BANGKOK, Oct. 6 (Xinhua) -- Thailand's Wildlife and Plants Protection Division on Friday announced that Thailand has been removed from an international watch list of eight countries of primary concern in the illegal ivory trade.
The decision was made at the 70th meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) standing committee that was held from October 1 to 5 in Russia.
Somkiat Sunthornpitakkul, director-general of the Department of National Parks, Wildlife and Plants Conservation's Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora Division, said that Thailand's success was the result of the governments effort in implementing strict measures in preventing and suppressing African ivory smuggling into Thailand.
Thailand was one of eight nations that CITES marked as a source, transit or destination country of illegally traded ivory.
Somkiat said the standing committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) at the meeting in Sochi, Russia during October 1-5 agreed to delete Thailand from CITES National Ivory Action Plan (NIAP) after the panel was satisfied with Thailands efforts to crack down on the illegal trade of ivory tusks.
In 2017, Thai customs officials seized 16,730 items of ivory products weighing about 75 kg worth about 7.5 million baht.(1 U.S. dollar = 32.78 Thai Baht)
