BANGKOK (AP) – Efforts by Thailand’s government to curb sales of ivory have been successful following criticism of widespread trafficking in the country, police and conservationists said.
Police announced Friday that since January, officials have seized two elephant tusks and 422 tusk fragments in a single case, while in all of last year they seized 99 tusks and 22 fragments. Deputy Police Commissioner Gen. Chalermkiat Sriworakhan said the drop in the number of cases showed that strict enforcement had deterred traffickers.
“We have made serious efforts to block elephant ivory from being smuggled into the country and sent on to another country,” Chalermkiat said, referring to past smuggling schemes. Now, “if they do get in the country, we do not let them leave.”
Thailand had been considered to have the largest unregulated ivory market in the world before it introduced the Elephant Ivory Act in 2014 and 2015 to regulate the domestic ivory market and criminalize the sale of African elephant ivory.
“We have been able to effectively arrest more and more suspects with tangible results,” said Chalermkiat.