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RP market for icons fuels forbidden ivory trade


STA. CRUZ, Manila — It’s high season here in the religious icon trade. Replicas of Jesus Christ, the saints, and Nativity scene are flying off the shelves, many to become Christmas gifts in Catholic homes. The priciest are made of ivory from dead elephants. "Religious icons are good Christmas gifts especially for Catholic collectors," said Cornelio Awa, who has been in the business of sculpting images of saints from ivory for more than two decades. His skill coupled with the increasingly scarce supply of ivory have driven up the prices of Awa’s ivory sculptures. A two-foot tall ivory image of the Holy Family, for example, costs P1 million (roughly $21,000). Awa used to export his products to the U.S. and Europe, but had to focus locally because of the global economic slowdown. It wasn’t a bad decision. After all, demand for his ivory sculptures among rich Filipino Catholics has remained strong. Ivory trade was banned under a 1989 United Nations Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species to help in the recovery of the elephant population in several African countries. Awa said it was a blessing in disguise when his ivory stocks became the subject of a smuggling case in court. Winning the case against the Bureau of Customs (BoC), these were released to him after three years when the price had tripled from the usual price of P15,000 per kilo. Despite the worldwide ban, ivory still makes its way to the Philippine market, especially the ones coming from Africa, the preference of Filipino sculptors like Awa. "These are whiter and glossier than those from Asia," Awa said, noting that the tusks of Asian elephants are yellowish, a result of their being used in labor. Elephant ivory is a booming black market commodity not only in the Philippines, but in many parts of Asia. It has been used to make mahjong tiles, billiards balls, piano keys, jewelry, and trinkets.

The sale of religious statues made entirely of ivory, like this Holy Family figure, has a strong market among wealthy Filipino Catholics despite the worldwide ban on the ivory trade. Ivory for these sculptures is sourced from tusks of dead elephants and sells for P50,000 a kilo. Nikka Corsino
Back to business According to Scientific American Magazine, after the near-elimination of elephant poaching following the 1989 ban on ivory, demand has returned. Elephant populations are now being decimated like never before, the magazine said in its July issue. Demand from China, Japan and other wealthy nations, including the U.S., drove the wholesale price of high-quality ivory from $200 per kilo in 2004 to $850 by 2007. The price has doubled again two years later. Scientists from the University of Washington's Centre for Conservation Biology (UW-CCB) have developed a DNA map to pinpoint the origin of tusks seized from smugglers, and they used this to examine the goods from separate raids on docks in Taiwan and Hong Kong in July 2006 and in Vietnam just this year. In the Taiwan raid, the two suspicious containers were en route to the Philippines, and were disguised as sisal fiber exports from Africa. The Philippines, however, grows tons of the fibrous plant. The cache totaled 5.2 metric tons of illegal African ivory, with an estimated wholesale value of $4.6 million and a street value of more than $21 million. In August 2006, Japanese customs agents also seized 608 pieces of raw ivory at the Osaka Harbor which, when carefully matched, produced 260 whole tusks. The scientists have traced most of the seizures to elephants that had grazed in the Selous game reserve, a United Nations UNESCO heritage site in Tanzania, and the nearby Niassa game reserve in Mozambique. Some came from Zambia and Malawi. "Ivory is now traded globally in the same illegal manner as drugs and weapons," said UW-CCB director Samuel K. Wasser told Scientific American Magazine. Major transit point The worldwide illegal ivory trade has been growing steadily since 2004, but it was only this year that it has surged dramatically, according to the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS). The ETIS is one of the two elephant monitoring systems set up under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The Philippines has been a CITES member since 1981. In its October 2009 report, ETIS cited increased involvement of organized crime syndicates, which often connect African source countries with Asian end-users. It identified Nigeria, Congo and Thailand as the countries most heavily implicated in the illicit global ivory trade. It also named the Philippines as an important player in the illegal trade, functioning as a major transit point of illicit consignments destined for China. "The perception of corruption is many times greater in the Philippines. Indeed, the emergence of trade to and from the Philippines in recent years is probably related to this fact," the ETIS report said. It cited "poor governance and possible linkages to organized crime" as the reasons for the disappearance of 3.7 tons of ivory from the custody of the Customs bureau in 2006. It also said the Philippines remained a country to watch closely in future ETIS studies, since it continues to receive anecdotal reports of an emergent ivory carving industry. "Ivory trade issues deserve greater focus in terms of national agendas." Meanwhile, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) was quick to come to the defense of the Catholic market that could have fueled the local ivory carving industry. The CBCP put the blame on the government's failure to stop the inflow of "hot items," and not on Catholics’ demand for religious images. "The issue is not about religion, about faith or about the church. It is about the inability to stop the entry of illegal items. It’s a smuggling issue," said Pedro Quitorio, CBCP media director. He also doubts that the ivory sculptures’ intent is religious. "It must be profits." Corruption The Customs bureau, said to be one of the most corrupt government agencies, admitted that the Philippines has become a key transit point in the illicit ivory trade. The bureau has joined the Civil Service Commission (CSC), the Office of the Ombudsman and the Commission on Audit in its drive against corruption. CSC Acting Chairman Cesar Buenaflor said they have been trying to cut red tape and fast-track transactions. Internal audit units have been put in place along with the deployment of a resident ombudsman in every agency. "We are serious about our efforts against corruption. Things can’t be done overnight, but we are already making some gains," he said. But the Customs bureau admitted that it has limited resources to fight illegal trade. "The country is an archipelago with a long coastline. We have limited resources, few people, modest funds," said Nestor Gualberto, director of Customs enforcement and security service. "But we remain vigilant. I can confidently say that none of these ivory shipments can pass through our international ports," he added. Since October 2005, Customs police have seized 10 major shipments of elephant tusks at the country’s international ports. In November, they sued two Filipinos who allegedly tried to import 3.5 tons of elephant tusks from Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. The shipment, fraudulently declared as plastic products, was worth P240 million. The alleged importer, Antonio Vinavillas, and the alleged customs broker, Marilyn Pacheco, were charged with violating the country's Wildlife Resources Conservation Act. They were also charged with violation of the Tariff and Customs Code for misdeclaring the shipment. Both are bailable offenses. Neither of the accused could be reached for comment. "This is a strong manifestation of the Bureau of Customs' resolve to make itself an integral element in the country’s efforts to stop local and international illegal wildlife trade in compliance with our laws," Environment Secretary Lito Atienza said. The Philippines may not be directly affected by the illicit ivory trade since it doesn't have elephants, but "protecting wildlife is just as important as addressing the problem of climate change," Atienza said. Awa, mentioned at the outset, claimed he would have to go back to using wood once his ivory stock runs out. It's a small price to pay on the part Filipino Roman Catholics for a commodity whose principal use is vanity. — NPA/GMANews.TV (Claire Delfin is a TV news reporter of GMA Network, Inc. and regularly contributes stories on women, children, education, health and the environment to GMANews.TV, the network’s news Web site.)
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