Baraza

Category: Ivory, elephants, poaching, wildlife trade | Date: Apr 29 2009 | By: admin

Two men were arrested on the 25th April for carrying 703 kg (1,550 lb) of elephant ivory in southern Kenya. They were traveling by vehicle in Tanzania when they were ambushed by wildlife scouts from the Amboseli-Tsavo Game Scouts Association. They fled across the Kenyan border, and were caught and arrested by authorities tipped off by the scouts.

This is biggest seizure in recent times in Kenya and the ivory is valued at around 59-60 million Kenyan shillings ($750,000). The men, whose identities have not been released, appeared in a Kajiado court on Monday morning where they plead guilty. The men  face up to a year in jail.

The haul of 33 whole tusks and 57 pieces, weighing over 700kg, is believed to represent over 50 individual elephants.

The Amboseli elephants are not anonymous animals, after more than 40 years of research each elephant is individually known. The field team now fear that “some of the tusks could belong to the splendid bull Ganesh or Echo’s son, Ely, or the impressive long-tusked Theodora from the TD family that has been spending more time in Kimana than Amboseli over the last decade”.

Who killed them and how? One person claims that these elephants could be the victims of Furadan poisoning. This is one of several indicators that ivory trade is on the rise as is elephant poaching in Kenya, Asia and Congo. Cynthia Moss of the Amboseli Trust for Elephant have been reporting alarming increases in poaching in the Amboseli ecosystem. We believe that this is all in response to the lifting of the ban on trade in ivory, and the one off sale that took place in Botswana, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Namibia in November last year.

Harvey Croze of ATE writes that “it appears that our concerns have been vindicated when Cynthia reported in February on increased poaching for ivory in Amboseli. Perhaps now authorities will take seriously the twin threat to Africa’s elephants: the one-off sale of ivory from southern African stockpiles to China, combined with the presence of Chinese roadgangs in the ecosystem”.

It is depressing that these two men face only a year in jail for one of the biggest seizures of ivory in Kenya. Their sentence will hardly dampen the demand or reduce the incentives for many who are greedy for ivory. We have it on good authority (from someone who wishes to remain anonymous), that the ivory was being transported in a vehicle owned by a powerful person. Until these bigger people are brought to justice, the poachers, and small time dealers will continue. The challenge is how to catch and prosecute these powerful, and politically connected big shots.

Four questions for you to think about

Kenya currently holds over 35 tons of ivory in her strong rooms - for some this represents fantastic commercial value, to us they represent death and destruction.

Q1. Do you think it is time we revive the ban on trade in ivory?

Q2. Do you think we should aggressively resume pursuing the perpetrators of this cruel trade?

Q3. Will you help us to raise awareness and demand for better protection for all elephants?

Q4. What should Kenya do with the 35 tons of stockpiled ivory?

Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Tags: Amboseli, Cynthia Moss, elephant poaching, Ivory, ivory trade, Kenya, KWS, poaching, Tanzania

17 responses so far

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: Nov 06 2008 | By: baraza

Mainstream media like Reuters are reporting good news that Cameroon court has just sentenced a poacher to five years in jail and fined him equivalent of several years of wages for killing eight elephants Local villagers informed the government officials and park guards who caught a young man, Job Akah, 33, with nine elephant tusks and eight tails, fire arms and ammunition in a remote village near the Korup National Park on Cameroons eastern border with Nigeria.

A heavy sentence was passed to deter others. Akah pleaded guilty and will serve his sentence, but something is nagging me. Has justice really been served or are we brushing something really important under the carpet here because it’s easy to do so?

My question is this.. Is Akah’s sentence really justice? Is he really the bad guy? Why would a 33 year old be risking five years of his life and all that money….there’s a slim chance that he’ll survive that ordeal. Even if he does, will he be reformed?

I have been so sad reading all the blog reactions to the story calling this poacher a scumbag, hoping he will rot in jail and that he should even be killed on Care2 website here.

It’s hard to see things from the outside for many people, but having met poachers, I can’t help feeling mad that things are so unfair when it comes to our justice system. Yes he is guilty of killing the elephants and he said so.  But think about it, there is almost no way that this guy was acting alone, the story does not give any other clues.

I for one need three simple answers.

1. Who really is driving the ivory trade in Cameroon? This poacher? Please!
2. Who gave him the guns and ammo? He’s a poor 33 year old….probably one of an army of poachers under someones employment.
3. Who ordered the ivory? Think about it, he is not going to make chopsticks and eat fried rice, he doesn’t need any trinkets, carvings or  ivory jewelry….who is ordering this stuff?

We should be asking who should really be on the docks, in shackles, paying fines, doing time,….not this guy, he’s seeking out a living in a poverty stricken country. Yes he’s wrong, but someone else will continue because we are not addressing the real issue here.

Ofir Drori, director of the Last Great Apes Organisation Cameroon (LAGA) is aware that the trade ivory has flourished in Cameroon in recent years due to the corruption and complicity of some local government officials. This article shows that the corruption is up to the level of the guy who dispenses justice, the police chief!

So, on a personal level I’m not celebrating Akah’s arrest and conviction, I’m weeping for him, because I suspect that those who were involved in arrested him and laying down his sentence, may know better who really should be paying the price for this crime. This system of justice works well for those in the end markets, dealers, traders… especially those from foreign countries.

The recent CITES decision to allow ivory trade auctions has as Richard Leakey says in his latest blog post, “done conservation a great disservice”. Once again ivory prices are rising, and consequently elephants in countries where enforcement is weak like Congo, Cameroon, Kenya and Zimbabwe are up for grabs.

I understand every ones anger every time an elephant dies but maybe I’m getting soft, but I don’t for a second believe that locking up Akah is not going to save a single elephant. I’d appreciate hearing other more balanced views on western blogs especially.

Well, those are my early morning angry thoughts on an issue that really touches a nerve with me..- what do you think about this conviction, has justice been served in this case?

Tags: Cameroon, CITES, Convictions, elephant killing, ivory trade, richard leakey

3 responses so far

Category: Ivory, Uncategorized | Date: Nov 03 2008 | By: baraza

Zimbabwe has just sold almost 4 tons of ivory for over $450,000 which they claim will go to the wildlife authority which is practically broke.

The auction of ivory that was sanctioned by CITES started in Botswana  on October 28. The United Nations’ Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) allowed the countries to sell elephant ivory in a one-off trade.

As we’ve mentioned before, to everyones surprise China was approved in July this year as a buyer of legally stockpiled ivory in Zimbabwe, Botswana. Namibia and South Africa. China was approved even though many believe that they do not have adequate means to address illegal domestic ivory trade and to regulate legal trade effectively.

I was especially surprised to read this quote from Crawford Allan, director of TRAFFIC North America - the wildlife trade monitoring network earlier this year in July.

“Now that China has been approved, it has an opportunity to assist African countries, particularly in Central Africa, where elephant poaching and domestic trade goes unchecked, to improve law enforcement capacity, and support conservation programmes,”

It seems terribly premature to state this …even with the ivory sales money, Zimbabwe cannot put elephants protection measures into place at the moment.

Now that Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe have their dosh, it’s South Africa’s turn. They hope to raise R100-million this week, by selling 51 tons of elephant tusks, many of them from culled elephants. Namibia which has the lowest quality ivory (due to low humidity there) realized $150 per kg. If South Africa raises at least this amount per kg they will generate US $750,000 but it’s likely to be more.

Sounds like a lot of money for conservation until you recall that South Africa is not a poor country, with all those diamonds, coal and uranium etc this is small change. One cant help feeling that the glee on some faces is more to do to with winning an argument (that ivory should be sustainably used), rather than relief that a real problem has been solved. Nobody seems to be worried that these sales will put the burden of financing elephant protection in all other African elephant range states. Even if this money was given to other African states it would not make a difference, elephant ranges are notoriously difficult to protect especially when there is a thriving legal trade in a country like China that can bleach any ill gotten ivory.

It’s too late to cry now, but hopefully what these auctions will do is reignite the debate about the value of the ivory trade in this world to elephant conservation.  Is it just me or is there something insane about the lack of logic here. The fact is that the production of ivory trinkets threatens to decimate elephant populations in many parts of Africa and Asia. After spending more than 20 years working on this issue, I know I’ve got a very specific views. But I’m curious about what you think? Should we be legalizing ivory sales to generate funds to protect elephants?
Some people think that there is hope in the 9 year moratorium that will fall into place after the close of auctions. I recommend we all read  the small print, this moratorium is for these four countries only. I predict that Tanzania, Sudan, Congo, Zambia, Mozambie and possibly Angola will seek to sell their ivory stockpiles at the next CITES conference.

Moreover, I suspect that South Africa is likely to continue stockpiling ivory for future sales through it’s elephant culling program which was recently adopted through the new policy “norms and standards for elephant management” dealing with problem elephants in conservation areas.

Unlike elephants we humans seem to have short memories and have forgotten that we put a ban on ivory after we lost more than 80% of Africa’s elephants due to the ivory trade. The culprits were mainly in Japan and China – the same players are still in the game today.

Tags: Botswana, elephants, illegal killing of elephants, ivory trade, Namibia South Africa, Zimbabwe

3 responses so far

Category: elephants | Date: Oct 23 2008 | By: baraza

I’ve just had a conversation with Iain Douglas-Hamilton of Save the Elephants which I would  like to share.

Like me, Iain feels that we need to do much more to raise awareness about the impact of the legal sales of ivory (which will take place later this month) on the  illegal ivory trade and the rate of elephant poaching in Africa. I have a soft spot for Iain, he introduced me to elephants years ago at the height of the poaching in Kenya, I’ve been in love with them ever since. He reminded me of our efforts to prevent CITES from re-establishing the ivory trade in the 1990’s, and he expressed great anxiety at the recent decision to allow the one off sale to China and Japan which is due to happen from the 28th of October.

Some people think we are too emotional in Kenya which has always taken a principled position on the ivory debate. We hold that the legal trade anywhere has always contributed to illegal trade, and therefore poaching. The Kenya Wildlife Service has already announced that Kenya is experiencing a surge in poaching around the places where Chinese companies are conducting roadworks. Esmond Bradley-Martin and Lucy Vigne who are the only people doing detailed field studies of ivory trade have reported in SWARA magazine of the East African Wildlife Society, that they found significant amounts of ivory in markets in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia’s capital, just north of Kenya. Much of this ivory is coming from Kenya.

‘They are selling chopsticks Paula, who do you think is buying chopstics?“  he asked me. For no good reason I felt guilty! How come the culprits don’t feel guilty?

Though he had no hard figures, Iain confirmed that northern Kenya is feeling the brunt of the Ethiopia ivory trade. He told me that he is seeing an increase in the proportion of illegally killed elephants around his study area in Samburu in northern Kenya.

It’s not just Kenya and Ethiopia though. Earlier this year, the Economist reported that Elephants in the Congo are helpless. The report suggested that the price of ivory is increasing and so is the incentive to kill elephants everywhere in Africa, but especially in lawless places.

Like many scientists, we believe that forest elephant populations are declining rapidly due to rising demand from China. Dr Sam Wasser from Washington University suggests that the rate of off take may be the highest on record. He too believes that the ivory sale this month is prompting more poaching in central and eastern Africa, as criminals will mix illicit ivory with the legal ivory to avoid detection.

Shame on CITES

The scientific community should be ashamed for ignoring the warning signs and agreeing to the ivory sales under the pretext that the funds raised would help elephants.

The idea that the sale of ivory will help elephant conservation by ploughing funds back just doesn’t make sense to me. If we agree with that argument, then should we commercialize the highly lucrative child pornography industry to make money to protect children? No? I didn’t think so.

TRAFFIC, the IUCN body that monitors trade in wildlife said that the Congo is “haemorrhaging elephants”.  In Virunga National Park 24 elephants have been poached so far this year. That’s 12% of the parks entire population gone in one year! Virunga had 2,900 elephants when Congo became independent in 1960, 400 in 2006, and has fewer than 200 today. At this rate there will be none left in just a few  years time.

The politics of conservation disgust me

Why has CITES given China the green light to buy ivory despite facts about the lack of controls in China, against the backdrop of escalating poaching? How come the IUCN has just down graded elephants in the red data list suggesting that they are in fact better off than before.

Killing elephants to kill people
Who is doing the poaching? It’s no secret that  ivory is financing wars in Africa. The poachers are mostly militias who sell the ivory to middlemen and then to Chinese staff working for infrastructure projects such as road building and logging who then smuggle it to China. According to The UK Independent, elephants are being killed by the FDLR militia, comprising members of the former Rwandan Interahamwe, the Congolese military, the local Mai-Mai militia, as well as villagers. In Sudan it’s the Janjaweed.

Sudan in particular is a major transit point for shipments to China and the world’s largest center of illegal ivory trade is in Omdurman near Khartoum.

Elephant Poaching leaves long term scars on families

Some people like Sam Wasser think that elephant poaching is at an all time high and if he is right, then this could spell serious problems for elephants across Africa. Already restricted to less than 30% of their original habitat, populations of these socially complex  animals area already severely affected by poaching. Like humans, and any long lived species, elephant society is designed to learn and adapt over generations. Interrupting this knowledge and gene transfer can have serious effects. Indeed, many cases of human -elephant conflict arise because disrupted herds are not as ‘wise’ as those that have been left alone.  Leadership can be messed up leading to rogue behaviour, knowledge of resources and migration routes lost, and impacts on habitats in ’safe places’ can be devastating. Elephants are also very emotional and aware of death, they spend ages sniffing the bones of the dead. Joyce Poole who writes for elephantvoices blog is an expert on elephant behaviour and has found that the traumatic effects of losing individuals can felt for decades especially when adolescents are affected. Working in Tarangire National Park in Tanzania, Charles Foley has also documented how the loss of a matriarch has direct effects  the survival of other individuals in the family, especially during tough years.

We need new thinking to save elephants.

We can’t just let the economics of trade or the political correctness of culture understanding (eg. ivory chopsticks and Chinese traditional medicine) drive the worlds largest land mammal to extinction. We will be forced to use plastic chopsticks by then anyway, why not start now and save our elephants? We need to give elephants rights, the right to exist, the right to not be hunted, the right to keep their own tusks. We need to accept that animal species should not have to pay for their way or right to survive.  We need to accept that not everything has a cash value - after all, isn’t our love affair with money the reason why we are in so much financial trouble right now?

Ebay have made a good start, but I wish we could do more. But What? What do you think we can do to put elephant conservation back on track?

Tags: DR Congo, elephant poaching, elephantvoices, Ivory, ivory trade, wildlifedirect

8 responses so far

Category: elephants | Date: Oct 07 2008 | By: baraza

Elephants generally evoke strong reactions from anyone who has to deal with them. Long term studies on a number of populations of elephant have taught us so much about the species by Cynthia Moss, Katy Payne, Joyce Poole, Ian Douglas-Hamilton and others have revealed how they are similar to people in terms of their social structure, and how intelligent they are. This knowledge has contributed significantly to our ability to empathize with the individual animals. But does this help us manage elephants?

In Kenya elephants are sometimes killed by the authorities if they are deemed problem animals and a threat to people. Last month, one elephant was saved by cell phone technology. Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton of Save the elephants was able convince authorities not to kill a problem bull because it’s radiocollar data revealed that Mountain Bull was not a habitual crop raider. Mountain Bull’s leather collar carries a cellphone that text-messages his GPS location every hour. If the team sees him headed for the fields again some night, they can probably call the Kenya Wildlife Service to avert any dangers to local communities.

Further south a debate is currently raging in Namibia about whether to hunt elephants or not. Voice of America has raised the alarm about trophy hunting of desert elephants in Kunene and Conservationists are seeking support and funds to pay for the trophy hunting permit to save a single desert elephant. Ethics and Animals report that ten women from all around the world will trek 120 km through Damaraland to raise money for the purchase of the remaining trophy hunting permit. Conservationists accuse the Namibian Government of ignorance - they believe that the 6 hunting permits per year will decimate this small and rare population.

But Dr Kieth-Legget who has been studying the Kunene population of desert elephants for the last ten years says “My understanding of the new quotas is that 6 bulls will be shot in the Kunene Region (eastern and western sections) over a 2 year period. While the elephant population of the region is capable of sustaining this level of off-take at the present time, the question remains as to whether they are able to sustain this level of off-take in the longer term, and I suggest that they are probably not. However, the MET has stated that this is a one-off quota and, while this is always subject to political will, the quota will probably not be repeated for several years so the longer-term sustainability of such an off-take rate does not need to be considered at present.”

Elephants are native to Angola; Benin; Botswana; Burkina Faso; Cameroon; Central African Republic; Chad; Congo; Congo, The Democratic Republic of the; Côte d’Ivoire; Equatorial Guinea; Eritrea; Ethiopia; Gabon; Ghana; Guinea; Guinea-Bissau; Kenya; Liberia; Malawi; Mali; Mozambique; Namibia; Niger; Nigeria; Rwanda; Senegal; Sierra Leone; Somalia; South Africa; Sudan; Tanzania, United Republic of; Togo; Uganda; Zambia and Zimbabwe

They have been  have reintroduced into Swaziland.

Although elephant populations are stable or increasing in eastern and southern Africa, the trend is unknown in other regions and the IUCN says that overall there is insufficient information inform current trends at the continental level, it seems that elephant numbers have always been dictated by humans, as research reveals that elephants have gone through population booms and busts over the last few centuries. When populations increase they reach a threshold and then poaching escalates causing a population crash. The easy access to guns combined with habitat loss means that elephant populations cannot return to former ranges or densities and I fear that unless we can persuade governments to prioritise these spectacular animals, we will lose many more of our elephants and will one day end up with pockets of elephants in fenced enclosures. The increasing populations in Southern Africa have convinced some countries to support the exploitation of elephants for products like meat and ivory. By keeping the ivory trade alive however, we put vulnerable populations at risk, they could blink out. This has already happened in some places, elephants are extinct in Burundi; Gambia; Mauritania.

Despite what we know from the history of elephant exploitation, legal ivory trade has been re-opened which may be fueling the poaching of elephants in vulnerable locations like eastern DR Congo as reported on Gorilla.cd where there is evidence of increased elephant poaching in the Virunga National Park, and reports also suggest an increase in poaching and ivory seizures in Kenya, China and Zambia. Because many conservation agencies supported the decision for the reopening of ivory trade as a ‘pro development’ move, none of them seem willing to raise alarms again.

But it’s not just ivory trade, war and arms - it seems that the mix has just gotten deadlier with the influx of Chinese workers across Africa. In the first eight months of this year, 57 carcases have been found across Kenya with their tusks hacked out, 15 per cent more than the total for all of 2007. It  was the third annual increase in a row. This week the Telegraph reported what everyone has been thinking but too afraid to say … the carcasses seem to be eerily correlated with locations where Chinese workers are operating.  Since many Chinese firms in Africa are private and not state controlled, the Chinese government is unlikely to do anything about it. In the worlds of Ian Taylor “It is not China’s responsibility to “look out” for Africa’s interests”. He reminds us that “while China has an Africa policy, Africa does not have a China policy”.

Tags: China, elephant poaching, elephants, ivory trade

13 responses so far

Category: China, Ivory, elephants | Date: Jul 16 2008 | By: baraza

Within hours of China being approved as the legal traders for the southern African ivory, here’s the AP story about 3 Chinese nationals are caught smuggling ivory in Kenya!

NAIROBI (AFP) — Kenyan authorities on Wednesday detained three Chinese nationals at the country’s main airport on suspicion of smuggling ivory, an official said.

“The three Chinese nationals — two women and a man — were arrested at the airport in Nairobi while in possession of 2.2 kilogrammes (4.8 pounds) of ivory,” Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) spokesman Gichuki Kabukuru told AFP.

Oddly,  different press were told different things..AP say

The trio, who had stayed in Kenya for four days, were en route to the Zimbabwean capital Harare, he added.

While IOL say” The women were stopped at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport on Wednesday morning, said Kentice Tikomo, a spokesperson for the Kenyan Wildlife Service. They were booked on a flight to China, she said”.

Tags: China, CITES, ivory trade, Kenya

8 responses so far

Category: China, Ivory, elephants | Date: Jul 14 2008 | By: baraza

The Canadians received my letter and promised to ‘consider it’. That’s a start. I hope all your letters have gone out - I think it really makes people think when they get letters.

Here are some of the latest news stories which it seems all predict the worst

The Guardian says “A controversial decision to allow China to buy stockpiles of African elephant ivory looks set to go ahead this week after monitors from the group Traffic said the country had cracked down on its illegal domestic trade.

” China also has the recommendation of the Cites Secretariat which says that anti-smuggling initiatives by China, the largest blackmarket for illegal ivory, have been effective. Cites’s standing committee, meeting in Geneva, will decide if China’s controls on the illegal trade are stringent enough to prevent illegal ivory being laundered with stock from the sale or it being re-exported.

“In 2002, China was the principal driver of the illegal trade and made very few seizures,” said Tom Milliken, director of eastern and southern African operations for Traffic, which monitors the trade and advises Cites.

“Now it has been making seizures left, right and centre. They’ve added 100 seizures this year alone. On the domestic front China has moved aggressively.”

‘Big problem’

The increase in seizures in the past six years has been dramatic. According to the Elephant Trade Information System (Etis), the world’s largest database of elephant ivory seizures compiled by Traffic, China is now involved in around 63% of seizures. In 2002 the figure was 6%. Milliken said the contrast with some central African countries is stark: Nigeria has made 12 seizures in 20 years.

Milliken said that China was also cracking down on retailers and had developed systems of certification. “When we go back to stores we flagged up as having illegal ivory they aren’t selling it anymore or have been closed down. Product identification cards come with items legally sold and for items over a certain amount you get a photo ID.”

Dr Meng Xianlin, head of the Chinese delegation to the Cites meeting in Geneva, said China needed legal ivory to maintain ancient carving traditions. He accepted that Chinese demand for ivory presents a “big problem” for elephant conservation, but argues that “the stockpiles are a positive way to solve this problem.”

Nice argument !

He added: “There is high pressure to control the illegal trade and we have the mechanism to prohibit illegal ivory going into the legal channel.” However, he conceded “we cannot guarantee 100%” effectiveness.

Really persuasive

While those supporting approval of the sale believe that linking legal ivory supplies with China’s huge demand will reduce poaching and illegal trade, wildlife conservation groups say it still stimulates demand and will have the opposite effect.

“Milliken said the chances of a sale are high: “There’s real motivation for this sale. Last July a nine-year rest period after the sale was agreed by Cites so the southern African countries are keen to get this done. I think a sale will go ahead within months of this decision.”

:(:(:(:(

Meanwhile Michale McCarthey reporting in The Independent says what I’d like to say
If China’s application is approved, the resulting huge increase in the legal ivory trade will give the biggest possible shot in the arm to the enormous illicit trade which is supplied by poachers killing elephants across Africa – 23,000 a year at the most recent estimate.

With its own problems of poverty and disease, Africa has no money to enforce wildlife conservation, and the only way to stop mass-scale elephant poaching is by choking off demand for ivory. Many experienced conservationists – not to mention the 148 British MPs who have signed an early day motion in the Commons – feel that if China gets the go-ahead tomorrow, the African elephant will be getting a death sentence.

Chinese consumer demand for shark fins for soup is already driving down shark populations across the world. The demand from traditional Chinese medicine for tiger bones and other body parts is a principal reason for the collapse of tiger numbers in India, even in what are supposed to be protected areas. A report from Greenpeace in 2005 alleged that Chinese demand for tropical timber was already the biggest driver of rainforest destruction in Asia. And now this rapacious, remorseless and unending demand for natural resources is about to be unleashed on elephants.

The moment is all the more critical because it has come out of the blue – the world has not yet woken up to what is happening, and until the situation was disclosed on The Independent’s front page on Saturday, it had received virtually no publicity. The British Government appears to have been preparing to go along with China’s application to be an ivory buyer, hoping that, since it was happening in an obscure committee meeting in Geneva, no one would notice.

Even the Herald Tribune have a piece on China and ivory here Amazingly all these articles make it sound like Tom Milliken of TRAFFIC supports the sale of ivory to China but that’s not what I hear from his friends. So, why are the IUCN agencies saying one thing to the press and another to their colleagues? It feels like something very sinister is going on.

Daniel Cressey did a post about the China ivory debate in The Great Beyond which pointed me to this AP report that seriously raises doubts about China’s ability to control the illegl ivory trade.

It’s a great article - part of it is here

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — China’s government lost track of 121 tons of elephant ivory over a dozen years that probably was sold on illegal markets, according to a previously undisclosed Chinese report to U.N. regulatory officials.

The “shortfall” in ivory described in the document between 1991 and 2002 — equal to the tusks from about 11,000 dead elephants — could provide fodder for representatives of a U.N. accord to reject China’s attempt next week to gain permission to import more ivory.

“We have not been able to account for the shortfall through the sale of legal ivory by the selected selling sites in the country,” Chinese officials reported in 2003 to the Swiss-based U.N. Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES. “This suggests a large amount of illegal sale of the ivory stockpile has taken place.”

The Associated Press obtained the Chinese report from the Environmental Investigation Agency, a watchdog group based in Washington and London. EIA also has compiled a briefing for nations that signed on to CITES to try to prevent China from gaining permission to trade ivory at a CITES meeting in Geneva, Switzerland next week.

Tags: Africa, China, CITES, elephants, ivory trade, wildlifedirect

5 responses so far

Category: China, Ivory, elephants | Date: Jul 14 2008 | By: baraza

There may be a light at the end of this dark tunnel folks.

The Environmental Investigation Agency has hard evidence on Chinas inability to manage their ivory stocks. Apparently ivory from 11,000 elephants got lost in China’s ivory black market.

As the country this week seeks legal elephant ivory trade status, EIA has revealed how 110 tonnes of ivory - equivalent to the tusks of 11,000 elephants – has gone missing from its government controlled ivory stockpiles.

The ivory’s embarrassing disappearance is revealed in a confidential, unpublished Chinese government document, obtained EIA.

EIA is releasing details of the document today on the eve of China’s attempt to win approval to resume international ivory trade from the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. (CITES).

I’m not going to ask how they got this confidential report, but I hope we will be soon celebrating a NO to China vote!

And, I hope that noChinese people reading this blog think that this is a China bashing blog, we are not anti-China we are anti-killing-of-elephants for ivory. Ivory trade in China is the biggest threat facing African elephants today and this vote could lead to a massive upsurge in illegal killings of elephants.

Tags: China, CITES, EIA, elephants, illegal trade, Ivory, ivory trade

One response so far

Category: China, Ivory, elephants | Date: Jul 14 2008 | By: baraza

Greetings everyone,

I’m in Chattanooga Tennessee attending the Society for Conservation Biology Meeting (SCB).

Today the plenary speaker was Jeffry McNeely, the IUCN chief scientist, and someone I and all scientists I know, have enormous respect for. In his stunning slide presentation he introduced us to Asia and China where the next SCB meeting will take place next year. He gave a wonderful overview of the region from prehistoric times to today, and raised issues about the great biodiversity in the region, an highlyighted the concerns.

In this post I’m going to focus on the trade issue that he raised since I’m preoccupied with ivory and china .. so Yes he did bring up illegal trade as a major concern for biodiversity. He said and I quote

“Wildlife Trade is a huge problem, most of it is illegal, most of it is not controlled by CITES, most of it is going to China”

So at the end I politely raised my hand thanked him for the great presentation, reminded him about the massive population, fantastic economic growth in China, and reminded him about his statement about illegal trade. I then asked how CITES, which was aware of yet was unable to control illegal trade to China, could endorse China as the sole buyer of the southern African ivory? And, if it goes through at the Standing Committee this week, what were his predictions?

He restated and emphasized that there is basically no control of wildlife trade and that the worst situation was across teh Chinese borders with Laos, Vientam and Myanmar (Burma) but he also said

“When China puts their mind to something they can do anything”.

He used the example of rhino horn trade and said that it had been stamped out. So, his conclusion was

“Maybe there will be a payoff, maybe they will negotiate and China will be allowed to trade on condition that they will have to reign in the illegal trade on these borders”

I nodded but my mind was screaming

“WHAT, WHERE THE HELL IS THE PRECAUTIONARY PRINCIPLE IN ALL THIS? Shouldn’t they have proven this capability BEFORE they asked for permission to buy the ivory? Since when did CITES start operating on FAITH?”

What do you think? Am I over reacting here?

Is it true that China can do anything it puts it’s mind to? Will giving China ivory be a means to force the country to adopt proper illegal ivory trade controls?

I am going to go back to Jeffrey and continue the conversation so send me your questions and I’ll get them answered!

Tags: China, CITES, IUCN, ivory trade, Jeffrey McNeely

4 responses so far