Environment

Ivory Trade through Hong Kong: So Much In, Not Much Out

Elephant tusks import is 3.2 times of export from 1977 to 2017

Grace Li

Published October 14, 2019

From 1977 to 2017, Hong Kong imported 3,614 tons of elephant tusks from countries including Sudan, Japan and Central African Repulic; the city reexported 1,128 tons to Japan, China, India and some other countries, according to data from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora ("CITES").

Large quantities of tusks were consumed locally, or more likely, flowed to China in various other ways.