0:51:44 | |
So, is the UK going to attend the CITES conference | 0:51:45 | 0:51:49 | |
with a weaker commitment to ending our own ivory trade | 0:51:49 | 0:51:52 | |
than China and America? | 0:51:52 | 0:51:54 | |
I've been asked to speak at the View From The Shard | 0:51:54 | 0:51:57 | |
at a pre-CITES event in London. But the day before, | 0:51:57 | 0:52:01 | |
the hot news is that the UK Government | 0:52:01 | 0:52:03 | |
might just have been stirred into action. | 0:52:03 | 0:52:06 | |
The Times front-page headline this morning, | 0:52:09 | 0:52:11 | |
"Britain to crack down on illegal ivory." | 0:52:11 | 0:52:13 | |
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall is on the line now. | 0:52:13 | 0:52:17 | |
'I'm being asked to comment on the problem of the UK trade.' | 0:52:17 | 0:52:20 | |
UK ivory ends up in the Asian market, | 0:52:20 | 0:52:23 | |
the Asian market is what's killing African elephants. | 0:52:23 | 0:52:26 | |
'And my hopes for a total ban from our government.' | 0:52:26 | 0:52:29 | |
The announcement, if it comes, will come tomorrow with Hugh there, | 0:52:29 | 0:52:33 | |
the Duke of Cambridge and the minister from Defra too. | 0:52:33 | 0:52:36 | |
In fact, the announcement's early. | 0:52:36 | 0:52:38 | |
Well, this has just come through. | 0:52:40 | 0:52:41 | |
GOV.UK. Press release. | 0:52:42 | 0:52:45 | |
"UK ban on modern-day ivory sales." | 0:52:45 | 0:52:49 | |
I read this and I was about to punch the air with excitement, | 0:52:49 | 0:52:51 | |
and then I did a double-take. Hang on - modern-day ivory sales. | 0:52:51 | 0:52:56 | |
Modern-day ivory sales are practically banned already. | 0:52:56 | 0:52:59 | |
To do any trade at all in modern-day ivory in the UK, | 0:52:59 | 0:53:03 | |
you need a special licence from CITES, | 0:53:03 | 0:53:05 | |
and I know from talking to Defra | 0:53:05 | 0:53:07 | |
that only 150 of those were issued in the last year. | 0:53:07 | 0:53:11 | |
Meanwhile, we are selling thousands of pieces of our antique ivory | 0:53:11 | 0:53:16 | |
to Asia, to the corrupt market that is responsible | 0:53:16 | 0:53:20 | |
for the killing of elephants in Africa. | 0:53:20 | 0:53:22 | |
What's been done about that, our antique ivory? | 0:53:22 | 0:53:25 | |
There is something here at the bottom. | 0:53:25 | 0:53:27 | |
"Trade in works of art and ornaments dating from before 1947, | 0:53:27 | 0:53:31 | |
"deemed antiques, will continue to be permitted." | 0:53:31 | 0:53:35 | |
That means our entire stockpile of antique ivory, | 0:53:35 | 0:53:38 | |
the stuff that's heading off to Asia as fast as we can sell it, | 0:53:38 | 0:53:42 | |
is still up for grabs. | 0:53:42 | 0:53:44 | |
I'm afraid our minister has spectacularly missed the point here. | 0:53:45 | 0:53:48 | |
I really hope she's at the Shard tomorrow, | 0:53:48 | 0:53:50 | |
because I'm dying to talk to her. | 0:53:50 | 0:53:52 | |
The next day, as the event gets underway, | 0:53:57 | 0:54:00 | |
I'm poised for my chance finally to speak | 0:54:00 | 0:54:02 | |
about ivory with Andrea Leadsom. | 0:54:02 | 0:54:04 | |
This way. | 0:54:08 | 0:54:10 | |
Minister, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall. | 0:54:10 | 0:54:12 | |
-Oh, hello. Nice to meet you. -Very nice to meet you. | 0:54:12 | 0:54:15 | |
Very much hoping to talk to you a little bit | 0:54:15 | 0:54:17 | |
about the announcement you made yesterday. | 0:54:17 | 0:54:19 | |
This is a first step. I think it sends | 0:54:19 | 0:54:21 | |
a really important message to the world that | 0:54:21 | 0:54:23 | |
trade in ivory is just unacceptable. | 0:54:23 | 0:54:25 | |
You know, we've got to do something to save these iconic animals. | 0:54:25 | 0:54:29 | |
But actually, a ban on modern-day ivory is absolutely key | 0:54:29 | 0:54:32 | |
at the moment, and so that's the first step. | 0:54:32 | 0:54:35 | |
One of the clearest lines in your press release yesterday | 0:54:35 | 0:54:37 | |
said it would be business as usual for pre-1947 ivory. | 0:54:37 | 0:54:41 | |
That could continue to be traded. | 0:54:41 | 0:54:43 | |
Is that something you can look at if there is clear evidence | 0:54:43 | 0:54:47 | |
that pre-1947 ivory is implicated in export to Asia, | 0:54:47 | 0:54:51 | |
where of course it then stimulates the trade | 0:54:51 | 0:54:54 | |
and plays a role in covering the ivory | 0:54:54 | 0:54:56 | |
from poached African elephants? | 0:54:56 | 0:54:58 | |
So, as I say, | 0:54:58 | 0:54:59 | |
I think the announcement we've made to ban the trade in modern-day ivory | 0:54:59 | 0:55:03 | |
is a really important first step. | 0:55:03 | 0:55:05 | |
We will meet our manifesto commitment, | 0:55:05 | 0:55:08 | |
what we're trying to do... | 0:55:08 | 0:55:09 | |
The manifesto commitment was for a total ban. | 0:55:09 | 0:55:12 | |
-Yes, that's right. -So that should include pre-'47 ivory in due course? | 0:55:12 | 0:55:15 | |
-And as I said... -But yesterday's statement said that that could continue to be traded, | 0:55:15 | 0:55:19 | |
so that seems to actually actively contradict your manifesto pledge. | 0:55:19 | 0:55:23 | |
Manifesto pledge - total ban. | 0:55:23 | 0:55:25 | |
Yesterday's statement - pre-1947, no problem. | 0:55:25 | 0:55:29 | |
Which of those two is ultimately going to stack up? | 0:55:29 | 0:55:31 | |
We're totally committed to our manifesto. | 0:55:31 | 0:55:34 | |
So ultimately a total ban? | 0:55:34 | 0:55:36 | |
And yesterday was a good first step | 0:55:36 | 0:55:38 | |
that sends an important message to the world | 0:55:38 | 0:55:40 | |
about the protection of these iconic animals, | 0:55:40 | 0:55:42 | |
-which is absolutely vital. -So any suggestion that pre-1947... | 0:55:42 | 0:55:47 | |
-Thanks. -Any suggestion that pre-1947... | 0:55:47 | 0:55:50 | |
-Thank you. -..will remain legal could come under review? | 0:55:50 | 0:55:54 | |
OK, well, that may be the best shot | 0:55:54 | 0:55:56 | |
we get at talking to Andrea Leadsom today. | 0:55:56 | 0:55:58 | |
I just don't understand why the Government | 0:56:00 | 0:56:02 | |
aren't taking more positive action on this. | 0:56:02 | 0:56:05 | |
Can concerns for a small section of the antiques trade | 0:56:05 | 0:56:08 | |
really outweigh doing everything we can to save the elephant? | 0:56:08 | 0:56:12 | |
Right now though, I need to concentrate on this event. | 0:56:14 | 0:56:17 | |
It's being covered by the world's media and beamed live to the city | 0:56:17 | 0:56:21 | |
hosting the CITES conference, Johannesburg. | 0:56:21 | 0:56:23 | |
It's my chance to present what I've discovered in Africa, Asia, | 0:56:25 | 0:56:29 | |
Europe and the UK and explain my conclusion that banning the trade | 0:56:29 | 0:56:34 | |
completely is the only answer. | 0:56:34 | 0:56:36 | |
Your Royal Highness, ladies and gentlemen | 0:56:43 | 0:56:46 | |
and the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, good afternoon. | 0:56:46 | 0:56:50 | |
We must now decide whether to keep open the possibility | 0:56:50 | 0:56:55 | |
of legal trade in the products of rhinos and elephants | 0:56:55 | 0:56:59 | |
or to do all that we can to eradicate demand | 0:56:59 | 0:57:03 | |
and end the trade once and for all. | 0:57:03 | 0:57:06 | |
I've spent six months on a filmed quest to try to find out | 0:57:06 | 0:57:09 | |
what the solutions might be. | 0:57:09 | 0:57:12 | |
I have taken sides in this debate. | 0:57:12 | 0:57:15 | |
We have to end this trade. | 0:57:15 | 0:57:17 | |
For good. | 0:57:17 | 0:57:19 | |
My investigation into what's driving the illegal ivory trade | 0:57:22 | 0:57:26 | |
and what we should be doing about it has come to an end. | 0:57:26 | 0:57:31 | |
For now. | 0:57:31 | 0:57:32 | |
But there has been an important development | 0:57:34 | 0:57:37 | |
from the delegates in South Africa. | 0:57:37 | 0:57:39 | |
The CITES conference in Johannesburg has produced | 0:57:40 | 0:57:43 | |
one really important resolution for Africa's elephants, | 0:57:43 | 0:57:47 | |
and these are the critical words. | 0:57:47 | 0:57:49 | |
All 183 countries at CITES, including the UK, | 0:57:49 | 0:57:54 | |
have promised to close down any "legal domestic market for ivory | 0:57:54 | 0:57:58 | |
"that is contributing to poaching or illegal trade." | 0:57:58 | 0:58:04 | |
I think my films have proved that here in the UK, | 0:58:04 | 0:58:07 | |
by selling our antique ivory into the Asian market, | 0:58:07 | 0:58:11 | |
we are contributing to poaching and the illegal trade. | 0:58:11 | 0:58:15 | |
These words are the new mandate for global change, and if we're going to | 0:58:15 | 0:58:19 | |
ask the rest of the world to take action on ivory, | 0:58:19 | 0:58:22 | |
then surely we have to take action ourselves. | 0:58:22 | 0:58:26 | |
So, come on, let's ban the UK ivory trade. | 0:58:26 | 0:58:29 |