The Forestry Administration of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries conducted vocational training for 25 officials on Tuesday to improve their knowledge of ivory management and storage.

The purpose was for officials to learn how to properly keep confiscated elephant ivory.

Cambodian Customs and Excise officials have over nine tonnes of ivory seized between 2014 and 2018. The Forestry Administration holds another 0.35 tonnes.

“We want our officials to understand about cooperating with international officials, for instance, when there is a cross-border crime. We have only trained our officials in law enforcement and making arrests,” said Forestry Administration deputy director Hang Suntra.

Forestry Administration officer Suon Phalla who ran the training said while court cases are pending, the ivory is being kept at a warehouse.

“The training teaches officials to measure and scale elephant ivory in kilogrammes. Those in charge of this work have to collect data following guidelines from the Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants (Mike) and The Elephant Trade Information System (Etis).

“Information analysis must show the amount of elephant ivory and weight of each tusk with a logo indicating the source, and reasons for changing data through comparison with the previous year,” Phalla said.