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Elephants will be wiped out in some parts of Africa unless more countries get involved in efforts to prevent poaching and ivory smuggling, according to wildlife regulator CITES.
“We need to widen the net,” John Scanlon, the chief of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), told AFP on the sidelines of a meeting in Geneva this week focused on illegal wildlife trade.
Over the past three years, more than 60,000 elephants have been killed in Africa, “far exceeding the number of elephants being born,” Scanlon said.
He warned that “in some regions, in particular central Africa, the local populations are being decimated and they will be driven to extinction locally in very quick time.”
Organised crime syndicates and rebel militia looking for ways to fund insurgencies in Africa have become increasingly involved, eager to reap the benefits as demand in Asia for ivory to use in decorations and traditional medicines drives a multi-billion-dollar illicit trade.
Participants at the Geneva meeting insisted countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria – so far considered to be of only secondary concern as transit countries for illegal ivory – should speed up the process of drafting their own action plans.
They also called for concrete action for several nations that until now had only been on a watch list, including Cambodia, whose significance as a transit country is believed to be growing after several large ivory seizures were made there this year, and ivory trade hubs Angola and Laos.
“They have actually turned out to be countries of real concern,” Scanlon said.
Ben Janse van Rensburg, a former South African police officer who heads CITES’ enforcement support unit, meanwhile said the broader focus showed the efforts already being made were succeeding.
“As you implement measures in primary concern countries, you often see crime trends shift to other countries,” he told AFP, stressing the importance of getting more countries onboard “to close all the gaps that may exist.”
‘Time is of the essence’
At a March 2013 meeting of all 180 CITES members, eight African and Asian countries “of particular concern” were asked to draft National Ivory Action Plans to tackle the problem.
Janse van Rensburg hailed the progress made in the short time since those plans were created.
The three African “source” countries on that list, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, had especially made large advances in seizing illegal ivory, he said.
They “made more ivory seizures before the ivory leaves the African continent than we’ve seen in any other years before,” he said.
William Kiprono, who heads Kenya’s Wildlife Service, said his country was cracking down hard on poachers and illegal ivory traders, with life prison sentences.
“Time is of the essence. If we wait then these criminals are going to decimate our wildlife,” he told AFP.
Several of the Asian “destination” countries, and China in particular, had meanwhile been destroying large stockpiles of illegal ivory.
This, according to Scanlon, sends “a very powerful message to the hard-core criminals that are involved in this.”
The message, he said, was that “we do not accept and we do not tolerate the illegal trade in ivory, and if we find it we will seize it and confiscate it and destroy it.”
- © AFP, 2014
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Sometimes I think we deserve to be extinct.
Sometimes??? I think this every single day. This earth needs a break!
Interesting how they call it the Ivory Action Plan. What exactly are they trying to protect here.
Jesus, 60, 000 elephants in 3 years, I felt that number like a punch to the gut.
They want the ivory to stay where it belongs on the Elephants. Cutting off the trade in ivory takes away the market and the need to kill elephants. Ivory is being banned all over the world unless it’s very old ivory.
Completely agree with everything you said there Ailís, interesting how it’s the “Ivory Action Plan” and not the “Elephant Protection Plan”. 60,000 elephants murdered over 3 years is absolutely shocking and heartbreaking. The depths of cruelty that some “human beings” are capable of is unbelievable. It’s possible that in time these beautiful, majestic animals will be completely wiped off the face of the earth, all in the name of human greed :(
I read an article somewhere recently in which some animal experts were saying that it looks like the tusks in some types of elephant are getting smaller and that in time they may evolve to have no tusks at all, natures way of protecting them from poachers and hunters. If that’s what it takes, hopefully it will happen before it’s too late.
I do understand that Catherine. But I still believe “Ivory Action Plan” underlines utter detachment from the rights of other living creatures we share the world with. It’s about curbing the Ivory market, not about saving elephants, which is the fundamental issue. I know the two are not mutually exclusive. Affecting the ivory trade will determine the elephants fate. But it just bothers me that protecting such a magnificent animal has to be branded as the Ivory Action Plan- why not the Elephant Protection Plan? Is is not sexy enough??
Exactly what I meant, Maura. That’s amazing, if the elephants are developing smaller tusks! the trouble is, our greed and our cunning ways work at a speed swifter than evolution.
Seems like it’s only the European countries who are really practicing the Ivory Trade Ban.
T.A.I. They destroy the African continent
I actually feel sick having read that article :( poor elephants don’t deserve such cruel behaviour. People really disgust me sometimes :( 60,000 is a huge amount to be killed and in only 3 years is an absolute disgrace!
LETS SEE HUMAN EXTINCTION INSTEAD OF OUR AFRICAN ELEPHANTS!!!
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