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these gentle giants some of the last of the economy and elephants with tusks this lauch have become bred only a handful remain in africa they're protected but they're not safe from punches his feet and insatiable to arrive for a. sharp decline in africa's elephant populations is being compounded by human encroachment on their habitat projection site for people and something by centuries and. this report crisis the significance of ivory from prehistoric times to the present from the stone age can see germany to the savannah. africa to china and to russia

where the siberian permafrost contains tusks from an extinct species that could help save africa's elephants. the earliest known artifacts made from woolly mammoth ivory run earth in the mountains of southwest in germany in 2017 the site of their excavation was added to the list of unesco world heritage sites under the designation caves an ice age out in the swabian euro. the perforated rock phone during the middle life era is griddled with extensive camps out the only ancestors to come residency at the beginning of the paleolithic

age some 40000 years ago the limestone caves of the whole of fells hardly unique archaeological treasures they date back to the time when homosapien set out to copy europe. nicholas conrad has been conducting research here for decades he has the department of illy prehistory and quaternary ecology at the university have to be in. order for whole of els and other excavation site in our region have been incredibly well preserved a lot of we found bones and ivory and letters and bone to wars there for 40000 years old but look almost as if they were carved yesterday. apart from artifacts musical instruments and jewelry almost 80000 stone to. those

have been found here. this is a nice sort of sign if i'm buying schnitzel i it's not like an ivory carving can be done quickly on the contrary it takes many hours life so it's different to a pencil drawing where there's room for error and here every line you see was deliberately car and if there's a navel triangle the delicate fingers or slits all are intentional and by no means coincidental says absolutely this is of kind far out so far. to go to the shooting symbols were widespread in europe around 30000 years ago but the whole of those penis is much older dated back to more than 40000 years ago. this isn't evidence the mammoths were hunted instead it's played out early ancestors harvested ivory from already dead animals. things haven't changed all too much

today. sergei gorani is from russia he's the biggest importer of mammoth ivory in europe making him a modern day entrepreneur who source of income stems from primordial times unlike african ivory the sale of mammoth to is totally legal. there's another new customs regulation which is just incredible. now the form also asks you to confirm the mammoth ivory is not cat fur or cat hair cuts the heart of . it takes time to cut through all the red tape. gets if. it's late in the evening now and we're finally picking up a mammoth task here at the frankfurt airport cargo terminal. cargo which i know

from for a few crafts will come in which of every night i have to open the crates here. 17 prehistoric tusks prepared for sale by his russian friend nikolai. amid a ban on commercial trade in african elephant ivory the business with his ice age substitute. another just ideas are stored tasks in the back have all been completely restored stabilized under vacuum and then stabilized again in the pressure chamber. and then polished by hand afaik to perfection put me at. the international trade in ivory was banned in 1909 since then it's illegal to sell for through can i freely across national borders that little has changed every year around 30000 elephants are killed for ivory in africa poaching is

a profitable business. on the black market i kilos fictious up to $500.00. daniel stiles is an american conservationist based in kenya he spent years researching the transfers sonce and smuggling routes really good live free 80 percent of all goods in africa i transported i've learned. the controls apache corruption is commonplace between 2007 and last year 28 team. it looks like there has been something like. 5131778 kilograms of ivory going out of africa at $200.00 a kilo that's over a $1000000000.00. star says the assumption that banning ivory sales will stop

punching is based on until a simplistic western few point reaches an animal rights audiology he calls it unfair to an approach that threatens elephants more than an illegal trade would. is generally a western paradigm you might call it is that elephants have intrinsic value and because of that that they should not be used commercially the policies that emanate from that actually very much like neo colonial policies it's outsiders dictating to african africans how they're supposed to manage their elephants and other wildlife. and i pulled 2016 can you burned 106 tons of confiscated elephant tusks and rhinoceros phones following a campaign funded by international donations it was the biggest ever stop pile of ivory critics say the campaign lined the pockets of the ruling elite and that

destroying large quantities of such a rare commodity boosts its value encouraging more poaching they call it a waste of precious resources that you could use in illegal ivory trade that would take pressure off of elephants having to provide illegal ivory. sustainable solutions are needed to protect elephants in the wilderness they live in. one with the old women. german businessman bill fried past has a reputation for getting things done he's a passionate conservationist but the approach he advocates is controversial by setting cape town he feels a strong connection decent doctored homeland africa minor past your my passion for the african wilderness dates back to 1965 and my 1st photographic safari with some

light hunting in the okavango delta. that's when it all started dot com to us here in the early 1990 s. he stumbled on a tract of land in the salvati valley in southern symbolically. convinced that he and fellow an associate had recommended it to me he said you have always dreamt of building a big animal reserve someday with mr beaver you pretty. so we've polluted zimbabwe one morning and had a look and it was love at 1st sight like sango is the largest private reserve in symbolically it's partly funded from trophy hunting a controversial practice that he insists prevents poaching. as it's an income when we europeans sit in our conference rooms or in front of the t.v. sets and make ourselves out to be the great protectors rhino it's a nature conservation in africa but it's the same time for bit people down here to earn the money they offered us to pursue those goals in their own way. it smacks of neocolonialism. and it's arrogant to those at the top think they can dictate what's

good for nature conservation to those on the ground right invested in nashua. in a sense it is also in nature conservationist because of mammoth ivory is used instead of elephant i free then a few elephants have to die in africa is this against my having the documents that show the mammoth ivory wasn't cordage and to germany and i am you going to transport it within the european union eurovision me on does it justify being today were heading to paris to a gallery slash interior design shop which i did a lot of. the shop in the city center boasts an eclectic collection of expensive decorative objects the pristinely restored tusks of a woolly mammoth fit right in. the fall but the real profits from the trade in mammoth tasks don't come from luxury stores. that will.

be evened out to a classic trade fair in nuremberg centers around hunting shooting sports and security it's here that surrogate meets his key customers knife makers and in craven's who work with fossil ivory. i love working with artists and. i'm fascinated by what they do. do with mammoth ivory and the ways they use it or i also find it fascinating that this material still exists on earth today and that it is so old so i really value that the nation that they have ensured. every piece of burma thigh free is unique it's crafted into handles the hand forged knives made of damascus steel. most of the world's mammoth ivory comes from russia. moscow is the center of the international trade. so gag around the needs to refresh supplies if on god

we're on our way to see probably. he's one of the biggest mammoth ivory traders in russia if not the world and. the story leads to his collection of crystal wright treasures 2 mammoth skeletons both complete and restored to perfection. hundreds of tusks apart up on the floor and on the shelves. then market value is determined by the intactness the length and diameter and the state of the material so whether it's cracked and wet or dry the color of the bark is also important. this is influenced by minerals such as blue ion or dissolved in the permafrost soil and deposited over the course of thousands of years in the animal. the mix of if you really mean to me it takes a combination of

a whole lot of factors to achieve this blue color which is why blue mammoth bark is the most valuable on the market a marked. the tasks are harvested from the permafrost in the most remote parts of siberia north of the arctic circle where climate change is playing out in dramatic ways temperatures have been rising feelies. in the ice to thaw this reveals the remains of woolly mammoths and releases their tusks post of which i found around river banks. due to family and fish amid the constant movement of the permafrost as it expands and contracts with fluctuating temperatures the buried mammoth pieces and tasks are pushed along a path of least resistance and the path of least resistance is a river which is why you find so many mammoth parts at the river. and flows but that doesn't mean all the mammoths died there feel selfish go on with it. when it

comes to salvaging the treasures preserved in the tundra time is of the essence once the ice flows in the primeval tusks are exposed to air they quickly disintegrate into worthless fragments experts believe more than 100000000 mammoths could be still hidden in the permafrost if only a fraction of the tusks is preserved it could satisfy demand for ivory from china the world's biggest ivory consumer for years to come. will mean. a 2nd ivory warehouse is located some 40 kilometers outside moscow. the fragments of all shapes and sizes the stores here they might look worthless but they can be crafted into a precious commodity it takes an expert i to tell which pieces have potential nicholai one of russia's best ivory graves helps aleck's the viable fragments.

the pieces assaulted by whites. the purchase price is around $300.00 per kilo. more you. the tasks true glory is still concealed beneath the $200.00. but it only takes a few minutes work with an angle grinder and buff wheel to lay their potential bear the volume of the mammoth ivory market is hard to estimate it could be as much as 80 tons per he world wide each of surrogate the rounds ivory pieces is clearly identified by photographs catalogue numbers and corresponding certificates while imports into the european union are documented it's unclear how much mammoth ivory is secretly shipped into china from russia.

frankfurt is the 1st airport in europe to employ sniffer dogs to the detection of illegal ivory. custom dog's trainer d.j. keller has been trying to police animals for more than 20 years. by their borders as this dog is trained to sniff out your technique. if he doesn't find anything and we always let him find a suitcase that's been planted with material so he feels he's done a good job because. public relations director kristin mistrusts is often shocked by what passengers bring back from their travels. this is where we keep confiscated evidence snake wine is a typical souvenir or chameleon wine. this was an empty and hairy armadillo thanks to. the exhibits in this chamber of horrors just the tip of

a huge iceberg. here my job has come it's hard to believe but this is an era of an african elephant. this tusk of a smaller specimen and this land of washing and a femur of an african elephant conscient elephant that in 2017 nearly 13 and a half 1000 violations of the endangered species act were registered in frankfurt on line are free objects frequently pass undetected through luck each screening or indeed x. ray machines are no match for german shepherd neela's now those. there are no smuggled goods in this sort of luggage but she makes a b. line for a plat suitcase. why do you use of dogs trying to detect endangered spaces it international airports and seaports could help curb the illegal ivory trade significantly. so greg around it has no problem getting through

customs his documents are all know what are. the right. way. a portion of his shipment is destined for a card my our alias richie. richie only works with the finest material. is a master of scrimshaw and ancient technique of working with ivory. innuit an 18th century while as with the 1st to decorate bones and wild teeth with this method which in my is credited with reviving scrimshaw his popularity in europe just wasn't here to these folks admit what i'm doing here is one of the oldest lines of work in the world. you know people believe me or when i'm working with this material i feel

a magical connection to the mammoth that lives of tens of thousands of years ago thinking years for him if uses force only 50 and i think that's not so on like how the hunters and sharman spelt back when they were engraving and carving pieces for their rituals yet when cheats. carves tub lows of mammoth ivory using the finest of needles and pricks similar to a tattoo it's worked it requires patience devotion and perseverance up to $700.00 dots applies to inside one square millimeter up finally the engraving is tied with the ink c c off i often sit here at the microscope for 10 hours or longer staring out an enlargement of a couple of square centimeters i really become one with this ascii my mind kind of melts into the whole structure of it's if it's glance it's all. the endangered species act bands any use of african ivory mammoth ivory is the

perfect substitute even engraved it can be easily distinguished from african ivory through its characteristic pattern of course shrink the lines. into it it must appear that you see these cross-hatching you only get those and fossilized mammoth material it's neat. that means it can't be mistaken for elephant time every 40000 years lie between richey maya's work and stone age ivory figurines but the material used for both has maintained its appeal. to greed for ivory has driven africa's elephants into retreat. even the size of a valley in southern sudan is void of elephants they have been forced to make by for a giant cattle farm. it's here. we're on 600 square kilometers of learned it really past lives his wild life trains coming over

to the west from the hill we're standing on a land runs about another 45 kilometers upstream aided in flows over and over to the east it continues on for 27 kilometers all the way over to the saab a river but some such is also still on the property and as i did. from the moment he sort of fully pops could sense this terrains potential he was eager to return it to its natural state he rolled up his sleeves found international investors and spent a significant amount of his own fortune on the project. wild animals of all with disappeared from the terrain when village pups took it over he consulted biologists hired david goosen an experienced park ranger and relocated a variety of animals from neighboring mozambique to his reserve he says his is

a sustainable operation because it benefits local communities revenues from eco tourism and hunting finance sunga as parts named his game reserve. he would also like to sell his stockpile of ivory harvested from elephants that died of natural causes and beliefs he should be allowed to sell it. here in a function with about $400000.00 animals elephants are not really an endangered species although i to find the population decline from a $1000000.00 240-0000 dollars that's hard to bear. but you have to differentiate where it happened and why it happened it doesn't go home for example he stopped sustainable use in 1937 when it had over 160000 elephants 6 titles 12 years later only 17000 were left in the senate means 90 percent were wiped out in 12 years because the animals had not only lost their value to the local population but

were also threatening their meager agricultural yields that's wrong and completely different to our situation. within the space of 20 years pops to achieve something few before he managed a revival of the wilderness sancho today is home to numerous packs of extremely rare african wild dogs thousands of antelopes. nearly 100 lions. and about $900.00 elephants. the 6th sense is impressive but it is both a blessing and a curse in the animal problem we face in the world this human and just because we're trying to put animals into certain areas animals know when they're all impacting on the environment and that's a natural instinct. but now there's no way to move because all these

big world in a serious are surrounded by people and the animals if they moves they get killed and if they start too much and continued the world in us and so it's a vicious circle that we've got to try and manage. inside france to areas wildlife management is essential this is true of nature reserves elephants are the crowning glory of this wilderness they're wonderful unless you have too many of them. this vast area has enough space for 200 maybe 300 elephants around it if i have 600 to 900 at any given time and the. $3.00 to $600.00 too many to feel and they wreak incredible damage issue even that tall mopani trees have been snapped like matchsticks the ground become so eroded and hardened that nothing grows on it and whole swathes of land resemble a lunar landscape. 90 percent of the poem about trees some of which are

a 1000 years old have suffered massive damage to preserve the ecosystem part says the number of elephants needs to be regulated. you're happy to get a meal and we were granted permission to cull these elephants mixed in not as trophies ansari house so i could just call them. that's something i really don't want to do. algorithm we're negotiating to relocate 400 elephants to 2 other parks in zimbabwe. and i hope we can reduce numbers that way so all the opinion. parts already relocated $100.00 elephants to neighboring national parks and $26.00 steyn. sango success in reviving animal populations is based on a concept that shunned by most animal welfare organizations it combines wildlife management with sustainable tourism and hunting. local communities have

embraced the approach which is hardly surprising given that sancho directly or indirectly feeds some fish a 100 feet in the surrounding villages. elephants once rhymed much of the planet but over the last 2 centuries african savanna elephants have been decimated by the destruction of their habitat for farmland and the greed for i for a in europe america and asia. their numbers have declined from an estimated 20000000 to around 350000 elephants today. the result of a trend that's continued since europe's colonial exploitation of africa.

today the remnants of the once mighty herd survive only an isolated population south of the sahara. there is probably more ivory and art collections in asia and europe than the reason elephants still live in the wild. back aslam the old walk past was home to the german ivory museum and the late 19th century more than 800 tons of african ivory were shipped to europe every year. at a behringer is the scientific director of the museum where prize exhibits date back to the ivory boom of the 19th century. the subject this object is very special for 2 reasons i'm thirsty it's a fine depiction of

a key motive the abyad and the out and about like naming a hunting scene in jack and 2nd and you can clearly recognize the structure of the elephant tusk elephant store signs. by the 19th century machines could produce even very intricate objects a museum an air power house as one of the world's oldest functioning lights this was used to serially produced ivory pieces through the industrial revolution ivory objects became mass produced but not all the museums exhibits come from europe. happen here and quickly this is a ball that contains 23 more balls inside i mean i'll bite it went these were called chinese swears and were made in china from the middle of the 18th century for export to your us part now i hope i can defeat out in. one city in particular is famous for these ivory smears. one show.

2 with 12000000 inhabitants this metropolis in southern china is one of the people's republic smegma cities. the chinese call the region the factory of the world. ivory carving has a long tradition here its roots go back 2000 years. is world famous for its delicate serious which are turned in carved from solid ivory up to $45.00 finding chiseled wafer thin layers rotate freely around each other artisans he is specialize in a labyrinth carvings figurative millet shoes and scenes depicting rural life. true masterpieces of far eastern crossman ship.

the world was born in one show she has been keeping tabs on the city's illegal trade in wild animal products for over 5 years. the last 5 come here maybe last years there is a lot of my most ivory here in this market like the whole forest member i will leave here but like one years later now and then they're gone just like one or 2 live here also it looks at 1st glance but in the winding allies of the old town more shops sell ivory on closer inspection thoughts arise as to whether this is legal mammoth ivory. some of the tasks are to watch and smooth and the trade as a conspicuously cautious film is not welcome here using

a hidden camera we managed. to shoot high resolution video of the cross section of a tusk that has just been unpacked a later analysis shows it is african ivory. demand remains strong despite the trade ban china's burgeoning middle class can afford status symbols once reserved for the ladies including ivory. but many consumers don't know that elephants are killed for their tasks. symbiote was capital harare is one of the main hubs of the ivory business in africa . daniel styles has carried out extensive research on the international trade. he believes the assumption that international trade balance poaching is a widespread misconception and one that animal will for an organization is used to

their advantage. they take donations from the public through very emotive. public relations type campaigning but some claim that the old theory or motive is that they want money and they create a crisis together i think it's something to look into because it's been going on for 40 years now and yet we have 40 years of failure. we have 40 years of losing habitat 40 years of losing numbers of wildlife except in southern africa where they have consumptive use why are all these n.g.o.s campaigning for the model that failed. fine i'm free inside african countries like you in zimbabwe is still legal you don't need becomes illegal when ivory is song across borders. the one the difficulty is they use it by exporting i have already from zimbabwe so you find

we still have covered wars to a lesser but now for them to get the busiest that showed up for the 16 yeah i think with these becoming a challenge. they are doing. the orthodox way or for exporting ivory. horowitz home to some 10000 chinese citizens i'm from carvings frequently used in power in the knock each of chinese tourists and workers smuggling is the common way to get ivory out of the country. to main places that bought by far the most raw ivory out of africa was hong kong in japan. in the 1980 s. they knew this ban was coming because it was all the n.g.o.s were up in arms about it. so they started stockpiling that cause massive poaching which the engineers loved. one thing fed the other. the approaching

band led to more poaching which led to more pressure from animal rights groups and in 1909 international governments signed up to a trade ban on ivory after that hong kong and japan flooded the market with stop out artery all of the anti-trade people say look what happens when you have a bam it's wonderful prices drop poaching drops that's why we want our bad. but i free reserves in asia have synced window and poaching is on the rise again in theory tried in ivory is currently not possible but there appears to be little concern about bans the profits a to entice in. china with more than 1000000000 people being a huge market for i worry. hong kong is the heart for illegal ivory trade in asia cullen dawson is british and is looted for 30 years

he's the founder of the local organization elephant foundation and strictly opposes all ivory trading nice states a guy when the site is for the expanse of. the right to consumption of ivory at that time it was estimated that the ivory stockers should run out in all quality 1000 no hope yet we find in 2019. nearly as much ivory still rests. stocks are illegally replenished with goods shipped into hong kong's port this is the territories container terminal a gateway for all kinds of goods including smuggled ivory it has the capacity to handle $18000000.00 containers per year of volume of goods it's impossible to monitor trade in ivory was buried within china's national borders in 2018 but in hong kong an autonomous special administrative region the regulation doesn't take effect until 2021 every shop sells ivory is meant to. display problem that maybe

it's license to sell ivory and i can't see a license in the window here says it can sell libraries and just over the way here they have it all together much larger shop the shops are full of ivory out there how you. also are no media well oh well these. days. the government licenses that have been issued to try this is the 989 ban allow them to sell elephant ivory the have acquired before that tight but only with hong kong some shop owners only have stocks of mammoth ivory at least officially. i have mostly now on the mind of the class so a lot of ivory because it's the world people need to leave my father alone i love to call phobos our we are. we are poor here so.

most a still selling african ivory. tower. in the window well how much is that $120000.00 with which nationality is buying or ivory. or do i live overseas now and. it's simply not true that elephant ivory this song only to residents of hong kong traders pretend to be complying with the laws but secretly continue peddling elephant ivory is the success that ensures town really just a sham. of very much of the belief that the killing will only stop when the buying does so the demand has got to disappear. for 70 percent of people we speak we don't know an elephant dies to get its ivory in the.

minute they fully understand that they want nothing to do the ivory trade or so. spreading awareness is key to fighting the ivory trade con and also in hopes educating children can help. we go to schools in hong kong because we're very aware that children get very excited about this we also feel that many children don't have a preconceived idea of what they're thinking so they come in with an open mind open mind for discussion and we know they go home they talk to their parents about theirs and we know this has an effect on the way parents think. mammoth ivory is a substitute for which no living animal has to die. could a regulated trade uncertified ivory reduce the poaching pressure on africa's elephants. critics of the ivory trade ban say a western style approach to conservation has harmed wildlife in africa ignoring

traditional practices for animal management for the appropriate to the values of local cultures and imposing draconian punishments for poaching that to date with little to no success. there are many n.g.o.s out there who are really really good and their work was us whether that's save the rhinos in australia it's. in kenya it's r.u.c. and in kenya it's world wildlife fund there are lots of good guys but you know there are also enough bad guys and the bad guys to me to find a set of those who are against sustainable use which is the funding model for 75 percent of all areas in southern africa south africa southern africa. others the grossly defend the ban on ivory is an indispensable weapon in the fight to save elephants. we have seen in the past massive declines in elephant populations we saw poaching of up to 90 of

6 elephants a day a couple years ago because of the rampant ivory trade and the involvement of organized criminal networks we have to keep the ivory trade closed there is no way that the elephants of west africa central africa or east africa would survive if we allowed more ivory trade even legal trade from healthy populations in southern africa. but it's a fact that bans have not succeeded in juicing poaching so what is the solution. i went to the last conference in johannesburg. on the ground floor we had all those . animal rights risks and whatever tips i went to every single one of them i've got to make a large loss i've got to meet the elephants no answer i have a drought whatever you want us to stop the income from sustainable use or hunting

logs or. for conservation a struggle to find the right strategies to protect the elephants the animals numbers continue to decline fairly pap's says his experience on the ground has shown that in the face of rapid habitat loss elephants will only survive it conservation pays for itself and brings economic benefits to the local population. it's a complicated situation with no quick fix millennia old traditions like those in china do not change overnight and the ivory mafia won't give up its profits voluntarily. mammoth ivory could be part of the solution there are enough supplies for the time being and many chinese consumers ultimately don't care where their ivory comes from. but as long as there are a vested interest an explosion wildlife or financial gain africa's elephants face

an uncertain future. it's high time for a paradigm shift in wildlife conservation bans alone and not enough a unified sustainable approach is needed to ensure that these are not the twilight years of african elephants. ico africa. they have a bad reputation but they play a key role in the ecosystem. which is a very much important in cleaning up the environment we call them new toys and until many species are endangered a project in kenya seeks to protect the unloved scavengers that means above all

talking to local people eco now for. 30 minutes on t.w. . in the height of climate change. conference most of. what's in store for. morning news today for the future of the books e.w. dot com for the mega-cities to go multimedia insight could enter are they friends. or are they enemies by their board saracen. donald trump and the flooding here prove our 2 part documentary analyzes the difficult relationship between russia and the u.s. and between their presidents how does their rivalry and their dangerous mutual

admiration affect the rest of the world. bosom bullies trump and putin starts august 3rd on d w. is the day that we news like bumper let tensions run high and brussels as bitter negotiations over a corona fire. the stimulus package remained deadlocks e.u. leaders are haggling over a house of cards allowed a 750000000000 euro recovery fund the summit went into overtime last night and on the 3rd day of talks things got personal between the opposing camps also coming up to the. government controlled areas of syria a parliamentary election with strict measures to contain the spread of her own virus.