Success! After just 5 months of campaigning, Nellie has achieved what adults have not achieved for 3 decades. The Hong Kong government is burning 26 tons of confiscated ivory, only keeping one ton for scientific use, and sending a strong message to the public.
People used to be ignorant of the fact that ivory is harvested by shooting grand elephants, hacking off their faces and pulling out the teeth. Today, this poaching industry has become heavily militarized, hundreds of rangers are being shot and murdered, and 50,000 elephants are being shredded each year. Only 250,000 remain, they may go extinct in the wild in 5 years. So far, this global organized crime, mainly serving Asia, especially China, but also the USA as one of the biggest importers, has not been much stemmed in, and smugglers and criminal syndicates not legally confronted.
Things can change now that the public image of ivory is tarnished, and also THE THREE MAIN STORES OF HONG KONG have taken ivory OFF THE SHELVES.
This is precious since HK is the turntable of illegal inviry into mainland China, but there is way to go. For HK, China and a hundred other countries. We have met in Paris for NightScience conference and are working on a YL media kit (poster exhibit) for kids to use as exhibit in schools, to easily reach, educate and involve their entire generation in enforcing bans and saying no to ivory forever.
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