Thailand steps up ivory trade control measures

BANGKOK, December 4 (TNA) - Thailand’s Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation, under the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, has intensified its measures to control ivory trade in the country. Natural Resources and Environment Minister General Dapong Rattanasuwan told journalists of the update, after his meeting with visiting Secretary-General of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) John E. Scanlon at his ministry in Bangkok on Wednesday. General Dapong said that the CITES secretary-general expressed his satisfaction with Thailand’s measures to address the problem of illegal ivory trade, namely arrests of wrongdoers. Under the stricter measures, the minister revealed, his ministry has set the deadline within early March 2015 for ivory traders to submit reports on their existing possessions of ivory tusks, containing countries of origin and destination of the tusks, starting from early January 2015. According to the minister, his ministry will also keep on trying by all means to end ivory tusks smuggling from South Africa. (TNA)