China contains wildlife smuggling

Anti-smuggling departments nationwide have investigated 2,130 cases of smuggling endangered animals and plants and their products, and seized 5,729.4 metric tons of involved endangered animals and plants and their products since 2012, said Sun Zhijie, head of the Anti-Smuggling Bureau of the General Administration of Customs, on Friday.

The anti- smuggling departments have carried out a series of special operations targeting the smuggling of endangered animals and plants and their products, including ivory, pangolin scales and rosewood, and busted multiple domestic and foreign criminal groups and shut down a number of online sales platforms, Sun said.

China's anti-smuggling departments have actively carried out international and regional law enforcement cooperation, participating five times in the international joint law enforcement action against trafficking in endangered wildlife launched by the World Customs Organization in the Asia-Pacific region, and seven times in the Interpol series of joint actions against illegal trafficking in endangered species.

Through the strict crackdown at home and abroad, the high trend of smuggling of endangered animals and plants and their products has been effectively contained, and countries and international organizations around the world have widely praised China's efforts to crack down on the smuggling of endangered animals and plants and their products, and to earnestly implement international conventions, he said.

China's anti-smuggling authorities have won the Environmental Enforcement Awards issued by the United Nations Environment Programme four times, and Clark R. Bavin Wildlife Law Enforcement Awards four times, according to the bureau.