"ELEPHANT GROWLS" "ELEPHANT TRUMPETS" "'Our most iconic African species are being pushed towards extinction, 'killed by poachers 'to supply an illegal trade worth up to £15 billion a year.'" "Oh, that's sickening." "'On the front line of this war are Africa's elephants, 'slaughtered for their ivory.'" "'Despite a ban on the international ivory trade, 'the killing is only getting worse.'" "'30,000 are shot every year, and if that continues, 'they could be gone from the wild within 25 years.'" "'I can't bear to think 'we might lose these wise and emotionally-intelligent animals.'" "Bulletproof for you..." "'So I'm investigating the violent and murky world 'of the illegal ivory trade.'" "'Who's doing the killing?" "'" " That is quite a weight of lead there, too, isn't it?" " Yes." "'And who's doing the buying and selling?" "'" "This is our guy." "'Are we, in the UK, part of the problem?" "'" "It's going to exactly the same market as the modern poached ivory." "'And if so, how can I prove it?" "'" "Six out of nine pieces, illegal." "'Armed with the facts and the evidence, 'it's time to do everything we can...'" " PROTESTERS YELL:" " Save our elephants!" "'..for Africa's elephants.'" "If we're going to stop the killing of elephants," "I need to understand the global trail of poached ivory." "It's spring 2016, and I'm responding to a call that could put me onto that trail." "At Heathrow, Customs have seized a consignment of fresh ivory." "It's been smuggled in suitcases by two passengers transferring through the airport." "This is our operational office." "'I've been invited, by Border Force's Grant Miller, 'to join zoologist Alex Rhodes as he takes samples from the ivory.'" "Goodness, it's all here." "This is just shy of 140 kilos of ivory that was detected at the UK border." "'This haul could fetch up to £120,000 on the black market." "'Some has been roughly worked into beads and bangles, 'but there are also raw tusks cut up into sections.'" "I didn't expect to see this in England." "I mean, this, to me, seems like a foreign problem, but it's here on our own ground." "This has something immediate and very brutal about it and... you know, this is dried meat, this is from inside the elephant's body, isn't it?" " Absolutely." " It's just..." "It even has a smell to it that suggests that this didn't happen very long ago." "A third of an elephant's tusk is embedded deep in its head, so the only way to remove it is by killing the animal." "You can see the hack marks here... where, with a knife or with a machete, they've used it to cleave the tusk away from the head of the animal." "That's right." "Part of Alex's work is to collect samples of recent seizures for DNA analysis." "What we're going to do here is we're going to take the meat off it." "It doesn't matter if it comes off in pieces." "Yeah, that's perfect." "'The DNA will be compared to a genetic map of African elephants 'to pinpoint where these animals were shot.'" "Is there a sort of quantity of material we're looking here for, Alex?" "Cos I'm not particularly relishing this task, I can tell you." "HUGH SIGHS" "If you look closely, you can see this is actually a skull here." "Oh, my God." "'The compiled data points to the latest poaching hot spots in Africa, 'which helps focus anti-poaching efforts on the ground.'" "Hugh, I think you're probably there." "HUGH EXHALES" "Well, that was horrible." "I just hope it's useful." "Well, don't we all?" "Don't we all?" "I didn't come here today expecting to scrape dead meat off an elephant's tusk." "I've never touched an elephant's tusk before and..." "I-I don't know, I came looking for..." "I don't know, some kind of insight or understanding and I actually feel now viscerally connected to the problem." "Last year alone, Border Force made 182 seizures of ivory in the UK." "Worldwide, the tusks of around 5,000 elephants were intercepted." "But that's just a fraction of the smuggled ivory that goes undetected to its destination." "I need to get to the grim starting point in the international trail of illegal ivory." "The DNA testing of ivory hauls, like the one at Heathrow, shows that 78% of recently poached ivory is from the savannah elephants of Tanzania and Mozambique." "So I'm heading to the heart of this killing zone... the Niassa Reserve in northern Mozambique." "It's vast - twice the size of Wales." "There's only the odd settlement and no big tourist industry." "In fact, very few people at all." "We've just dropped down through the clouds and the landscape just looks amazing here." "It's the wildest bit of Africa I've ever seen." "We really are in the middle of nowhere." "'The reserve is jointly managed by the Mozambican Government 'and the Wildlife Conservation Society.'" " Hi, Rob." " Hugh, welcome to the Niassa Reserve." "Thank you very much." "'Rob Craig is the reserve manager.'" " Popping in the back?" " Just jump in here, yeah." "'With the help of around 100 rangers, 'his job is to protect this huge area.'" "'To get a handle on the scale of the challenge, 'he's taking me up onto one of the spectacular outcrops.'" "I think that's the most incredible African view I've ever seen, Rob." " That's Niassa." " Yep." "There's wild dogs there, leopards, hyenas, antelopes." "You've got, obviously, the elephants and there's over 1,000 lions." "And why is it so special for Africa's savannah elephants?" "Um, I think it's just... it is one of the key refuges, one of the key wilderness areas, where elephants can roam in the wild still." "So, how bad has it been, then?" "I mean, obviously, we've lost a lot of elephants here." "In 2011, our estimate was about 12,000 elephants." " In Niassa?" " In Niassa Reserve alone... and we've now..." "In a count we did in 2014, exactly three years later, we had dropped to 4,441." "So nearly two thirds of the elephants" " have already gone in just the last three years?" " Mm-hm." " That's a tragedy, isn't it?" " Yep." "At the start of the 20th century, there were around 10 million elephants in Africa." "In 1989, with just 600,000 left, the world finally took decisive action." "Delegates from more than 100 countries have agreed to ban all trade in ivory." "The decision was taken at the United Nations..." "The price of ivory fell and elephant numbers actually began to recover." "But from the start of the new millennium, demand in Asia has boomed and poaching has returned to devastating levels." "ENGINE RATTLES, HUGH MOUTHS" "'Jamie Wilson runs the surveillance 'for a stretch of the reserve bordering Tanzania." "'He's offered to take me up in his microlight.'" "Wow, incredible view from up here!" "The microlight is a great tool for us to use, to see what's going on." "We've been seeing all the elephant signs, all these trails and tracks." " All those tracks are made by elephants, are they?" " Yes." "And because of the pressure of the poaching, they've become nocturnal and they're hiding now." "We should be seeing them now, but they're all hiding in the trees." "So, they've become much harder to spot since the poaching got really bad?" "In neighbouring Tanzania, across the river, over 60% of the country's elephants have been killed in just the last seven years." "As poachers there have found it harder to track down their target, they've come over into Mozambique." "My problem in this area is the cross-border poaching." "They hit and run across the border and I can't follow or do anything." "So, you're basically in the front line as the poachers come across from Tanzania?" "That's exactly the word I was looking for, the front line." "Yeah, we might actually see some elephants here," "I can see some signs." "There's a mud wallow right there, you can actually see it." "Oh, yeah." "I can actually see the elephants' footprints in the mud." "Ah, there's some, look." "You can see them running into those trees there." " Yeah, I can see them, yeah." " You can see their backs." "Yeah, four or five, just moving through the bush." "Wow." "My first Niassa elephants." "I can see them." "There they are." "Now that we've located some of the elusive Niassa elephants," "I'm hoping I might get closer to them." "(There we are.)" "(Wow.)" "(It's absolutely fantastic to see them.)" "(Now, there's something about elephants that's so universal." "(Familiar." "Everybody in the world knows what elephants look like." "(They've seen them on TV," "(they've read stories about them when they were kids." "(But to get this close to elephants that are truly wild" "(in such a beautiful place, there's nothing like it." "(My heart's thumping.)" "(We were just on our way back to camp" "(and in the last of the evening light...) (..we saw this young bull... (out here, chomping at the grasses, quite happy.)" "(But to me, away from the herd, out here on his own...) (..he somehow looks really vulnerable.)" "'The next morning, I find out just how vulnerable these elephants are." "'Rob wants to show me the reality of poaching, here, in the reserve.'" " This is where we start to walk?" " This is where we start." "So, we're going to head straight this way." "A few weeks ago, this village reported the sound of shots fired in the bush nearby." "Leading the way are the reserve rangers who first followed up the report." "I can smell dead things." "Wow." "Here we go." "Here we go." "'Part of Rob's work is to confirm the cause of death 'for any elephant carcasses reported by the rangers.'" "There's nothing left." "Nothing at all." "Every single bone...picked clean." "It's obviously been completely ravaged and torn apart by hyenas and vultures and predators." "FLIES BUZZ" "You're looking for, like, evidence of how it died and looking for bullet holes and..." "Is that any kind of...?" "That's not a bullet hole, is it?" " AK." "AK-47?" " Yes." "Yeah." "There's two shooters." " Two shooters." " The team would be bigger." "Of course." "'A typical gang will include a couple of men to cut out the tusks 'and carry them away." "'Between all of them, 'they'll probably share as little as £100 for their work.'" " One small tusk on a subadult." " Mm." "Either they're getting a very good price for their ivory, or they just don't mind what they shoot." "Yeah." " HUGH SIGHS" " Yeah." "I guess in some ways it's a relief that I wasn't confronted with a more grisly scene here of something that had happened... very recently." "But, unfortunately, there is a grisly scene playing out in my head and that's the scene of what actually happened here, when this young male with a single small tusk ran into a gang of poachers," "shooting him with at least six or seven shots and hacking out that one little tusk." "It's a horrible scene, it's a horrible thing to think about, but the real horror is that this isn't just ONE scene, this scene's being played out all over Africa, day after day," "30,000 times a year." "This will happen 80 times today in Africa." "I want to know WHO'S killing elephants so blatantly in a national reserve." "When I start asking around, one of Jamie's scouts, Gustavo, mentions a recent encounter with local Mozambique border guards." "Running for 350km along the edge of the reserve, the river Ruvuma marks the border between Tanzania and Mozambique." "The border guards are employed by the Government to monitor and patrol this boundary." "But Gustavo's story suggests there may be something else going on at this stretch of river." "To dig deeper, we drive to a nearby village where the local border guards are based, and one of them lets me through the checkpoint." "As tradition dictates, my translator Alberto and I go to talk to the chief first." "THEY SPEAK LOCAL LANGUAGE" "Have you heard about the problems of elephants being killed in the reserve and their ivory being taken away?" "Are people still coming into the reserve now to kill elephants or has it stopped?" "It feels to me that the chief knows more, but doesn't want to speak out." "With 8,000 elephants killed in their reserve in the last five years, the villagers must know something." "'And when Alberto does some discreet asking around, 'one local farmer says he IS prepared to talk to me.'" "So we can speak in private, Khamati suggests that we head to his fields." "Do elephants come here often, or not so much now?" "And who are the people who are coming to shoot the elephants?" "Do they live in the reserve or do they come from outside the reserve?" "So, Tanzanian poachers..." " Yes." " ..are coming over the river..." "Yes." "..and they pick up guns from the border guards?" "Khamati tells me that once the poachers have done their work, they hand the guns back to the border guards and smuggle the ivory across the river into Tanzania." "I don't want to create problems for the villagers by openly challenging the guards here... but I CAN test how well they're monitoring illegal crossings of the border." "There's no official border point here, so I wonder what'll happen if I try and cross, clearly in their view, without any papers." "We're nearly halfway." "What sort of things do people bring across the river?" "They can bring some crops, bicycles, motorbike." " Motorbikes?" " Yes." "Things to buy and sell." "OK." "Tanzania, we're nearly there." "Ooh..." "Salama!" "I'm on Tanzanian soil." "Well, that was easy." "If you want to get illegal ivory across the river into Tanzania and away, it couldn't be easier." "Who's going to stop you?" "The people who should stop it, the border guards, they're involved." "So, what hope is there for the elephants of the Niassa Reserve that I've been with for the last couple of days, that I've seen looking so stunning in that incredible landscape, but also lying slaughtered in the bush?" "The slaughter's just going to go on." "Once across the river, the ivory flows into a well-established web of traffickers, travelling north through Tanzania." "At each stage, it's passed up the criminal chain." "Evidence suggests it can often be handed on from Tanzanians to Chinese kingpins, who know it can fetch up to £1,000 a kilo on the Asian market." "It's hard to get a fix on the ivory during this murky journey... until it reaches a pinch point as it leaves the continent." "And a mountain of evidence suggests that Kenya is one of the key exit points." "I'm on my way to Mombasa port because it's clear that a lot of ivory is getting out through Mombasa." "In fact, in the last year, there've been two enormous seizures, but they weren't actually at the port, they were at the other end, on arrival - one of them in Thailand and the other in Singapore." ""Thailand seizes 500 elephant tusks worth £4 million, which were hidden" ""in sacks of tea leaves on a ship from Kenya."" "So, they got through Mombasa without being detected." "And I want to find out just how leaky this port is." "Mombasa is the busiest port in east Africa, with over a million containers passing through here every year." "The port authorities are notoriously sensitive about journalists." "But I have managed to get permission to film with the sniffer dog squad." " Hi, Mark." " Hello." " Hello again." "'Mark Kinyua is in charge 'of the unit of two dogs and their handlers.'" "Thank you." "Good to meet you." "'Diva and Rum can detect the faintest scent of ivory." "'But there are thousands of containers 'passing through here every day 'and these two dogs also have to cover the airport 'and a long stretch of the Kenya coastline.'" "Ah, it's wood. 100% wood." "Incredible smell!" "How many days a week are you here with your dogs?" "Yesterday we were here, so sometimes we come four days in a week, three days in a week, depending on the amount of work outside." "And what's the biggest number of containers you would look at in a single day's work?" "Perhaps...four or something..." " OK." " Yes." "So, two, three, four days a week..." " Two, three, four containers a day." " Exactly." "Customs and the port's X-ray container scanning unit decide which containers to send for further checks by the dogs." "So, how much success have you had with the sniffer dog team, here, in Mombasa port?" "Isn't part of the problem here that it's a tiny amount of containers that you're actually searching?" " I mean, 15 or 20 a week at the most?" " Exactly." "You've just seen - how many containers are we going through...?" "I think three, four now." "Three or four this morning, and none of them are destined for Asia." " And none of them are destined for Asia." " All right." " Yes, yes." "It's clear to me that Mark and his dogs are looking for needles in haystacks and I don't think they're being given the right haystacks to look in." "Now that I'm inside the port," "I've got a chance to do a bit more digging." "I tracked down the X-ray scanner that's meant to be checking containers at one of the main entries into the port." "Well, we're just outside the scanning unit here." "It's this big shed." "The really interesting thing is that there's a huge queue of containers there to go into the port and it doesn't really look as if a lot of them are being diverted through the scanner." "Hi." "'It's not long before our camera 'attracts the attention of the head of scanning.'" "I'm Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall from the BBC." "'With a little encouragement, 'he agrees to show me how his scanner works.'" "So, what we shall do..." "I'll scan an import consignment," " because this is an import consignment." " OK." "'He instructs one of the lorries to drive through the scanner.'" "Come and see, come and see." "OK, I think it's pretty obvious what's in that one!" "'The scanner can clearly be an effective tool." "'The question is - how's it being used?" "'" "So, I'm just trying to establish what the percentage of full containers leaving Mombasa is being scanned." "What normally happens is that there's no container that is completely exempt from scanning, but for the authorised economic operators, who we normally select at a random basis, yeah...?" " Ah." " ..a number of their containers for scanning." "Ah." "So, authorised economic operators, is that mainly tea companies?" " Tea." "Tea." " Only tea?" " Tea." " It's tea?" "We're talking about tea?" "So, everything's scanned except the tea companies, who are tested on a random basis?" "It's interesting that two loads of ivory were intercepted in Thailand and Singapore that had come from Mombasa and they were both in consignments of tea." "I will not respond to that." " You don't want to talk about that at all?" " I don't want to talk about it." "How confident are you personally that no ivory is leaving Kenya through the port of Mombasa - either in the last few months and it won't happen for the next few months?" "100%. 100%." "I find it hard to share the head of scanning's confidence about that." "Even when the scanner IS working, the exemption of certain companies from routine scanning is clearly a problem." "Especially as they deal in the very product in which large hauls of ivory have twice recently been found..." "Tea." "CAR HORNS BEEP" "We've been putting some feelers out and we've been in touch with a few local journalists, trying to find out a bit more about what's really going on at the port and one of our contacts has come back, saying he's found someone" "who works at the port who might be prepared to talk to us and could throw some light on the whole situation." "'We've agreed a rendezvous at a mall car park.'" "OK." "Let me just walk over... ..and get in the back." "'The source - 'who's directly involved with checking containers at the port - 'is extremely nervous.'" "Good afternoon, it's..." "I'm Hugh." "'We agree to relocate to somewhere less conspicuous.'" "Do you...?" "Do you mind if I ask you a few questions then?" "How do you think it might be possible that people are managing to get ivory through the system at Mombasa port, past the scanners and past the inspections?" "Do you want to park here and we can just continue to chat?" "So, the containers that are vulnerable are the ones from the big companies," " that it's the same over and over again." " Exactly, because..." " It's like the routine." " Mm-hm and..." "What about when it gets to the port?" "Somebody at the port must know that that particular container mustn't be scanned." "People can be induced not to scan the container?" "This isn't evidence against any particular individual, but it does suggest the billions being made in this trade buys enough turned heads at international borders like Mombasa for tonnes of ivory to get through." "From here, the vast majority of smuggled ivory makes its way east towards Asia..." "..where one city has long been a central hub for the Asian ivory trade." "Ivory has been part of the culture here for centuries." "But modern consumption really began to take off under the British administration, during the boom years of the Hong Kong economy from the 1960s onwards." "By 1987, Hong Kong's ivory workshops were consuming over a third of the world's raw ivory." "I'm just heading out for a little explore." "A bit of Hong Kong antiques window shopping." "I just want to get a feel for what's on offer in this famously cosmopolitan city." "The international ban in 1989 was meant to stop the flow of fresh African ivory." "But, here in Hong Kong, there's still a legal domestic trade in pre-'89 ivory, with 371 businesses licensed to sell it." "So, where's all this ivory coming from?" "Have the traders found ways of beating the ban?" "Of laundering newly-poached African ivory?" "Can we come in?" "Is it OK to come in and do a little bit of filming?" " No, no, no." " No?" " No." " Why not?" "This trader isn't at all keen to talk to me, and quickly shuts up shop." "In fact, most of the traders here are clear about their attitude to cameras." "Then, in a row of smart antique shops," "I see a particularly spectacular window display." "Wow." "That is staggering." "It's just incredible craftsmanship." "Ivory is clearly a remarkable material, and the sheer skill and time required to work it explains why some of the larger pieces here are priced at over 1 million US dollars." "But this isn't elephant ivory." "Mammoth tusks." ""Our artworks are carved out from rare mammoth tusks" ""that have been frozen for tens of thousands of years."" "Mammoth ivory is entirely legal here." "So is elephant ivory from before the 1989 ban." "And here is a problem." "Because - if it's recently carved - mammoth ivory, pre-1989 ivory and freshly poached ivory all look the same." "Customs seizures here suggest that new ivory is regularly being smuggled into Hong Kong." "It seems possible that Hong Kong traders could be passing off" "African poached ivory as the legal stuff." " Hi, Alex." "How are you?" " How's it going?" "'For clues on how they might be able to do this," "'I'm meeting up with Hong Kong wildlife campaigner Alex Hofford.'" "I guess what I can see straight away, just wandering round, is that it's a little bit of a minefield, what's legal and what's isn't." "But I imagine, if I walk into a shop, someone's going to tell me that it's legal." "Yeah, I mean, that's the thing." "It's that it's actually very, very difficult for law enforcement, for the media, for NGOs and for the public, for anybody to really understand what the hell's going on." "Is it pre-convention, or is it from after 1989?" "Who knows?" "And it's a big mess right now." "So, what we know has been happening is that..." "The amount of ivory that was in Hong Kong at the time of the ban in 1990 was 670 tonnes." "OK?" "And then it went down quite sharply and then it plateaued out." "And it's been plateauing ever since." "And the reason it's plateauing is because the traders have been feeding poached ivory from Africa into their existing stockpiles." "And so that's where the laundering's been going on." "They're buying from the criminal networks, perhaps the Triads..." "Right?" "..who are then buying from the other Triad groups in Africa, who are buying it off the poachers." "So that's the supply chain." "How many traders or shops have been successfully prosecuted and put out of business for selling illegal ivory?" " None." " Not one?" "Not one, no." "There's a lot of loopholes." "You know, the traders, they basically know how to play the game." "They've been playing the game since 1989 and so they know every trick in the book." "'To connect the Hong Kong ivory trade 'with the killing of African elephants," "'I need to prove that the shops here 'are constantly restocking their shelves with fresh ivory." "'I can't really do that with a camera crew in tow, 'so I'm going undercover.'" "So I'm going ivory shopping." "But to do that convincingly, I need a cover story." "And this is it." "My name's Hugh Edmund, and I've started a business called Far Flung Foods." ""Exotic foods and gifts for adventurous spirits."" "But the real connection between Far Flung Foods and ivory all boils down to one thing." "Chopsticks." "'My cover story is that I'm in the market for a lot of ivory chopsticks 'as gifts for my best clients.'" "Hi, come on in." "Have a seat." "'My undercover partner 'and translator for the day is local campaigner Willy.'" "So, here's the next thing." " We need to do some secret filming in there." " OK." "And I've got one very simple bit of kit, which I'd like you to use." "So we're recording now." " In fact, we're probably pointing at our crew here." " OK." "If you're happy to wear this, we should get very clear sound from both you and whoever we talk to." " So, if you pop that in your pocket." " Yeah." " OK?" " Yeah." "Perfect." " Let's do it." "DOOR CHIMES" " Morning." "Thank you." "AUTOMATED VOICE:" " 'Hello." "Welcome.'" " Hello." " Hi, how are you?" " I'm good, thank you." "Do you sell ivory chopsticks?" "Yes, we do." "So, I have a business." "OK, yes." "Yes." "OK, yeah." "And so I might want quite a lot." "Sure, sure, yes." "No problem at all, yes." "Maybe 50 pairs to begin with." "And this is elephant ivory, not mammoth?" " Yes." " It's elephant?" " Elephant." " OK." "Do you think this would be easy for me to take this back to the UK?" "4am?" "4am, Heathrow?" " No customs?" " Yeah, yeah." " Very clever." "'It's a useful tip if you're smuggling ivory into the UK." "'Which is, of course, illegal.'" "How are you?" "Are you mostly mammoth, or mostly ivory here?" "These look good." "So, I might want quite a lot." "Like, maybe 50 pairs." "OK." "Thank you." " Hi." " Hello." "I'm interested in buying quite a lot of chopsticks." "What does that literally say there?" "This is from the Congo?" "Is this new ivory?" "Before 1989?" "So the ivory's old, but are the chopsticks new?" "That went well." "A huge amount of product in there." " Yeah." " Huge." "I mean, thousands of figurines." "He said he's got a factory." "You know, the implication is that they're churning that stuff out, they can do it to order." "They've got a factory ready to pump out new pieces of ivory on demand to a customer's designs." "How's that possible 25 years after the Hong Kong stockpile of ivory was supposed to stop growing in any way, shape or form?" "I need to find out where these fresh supplies are coming from." "But my cover story's taken me as far as I can go, and I need some more help." "Thanks so much for coming, guys." "'Ray and James - not their real names - 'are undercover operators ready to pose as credible buyers 'from the biggest Asian market of all - 'mainland China.'" "I think my opportunities as a Westerner are really limited." "If they're going to open up, they need to have a sense that they're talking to someone who's a bit of a player, who's interested in doing a bigger bit of business with them." "And you guys are going to fit that bill so much better." "OK, so you basically want to buy tusks." "Yeah, I mean that's going to cut straight to the chase." "It's a camera pen." "I've got a little mic pack here, with a light wire." "Really, really straightforward." "Really look forward to catching up with you later." " Good luck, guys." " Good luck." " Yeah." "Seriously." "While Ray and James hit the shops undercover," "I'm going for the best open interview I can get - the company secretary of the Hong Kong Ivory Manufacturers Association has agreed to be filmed at his workshop." "Thank you very much for inviting me in." "His name is Daniel Chan." " Mammoth?" " Yeah." " OK." " This is mammoth material." " This is mammoth tusks, is it?" " Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." " Let's have a little look at them." " Yeah." "This is all mammoth?" "Yeah." " Is this also mammoth?" " Yes." "Right." "I'll take your word for it." "I've seen your figures, your carvings," " in the cases on the way in." " Yeah, yeah, yeah." "Where is that ivory from?" " Well, let's have a look at it, and you can tell me." " OK." "OK." " Mm." "This is all elephant ivory?" " Yeah." "So when were these made?" "I really don't think so." "These pieces are new." "Because there's just..." "They didn't have that plastic wrapping technology in 1990." "Your telling me these pieces were made before 1990?" "OK." " These two?" " These also." "He made these pieces?" " Yeah." " Really?" "In 1990?" " Er, yeah." "So, all these really fresh, new-looking pieces, shrink-wrapped in plastic, were made by your father?" "It just seems very unlikely to me." "You're saying you have bought no ivory from elephants since 1990?" "None?" "Zero?" "Yeah?" "Really?" "Preconvention ivory from Europe?" "Can you buy that?" " Yes." " That's legal?" "Yes." "Now." "Now." "Have you bought European ivory yourself?" " Yes." " When?" " You were buying and selling European ivory last year?" " Yeah." "How can you prove that this ivory is preconvention or pre-1990?" "How can you prove it?" "DANIEL SIGHS" "So, you bought this preconvention ivory and it's from Europe?" "Yeah, licensed." "You read for yourself." "Country of re-export, the Netherlands." "And the country of origin is Mozambique." " Here." " "Preconvention specimen acquired during 1960 to 1970."" " Yeah." " Pretty vague." "It's been stamped, er... ..and licensed for re-export at the Hague." "If that's a legal document, why are you snatching it away from me?" "You are not my customer." "And even now, I don't know, who are you?" "Nonsense!" "You wanted to show me your licence, so I thought you were happy for..." "I showed you." "I have a licence." " OK, so I thought..." " Because you are not my customer." "I cannot show to you." "This is private." " I thought you..." " Secret." "OK?" "'I think our conversation has reached its conclusion." "'But I have discovered one of the ways that ivory shops in Hong Kong 'are being re-stocked." "'And it's one which clearly has the potential 'to launder poached ivory, too.'" "So, it seems that you can bring ivory into Hong Kong if it's preconvention ivory and particularly from the EU, there's...a paperwork, a system, that allows you to bring it in." "So, they can bring in EU ivory and rework it and sell it legally." "You know, I feel pretty uneasy about that." "I mean, that's basically... the idea that Europe's off-loading its stocks of ivory that it's no longer particularly interested in, in order to make money and, at the same time, fuel the ivory trade." "OK, it's legal, but it's still perpetuating the supply of ivory to Hong Kong and adding extra possible cover for illegal imports." "I don't think that's a very responsible thing for the EU to be doing." "Ray and James are back from their undercover trawl, and I'm wondering if they've unearthed any evidence of recently-poached African ivory." "I've got you back lit again." "Can't wait to see what you've got." " Yes." " And, er..." "Any good?" " Yeah." " Let's have a look." "We went to shop number three and we just asked," ""We want some raw material for ivory tusks."" "This is the boss?" "This is ivory here, isn't it?" "That's a lot of ivory." " Oh, my God." "Can I pause it there?" " Yes." "Wow." "That's a lot of ivory." "That was just lying on the floor?" "Wow." "So that's also from Europe?" "Old ivory from Europe again - dozens of whole tusks this time." "Like Mr Chan, this dealer says it's legal." "But what's shocking here is the scale of it." "He's got access to 200 tonnes of ivory in France." " Yes." " All old ivory." "All old ivory." "It seems that quite a lot of people in Europe are selling their ivory and quite a lot of it's ending up here in Hong Kong." "It certainly sounds a less risky way to bring ivory into Hong Kong than bringing freshly-poached African ivory." "But it could also be a cover for freshly-poached African ivory." "Fascinating and, I think, really useful stuff." "Thank you so much." " Thank you." " Real pleasure working with you." " My pleasure." "The ivory trade here is clearly being replenished and fuelled by material coming from right under our noses in Europe, and all apparently legal." "With Hong Kong's lax enforcement - zero prosecutions to date, remember - it would be so easy to quietly add recently-poached African ivory to your pile of recently-imported European ivory." "I'm on my way to the airport." "I'm flying back to the UK tonight, and I've literally just downloaded a video clip, sent by one of our contacts in Hong Kong, of some undercover filming they did." "And it's quite clearly the same trader who was talking to my guys from the mainland about the European ivory." "It's the same office, same guy." "And, actually, here you can just see it's the same tusks." "So it must be very recently." "But in this clip, he says quite clearly here," ""I can get ivory from Africa any time." ""And I can sell it to you."" "So, the question I've been pondering, about whether this preconvention European ivory that's being imported legally into Hong Kong could be being used as cover for illegal African ivory, seems to be answered here." "He's selling European ivory, he's offering to sell African ivory." "The two are being mingled by the same dealer, in the same office." "And if he's doing it, it seems likely others are doing it, too." "The sheer quantity of European ivory reaching Asia has been a real eye-opener." "And my next question is, "How much of it's coming from the UK?"" "Historically, we've certainly been deeply involved with the ivory trade." "In this London warehouse, where tusks have been coming in since the days of Charles II, the latest consignments are cut up for the first stage of their transformation into ivory-backed brushes, mirrors and combs." "To satisfy the fancies of an expanding middle class, between 1860 and 1920, Britain imported the tusks of an estimated 1.1 million African elephants." "That's more than twice as many elephants as are alive in Africa today." "The sale or export of raw ivory is now banned in the UK." "But, surprising as it may seem, the trade in antique ivory pieces is still legal." "Although the Conservative Party promised to press for a total ban on the UK ivory market in both their 2010 and 2015 manifestos, here we are in the summer of 2016, and it still hasn't happened." "And you can find ivory pieces on sale all over Britain - in auctions, antique shops and increasingly online." "So who's doing the buying?" "And where does UK ivory end up?" "Come in." "'I've asked auctioneer and TV antiques expert James Lewis 'to help me take a look at the market.'" "Just have a seat." "I've been looking at some of the online auctions that you mentioned." "What's your estimate of how many ivory pieces get sold in the UK in the average week?" "500 to 1,000 pieces, I should think." " Really?" " Yeah." " So, sort of 20,000 to 50,000 pieces a year?" "Really?" "Do you have any sense of who the buyers normally are?" "Yeah, as an auctioneer, when you're on the rostrum, you see the live bidding numbers flashing up on your screen." "And in the top right-hand corner, there's a code." "A country code." "So you know exactly where those bids are coming from." "And when you get a solid block - something carved, that has a weight to it - that's where the Chinese and Vietnamese are buying it." " So they're ending up on sale in the same countries that are..." " Yeah." " ..that have a high demand for illegal ivory." " Yeah." "Tell me exactly what the rules are here." "I mean, people selling this, what are they allowed to sell?" "What are they not allowed to sell?" "Anything really pre-1947 is legal to sell." " That's the critical date?" " That's the rule." " I mean, some of them, it's not really clear how old they are at all." "They don't even necessarily put a date on anything here." "Yeah, see that's the problem." "It is so difficult." "It's not like a piece of silver that has a hallmark, where you can say," ""That dates to that year."" "And when it's so difficult, it's difficult to enforce the law and it's difficult to ensure that you're not breaking the law." "'I show James what's on sale over the next couple of days." "'I'm wondering if he can spot any pieces 'that might be breaking the law.'" "Let's just scroll down and stop at anything that you think looks particularly interesting, James." "I mean, here's a solid ivory piece." "I'm quite suspicious of that." "It's got the pale colour, it's got the inked beard." "It-it hasn't faded at all." "So, if I wanted to prove beyond doubt that there is illegal, post-1947 ivory being traded in the UK on sites like this, buying this piece and getting it dated could prove that?" " Yeah." "It's worth giving it a go." " OK." "'This piece is one of dozens being auctioned live online today.' 60. 70." " AUCTIONEER:" " 'Five.'" " Do you want to bid?" " Yeah." " Somebody's also very keen on this piece." " Yeah." "Do you want to go to 140?" "We're going up in tens now." "Yeah." "'140." "Internet there, 140.'" " Ooh, they're telling us we've won." " GAVEL BANGS" " Yep, there we go." " Oh, we've got it." "Gosh." " OK." "'With the help of James's keen eye," "'I buy several more pieces that look a bit suspect.'" "Available for..." "'I'm sending them off for the one test 'that can prove their age and legality beyond doubt." "'Radiocarbon dating.'" "It will be interesting to see how old this piece turns out to be, but there's really no question that European ivory is heading over to China and other Asian countries, where it's continuing to stimulate a market" " that definitely includes illegal ivory." " Yeah." "Exactly the same market as the modern poached ivory." "So how much UK ivory is making its way to Asia?" "Official figures from the Hong Kong Government show that, last year, over 2,500 pieces of UK ivory arrived in Hong Kong alone - more than twice as many as the previous year." "The radiocarbon dating work on my UK ivory purchases is complete." "So I'm heading to Oxford University to meet Professor Chris Ramsey for the big result." " Chris." "Hi." " Ah, hello." " How are you?" " Very nice to meet you." " Very nice to see you." "How's it going?" " Good." "Oh, and here they are." "Yes, that's right." "So these are the ivories." "So you've taken a tiny amount of ivory from each object." "What have you done with it then?" "Yeah, so that powdered ivory is just purified and converted into a form that we can then measure it on our accelerator mass spectrometer." " The accelerator mass spectrometer?" " That's right." "This vast machine collects and counts the carbon-14 atoms from our samples, which will give us the date when the ivory being tested was still growing on a living elephant." "Just to be clear, I'm looking for anything that's post-1947." "I'd like to start with the piece that's described as 17th to 18th-century here." "What does your carbon testing tell us it is?" "Right." "That date is coming through at 1972 to 1974." " You're kidding!" " With a very small probability in the 1960s." "So it's definitely after 1950." "Wow." "OK." "On to the tiger." "So, this is one which is probably pre-1950." "It could be anything from about sort of 1700, later." " But quite likely Victorian period." " OK." "What about this African lady's head?" "That's one is the most likely, 1978 to 1980." "Really?" "Late '70s." "Wow." "OK." "'The date proves that this ivory piece is illegal in the UK." "'But it's not the date when the elephants died." "'It's when the ivory actually formed in the elephant's head." "'So these illegal pieces could have come from animals 'that died much more recently.'" "Lastly, this sort of lantern, candle burner." "So this is either sort of '62, '63, or the 1980s - 1980, '82." "Another illegal piece of ivory." "So, four out of nine pieces definitely illegal, shouldn't be on sale." "And another two, even though the ivory's older, are illegal by virtue of being recently reworked." "I don't know about you, Chris, but I find that pretty extraordinary." "It shouldn't really be for sale at all." "These results are really shocking." "This is modern ivory." "It could be from elephants that were killed in Africa in the last ten years." "That's worrying enough." "But, actually, I think the real problem is the sheer quantity of UK ivory that's now streaming into the Asian market." "More than 2,500 pieces arrived in Hong Kong last year." "This ivory's all going to restock and stimulate the same Asian market that we know is selling poached ivory from Africa." "I think that makes us part of the problem." "Now, we have a government who's pledged twice now to end the UK ivory trade." "So why hasn't that happened?" "I think we deserve an answer to that question." "And I'm going to make it my business to get one." "'Next time, I venture into the murky world of illegal wildlife dealers.'" "He's just sent us a picture of 1 million worth of rhino horns." "'Following the scent deep undercover in Vietnam.'" "I can see straight away that this is real." "Real, yeah." "'I experience the war on poaching first-hand.'" "I guess this is it." "I'm on the front line now." "'And back home...'" " Good." "Nice to see you again." " Good to see you." "'..the case against the UK ivory trade hots up.'" "Here is our government finally saying something about ivory, and spectacularly missing the point." "'So I take the fight all the way to the top.'" "Minister." "Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall." " Oh, hello." "Hi." " How are you?"