Tusks hacked from more than 500 African elephants have been found in an abandoned container at a Cambodian port.
在柬埔寨港口的一个废弃集装箱里发现了500多只非洲象的象牙。
The 3.2-tonne haul, worth about £2.5 million on the black market, had been concealed among slabs of marble in a shipment from Mozambique.
这批重达3.2吨，在黑市上价值约二百五十五英镑的象牙被封存在大理石板里面，然后从莫桑比克港口运出。
The 1,026 yellowing tusks, some cut from very young animals, were sorted by officials at the port at Phnom Penh into long lines.
金边港口的官员们将1026颗发黄的象牙(有些是从非常年幼的动物身上割下来的)排成长队，进行分类。
Yet the massive seizure represents only ten days’ work for poachers who have wiped out 90 per cent of Africa’s elephants in the past century to meet an apparently insatiable appetite for ivory.
然而，对盗猎者来说，这次大规模缉捕行动缴获的象牙他们要收集只需要10天的时间，在过去一个世纪里，偷猎者为了满足对象牙明显贪得无厌的需求，猎杀了非洲90%的大象。
Sun Chhay, the port’s customs and excise director, said the container had been left unclaimed for more than a year and was searched after a tip-off from the US embassy.
这里的海关关长孙启海表示，该集装箱已经有一年多无人认领，在接到美国大使馆的密报后，海关对其进行了搜查。
The discovery highlights the growing dominance of the route from Mozambique to Cambodia in the £17 billion-a-year illicit trade in supposedly protected wildlife, fuelled by demand from China and Vietnam.
这次发现揭示了从莫桑比克到柬埔寨这条路线在这种每年高达一百七十亿英镑的非法交易中所扮演的角色愈加重要，这是由中国和越南的需求推动的，而这些野生动物本来是应该得到保护的。
In recent years Mozambique has become increasingly lawless and its northern coast is now a hub for heroin, timber, ivory and ruby smuggling.
近年来，莫桑比克变得越来越无法无天，其北部海岸现在成了海洛因、木材、象牙和红宝石走私的中心。
With one billion containers shipped worldwide each year, international ports are smugglers’ preferred route; especially if officers at either end can be easily bribed.
这里每年有十亿个集装箱发往全球，所以国际港口成了走私犯的热衷之选；尤其是港口有一端的官员可以很容易贿赂的时候。
The source of the tusks discovered in the Cambodian capital is not known but they are likely to have come from a variety of locations across southern Africa.
这些在柬埔寨首都发现的象牙的来源尚不清楚，但它们可能来自非洲南部的不同地区。
International trade in fresh ivory has been banned since 1989 but countries are only now shutting down domestic markets which have long argued they were trading in old ivory, a claim that provided cover for modern poaching.
自1989年以来，新鲜象牙的国际贸易一直被禁止，但直到现在，一些国家才关闭了国内市场，长期以来，这些国家一直声称自己在交易旧象牙，这种说法为现代偷猎提供了掩护。
The most significant move was this year’s closure of China’s domestic ivory market, which led to a drop in demand and the value of ivory from £1,200 to £675 per kilogram.
最引人注目的举措是今年中国国内象牙市场的关闭,导致需求下降和象牙的价值从每公斤1200英镑降到了每公斤675英镑。
China still permits trade in “relics” without a specified age.
中国现在仍然允许交易那些不确定年代的“文物”。
In 1980 there were 1.3 million elephants in Africa.
在1980年的时候，非洲还有一百三十万头大象。
Now there are barely 400,000, with an estimated 55 killed every day for their tusks.
如今，仅剩四十万头，据估算每天都有55头大象因为象牙而被杀死。
Last week the British parliament voted to ban the sale of ivory of any age in the UK, with very limited exemptions relating to rare and valuable antiques and for museums.
上周，英国议会投票禁止在英国出售任何年龄的象牙，对稀有珍贵古董和博物馆的豁免也非常有限。
According to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, Britain was the world’s largest exporter of legal ivory between 2010 and 2015.
根据《濒危物种国际贸易公约》(Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species)， 2010年至2015年间，英国是全球最大的合法象牙出口国。
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