Baraza

Category: Ivory, elephants, wildlife trade | Date: Mar 17 2009 | By: baraza

Hello readers, it’s Paula here at 5.30 am and I can’t sleep - alarm bells are ringing in my head about ivory trade and elephant killings.

Here’s the time line

Mid 2007 online ivory sales reported to be booming

June 2007 CITES meeting…Kenya porposes a 20 year moratorium on ivory sales, supported by 21 “like-minded parties” including Mali, Ghana, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger, Togo, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Burundi, Nigeria, Liberia, Comoros, Congo Brazzaville and Cote d’Ivoire. Ivory sales  get go ahead at CITES with blessing of major conservation organizations

“This African solution to an African problem marks a great step forward for wildlife conservation,” said CITES Secretary-General Willem Wijnstekers. “It is good news for the elephant, good news for the people who live alongside them and good news for regional cooperation in Africa.”

“We are looking for real conservation achievement on the ground,” said Tom Milliken, of TRAFFIC, director of TRAFFIC South and East Africa. “Let countries now take this spirit of goodwill and tackle the ivory that is being hemorrhaged illegally from West and Central Africa.”

The International Fund for Animal Welfare, IFAW, says that at least 20,000 elephants are killed annually for their ivory and the lives of about 100 rangers are lost each year protecting them.  They warn that the auctions would stimulate Asian markets demand smuggling and poaching.

Nobody listens.

The Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) analysis reveals that key problem countries for illegal ivory are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, Cameroon, Thailand and China.

Nobody takes any notice

October 2008 Namibia opens bidding in controversial ivory auction

Renowned conservationist Richard Leakey expresses concern  and calls it a disservice to conservation

November 2008 Ivory auctions take place in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe 100 tons sold raising $15 million. Price? $150 per kg.  

November 2008 57 people arrested and one ton of illegal ivory seized in a sweep of 50 locations in Kenya, Congo Brazaville, Ghana, Uganda and Zambia.  

January 2009 Ebay bans ivory on online auctions

Three months after auctions, Kenya reports alarming increase in elephant poaching  98 killed in 2008 vs 48 the year before. Two poachers are arrested by KWS. Five elephants killed in February. British MP’s raises alarm over increase in poaching.  

Conservation groups blame demand in China for runaway elephant killings

February 2009  Despite fear of reprisals, Cynthia Moss of the Amboseli Elephant Trust reports a surge in elephant killings and decries the lack of government response.

February 2009 Jane Goodall adds her voice to the role of China in plundering Africa’s resources.

February 2009 Legal auctions were supposed to depress illegal prices right? Wrong! TRAFFIC and WWF report ivory prices in Vietnam are highest in the world at $1500 – $1,863/kg more than ten times the value of legal ivory sold in November 2008! The few remaining Asian elephants are now at grave risk.

March 2008 Vietnam seize over 7 tons of ivory from Tanzania and plans to auction it. Why is nobody questioning this?

China deny’s any link or responsibility for increasing poaching and ivory seizure and publish the Chinese official position piece in local newspapers

Report from Therese Hart in DR Congo reveals that elephants down by 80% in last 50 years.

Why can’t I sleep?

My problem with all this is that CITES is supposed to uphold the precautionary principle. Obviously warnings in 2008 were well placed but there seems to be nobody doing anything about the escalating illegal ivory sales, elephant killings and ivory laundering. Where is the voice of TRAFFIC, WWF, AWF, FFI…all the organizations that were born and or grew out of the elephant crisis in the 1980s? They all supported the ivory sales and none of them seem to be willing to admit it was a MASSIVE STUPID MISTAKE and that measures must be taken now to reverse the impact.

How many more elephants do we have to lose before we have the courage to admit that it was a mistake to renew ivory trade? It is obvious that the flood of legal trade has created a wonderful opportunity for illegal ivory to be laundered, and demand and prices are so high in Vietnam that officials are obviously being corrupted, and countries are taking the law in to their own hands (Vietnam is planning to auction ivory seized from Tanzania!)

CITES will claim that the 9 year moratorium on further auctions will prevent further growth in demand or release of ivory onto markets. The truth that nobody is talking about, is that the moratorium only applies to four countries…I predict that at the next CITES conference we will see ivory sale proposals from a number of African countries including Tanzania, DR Congo, Uganda and maybe even Kenya! These countries are not bound by the moratorium.  

Grrr…it makes me so mad. What do you think? How can we get a message out?

Tags: China, CITES, DR Congo, elephant, elephant killings, elephant populations, ETIS, ivory trade, Jane Goodall, richard leakey, wildlifedirect, WWF

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Category: Ivory, elephants | Date: Jul 11 2008 | By: baraza

Friends, here is the letter that I just sent out to all members of the CITES Standing Committee (except China). I leave tonight for USA and will be in Chattanooga Tennessee until the 17th of July atending the Society for Conservation Biology Meeting. If any of you are in that city let me know, lets meet! Paula

July 09, 2008

Dear [name]

As the CEO of WildlifeDirect, and with prior experience in CITES and ivory issues, this letter is an appeal to you, as the only organ that can prevent China from being endorsed as a buyer of ivory, to vote against the proposal the proposal before you to endorse China as the recipient of ivory that is available for sale from four southern African countries.

As you may already be aware, the conservation community is alarmed at the endorsement already given by the CITES Secretariat, because there is significant data and evidence that shows China’s inability to control illegal trade in endangered species. Endorsing China at the 57th Standing Committee meeting will fly in the face of facts and will damage the credibility of CITES.

We are especially concerned that reports and recommendations from MIKE, ETIS and TRAFFIC, all financed by CITES, have not taken the advice of these agencies. According to the documents available on the CITES website (SC 57 doc 33.2), it is clear that the CITES Secretariat has made a decision to endorse China and this decision is based entirely upon impressions made during missions to China by members of the Secretariat. While Secretariat missions are useful, there is no question that the data gathered in these visits can replace or over rule the detailed scientific findings of the professional agencies listed above.

We acknowledge that all evidence points to better controls in China today than five and ten years ago. However, clearly the controls are not good enough yet and allowing China to receive ivory at this time will have serious repercussions on elephants especially in Africa.

We urge you to consider the findings and recommendations of these organizations, as well as those of Esmond Bradley-Martin who has conducted investigations in Asia, Europe and Africa.

The risk of making a mistake at this SC meeting is a precedent for allowing the CITES Secretariat to overrule it’s own agencies recommendations and therefore wasting donor funding, undermining the relevant CITES related research agencies like ETIS, MIKE and TRAFFIC and a significant increase in illegal trade in ivory and the poaching of elephants in Africa and Asia.

We hope that you will use your vote wisely, examine the evidence and listen to your conscience.

Yours Faithfully

Dr. Paula Kahumbu

CEO WildlifeDirect

Nairobi

Kenya

http://wildlifedirect.org

Tags: China, CITES, ETIS, ivory trade, MIKE, SCB, Standing Committee, TRAFFIC

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