Nigeria unveils elephant sculpture to highlight illegal tusk trade

Nigeria’s minister of state for the environment unveiled an elephant-shaped sculpture made with confiscated ivory on Wednesday — the country’s latest bid to raise awareness as it struggles to combat the illegal wildlife trade.

The moulded grey statue incorporates ground-down fragments from a record $11 million, 2.5-tonne haul of seized tusks destroyed by the authorities in January, as well as pulverised pangolin scales.

As he unwrapped the sculpture at the National Park Service headquarters in Abuja, minister of state for the environment Iziaq Kunle Salako said it was a “symbol of renewed hope for Nigerian wildlife”.

But he warned that poachers were “very tenacious and do not give up easily”.

“Demand for wild animal parts and derivatives persists with a surge in black markets,” he said. “We must therefore be resolute, enforce our laws and upscale the deployment of technology in fighting these criminals.”

Salako said the sculpture, about the height of a human, was intended as a “monument in memory of hundreds of elephants killed illegally and as a symbol of our unwavering commitment to wildlife conservation”.

International trade in ivory has been banned since 1989 under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

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But it has not stopped wildlife traders operating in Nigeria, where the number of elephants has plummeted from hundreds of thousands to under 400 due to poaching and habitat loss, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society NGO.

The UN’s Office on Drugs and Crime says Nigeria has also become the main transit hub for trafficking illicit wildlife products from East and Central Africa.

Among these are the scales of African pangolins, small mammals coveted for use in traditional medicine including in China and Vietnam.