Singapore said Monday it will impose a blanket ban on the domestic sale of elephant ivory and products from 2021 as the government tightens its campaign against illegal wildlife trade.
The
announcement on World Elephant Day followed two years of consultations with
non-government groups, ivory retailers and the public.
Authorities
in the city-state made their largest ever seizure of smuggled ivory last month,
impounding a haul of nearly nine tonnes of contraband tusks from an estimated
300 African elephants valued at $12.9 million.
The illegal
cargo was discovered in a container from the Democratic Republic of the Congo
being shipped to Vietnam via Singapore and also included a huge stash of
pangolin scales.
Singapore
has banned international trade in all forms of elephant ivory products since
1990.
Such items
could be sold domestically if traders could prove they were imported before
that year or acquired prior to the inclusion of the relevant elephant species
in an international convention protecting endangered species.
In a
statement Monday, Singapore's National Parks Board banned the sale of elephant
ivory and products with effect from September 1, 2021.
Violators
face a jail term of up to one year and fines on conviction.
Traders can
donate their ivory stocks to institutions or keep them after the ban takes
effect, the board said.
Public
consultation by the government last year showed that 99 percent of those who
responded were in favour of a total ban.
Elephant
ivory is coveted because it can be fashioned into items like combs, pendants
and other jewellery.
The global
trade in elephant ivory, with rare exceptions, has been outlawed since 1989
after the population of the African giants dropped from millions in the
mid-20th century to around 600,000 by the end of the 1980s.
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