Google – AFP, 14 November 2013
 |
Ivory tusks
are displayed by the Hong Kong Customs in Hong Kong on October 3,
2013
(AFP/File, Philippe Lopez)
|
Washington
— US Secretary of State John Kerry on Wednesday offered a $1 million reward to
help smash a Laos-based poaching network slaughtering endangered elephants and
rhinos for their precious horns and tusks.
The reward,
the first of its kind by the State Department, targeted the Xaysavang network
which operates from Laos as far afield as South Africa, Mozambique, Thailand,
Malaysia, Vietnam, and China.
"The
involvement of sophisticated transnational criminal organizations in wildlife
trafficking perpetuates corruption, threatens the rule of law and border
security in fragile regions," Kerry said in a statement.
He
estimated that annual profits from wildlife trafficking reached as much as $8
billion to $10 billion, and were then pumped into other "illicit
activities such as narcotics, arms, and human trafficking."
Another
effect of poaching was that it "destabilizes communities that depend on
wildlife for biodiversity and eco-tourism," he said.
Offering
the department's first reward under the transnational organized crime rewards
program, Kerry said the Xaysavang network "facilitates the killing of
endangered elephants, rhinos, and other species for products such as
ivory."
He revealed
that several major seizures of illegal wildlife products had been traced back
to the network.
The
lucrative Asian black market for rhino horn, used in traditional medicine, and
ivory has driven a boom in poaching across Africa.
Police in
the semi-autonomous Indian Ocean island of Zanzibar on Wednesday said they had
seized a 40-foot (12-meter) container hiding an estimated several tonnes' worth
of ivory.
The seizure
comes as authorities in Tanzania crack down on poaching amid a surge of
killings of elephant and rhino in the east African nation.
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