Chinese woman nicknamed "Ivory Queen" in court over tusks smuggling

A prominent Chinese businesswoman, nicknamed the ‘Ivory Queen’, appeared in a Dar es Salaam court on Monday.

She’s been charged with running a criminal network responsible for smuggling tusks from more than 350 elephants.

The 66-year-old denies the charges. 

Yang Feng Glan is accused of smuggling 706 pieces of ivory between 2000 and 2004 worth some $2.5 million. She was arrested in September 2015.

Glan, a Swahili-speaker who has lived and worked in Tanzania since the 1970s, is secretary-general of the Tanzania China-Africa Business Council and owns a popular Chinese restaurant.

If convicted, she could face more than 20 years in jail.

Tanzania’s elephant population shrank from 110,000 in 2009 to a little over 43,000 in 2014, according to a census released in June, with conservation groups blaming “industrial-scale” poaching.

President John Magufuli, who took office in November, has promised to clamp down on poaching as part of a broader anti-corruption campaign.

Demand for ivory from fast-growing Asian economies such as China and Vietnam, where it is turned into jewels and ornaments, has led to a spike in poaching across Africa.

China, the world’s biggest consumer of elephant tusks, announced a one-year ban on the import of African ivory carvings in February.