China's ivory ban could be just the game-changer elephants need

African elephants, the largest land mammals on Earth, can grow up to 13 feet tall from toe to shoulder and weigh 14,000 pounds. That's why when you hear a story like Zimbabwe exporting 20 elephants to game parks in China, the first thing that comes to mind is: What kind of airplane carried that shipment?

As reported by Bloomberg news, the elephants arrived safely in China on Sunday, sent there ostensibly as a measure to protect them from poachers as well as ease tensions caused by the elephants' foraging rampages through local community farms and Zimbabwe's magnificent Hwange National Park.

The elephants were sold for between $40,000 and $60,000 each and Zimbabwean Environment Minister Savious Kasukuwere said there was nothing wrong with the transaction. "This is part of elephant conservation," he said. "Everything is above board and in line with the law."

But the International Fund for Animal Welfare's southern Africa office said in a statement that the Zimbabwean government had ignored the protests and pleas from animal rights groups to stop the sale. The groups said they were concerned about how the elephants were rounded up, with calves being separated from their mothers, and that the elephants will spent the rest of their lives in captivity.

Hunted to the brink of extinction for their ivory, African elephants are an endangered species with an estimated 470,000 left in the wild in 37 countries and two-thirds of those in the southern African countries of Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, according to the African Wildlife Foundation.

Whether a colony of African elephants in Asian can actually act as a hedge against species oblivion is debatable, although Chinese scientists have done well by the Giant Panda.

Meanwhile The Associated Press reports other efforts going on simultaneously to help Africa’s mighty tusker.

Mozambique on Monday destroyed a mountain of confiscated ivory and rhino horn to join the worldwide effort to curb severe poaching and protect some of its iconic tourist attractions. The event showed the government's "commitment to a zero tolerance for poaching of our natural resources," said one conservation official.

A total of 5,370 pounds of ivory and 440 pounds of rhino horn were destroyed.

Conservationists say the number of elephants in Mozambique has dropped nearly 50 percent to about 10,300 in the last five years because of poaching.

Mozambique's rhino population has been virtually wiped out.

On another front, Thai customs officials on Monday seized 550 pounds of ivory hidden in two wooden crates labeled "marble pieces" being shipped from Congo to Laos via several countries in between. Thai officials got a tip when the crates left Addis Ababa airport in Ethiopia and began tracking it.

Packed in suitcases inside the crates was $295,000 worth of ivory. It was the 11th ivory seizure the Thai Customs Department has made this year.

Just last week, the United States and China announced that they want to increase cooperation in fighting wildlife trafficking and are working to end commercial ivory trading, US Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said in Beijing after meeting with Vice-Premier Wang Yang and Forestry Administration head Zhao Shucong.

Both officials said that the Chinese government intends to end ivory trade in China, the world's top market for illegal ivory, she said.

Experts have argued for years that the legal ivory market in China has provided a cover for a thriving black market that is blamed for the frenzied poaching of African elephants.

Jewell told reporters that Beijing has not set a timeline to ban the trade and wants to close legal loopholes and step up law enforcement before a total ban can be feasible.

The US, also a major market for illegal wildlife products, is getting close to introducing new rules that would ban ivory trading with some exceptions, such as documented antiques and ivory products with legal paperwork, Jewell said.

She said cooperation between the world's two largest economies to fight wildlife trafficking is gaining interest and a sense of urgency from both governments and that it could be placed on the agenda when Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with President Barack Obama later this year in Washington.

Conservationists have hailed as a possible game-changer China's pledge to stop the ivory trade in a country whose vast, increasingly affluent consumer market drives elephant poaching across Africa.

Now they are said to be waiting in suspense for China to outline how and when it would ban an industry that criminal syndicates use as cover for their illicit tusk running.

"The fact that China is now talking about shutting down its own market could be huge," Ginette Hemley, senior vice-president of wildlife conservation at the World Wildlife Fund, said.

Though a total ban was not "something that can happen overnight", Hemley said, and it should be implemented carefully to prevent criminal groups funneling as much ivory as possible through the legal system before it ends.

China is still trying to figure out the best way to implement an ivory ban, according to Peter Knights, executive director of San Francisco-based WildAid.

"I think that is the single greatest step that could be done to reduce the poaching in Africa," Knights said in a telephone interview from Tanzania, whose elephant population has plummeted because of poaching.

As for that type of airplane that transported the elephants, no word anywhere on its size.