DENR to return P74-M rhino horn

MANILA, Philippines - The Department of Environment and Natural Resources is seeking to return P74 million worth of rhinoceros horns to their country of origin, a DENR official said yesterday.

Director Theresa Mundita Lim of the DENR’s Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) said they would coordinate with Mozambique for the possible return of the specimens.

“Should the African state refuse to accept them, they would be disposed of properly or possibly destroyed,” she said.

Lim received the horns yesterday from the Bureau of Customs (BOC), which seized the specimens at the Manila International Container Port in September 2012. They had been declared as cashew nuts and shipped by Chistevas Import and Export from Maputo City, Mozambique.

The BMB is responsible for the implementation of the Philippine commitment to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna, an international treaty developed in 1973 to regulate commercial trade in certain wildlife species, including the critically endangered rhinoceros.

The Wildlife Resources Conservation and Protection Act also designates the BMB’s Wildlife Rescue Center as depository of seized wildlife specimens, their derivatives or by-products.

In June 2013, the DENR destroyed at least five tons of smuggled elephant tusks using a road roller, making the Philippines the first country in Asia to physically destroy the tusks to support efforts to stamp out the illegal trade in ivory.

The pulverized tusks were later incinerated and the ashes used to construct an elephant monument installed at the Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center.