{"id":421688,"date":"2010-03-12T16:52:24","date_gmt":"2010-03-12T21:52:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.greenrightnow.com\/?p=9776"},"modified":"2010-03-12T16:52:24","modified_gmt":"2010-03-12T21:52:24","slug":"amid-soaring-demand-for-ivory-some-african-countries-may-be-allowed-to-sell","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/421688","title":{"rendered":"Amid soaring demand for ivory, some African countries may be allowed to sell"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Melissa Segrest<\/a>
\nGreen Right Now<\/strong><\/p>\n

Selling ivory is illegal \u2013 except when it\u2019s not.<\/p>\n

\"Illegal<\/a><\/p>\n

Illegal poaching of elephants for their tusks is increasing. (Photo: Wildlife Pictures Online)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

A confusing array of restrictions, bans and occasional legal mass sales make tracking and finding illegal ivory \u2013 made from the tusks of elephants\u00a0slaughtered in spite of bans enacted decades ago — a challenge for the best of sleuths.<\/p>\n

Now, an\u00a0international UN-sanctioned group that controls the protection of elephants and the legal<\/em> sale of ivory is considering a request from two African nations to conduct one-time massive sales of stockpiled ivory — and that worries conservationists. They fear it will only fuel the market for ivory, harm the imperiled African elephant and have a dangerous cascading effect on African rainforests.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the last 30 years, the African elephant population has declined to about 35 percent of its original numbers. The population is now less than 500,000, from a population of 1.3 million,\u201d said Samuel Wasser, a conservation biologist at the University of Washington.<\/p>\n

The African elephant is classified as endangered, the highest threat level. That\u00a0means it could become extinct if not protected.<\/p>\n

Despite the legality of these one-time sales, the appetite for ivory, especially\u00a0in\u00a0Asian\u00a0countries,\u00a0only increases. Only three countries — China, Japan and\u00a0Thailand –\u00a0 can legally buy and sell ivory.<\/p>\n

Even though there are restrictions on those countries\u2019 purchases, the sales encourage illegal hunting, say concerned researchers and scientists.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore than 8 percent of the elephant population is being poached annually,\u201d Wasser (along with a 27-member team of conservationists) wrote in a recent article in Science<\/em>.<\/p>\n

In 1989, the sale of ivory was banned by the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flauna and Flora. That ban was initially successful, Wasser said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPoaching dropped dramatically\u201d thanks to money given to African nations to protect elephants. \u201cIt was so successful, the money to keep poachers under control started to dwindle. Asian countries still wanted ivory, and poaching has increased sharply since 2000. As the money disappeared, things went downhill.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2007, the international trade group allowed four African nations to lower the threat level of their elephants (to \u201cthreatened\u201d status) and have a one-time sale of their ivory stockpiles. After that, a 9-year moratorium on ivory sales was imposed on those countries.<\/p>\n

\"Ivory<\/p>\n

Ivory carvings and tusks seized by the government of Sierra Leone.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Now, Tanzania and Zambia are asking that they be allowed to sell their ivory stockpiles.<\/p>\n

\u201cZambia and Tanzania are major sources for Africa\u2019s illegal ivory sale. Tons of contraband ivory from those countries have been seized three times in the last decade.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow they\u2019re asking for a lesser threat status, even though they are the worst offenders,\u201d Wasser said. \u201cThey (the two countries) have egregiously participated in the illegal sale of ivory in Africa.\u201d (The origin of the ivory can by confirmed by DNA analysis.)<\/p>\n

The group that regulates international wildlife trade,\u00a0at the center of the argument, has released its own statement <\/a>in response to some of the complaints. The panel will meet on Saturday, March 13 in Qatar, to consider this and other issues.<\/p>\n

The rise of the middle class in China is a\u00a0factor in the increase of illegal ivory sales. There, the burnished product made from elephant tusks is considered prestigious.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe price of ivory went from $200 a kilo in 2004 to $1,800 a kilo in 2009,\u201d Wasser said. \u201cIt went up nine-fold in five years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Organized crime has gotten involved in the illegal ivory business, because it is a high-profit, low-risk venture. More liberal global trade laws have made it easier to ship large amounts of contraband, Wasser added.<\/p>\n

\u201cProsecutions are rare and penalties are very small.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can buy ivory on Google and eBay,\u201d he added, although eBay announced that it took steps to stop those illegal sales last year.<\/p>\n

\"Despite<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite bans and restrictions, the demand for ivory is growing. (Photo: Wildlife Pictures Online)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The threat to elephants is part of an even larger concern.<\/p>\n

The Central African rain forests where they roam \u201care the second most important in the world for carbon capture,\u201d Waller said. When elephants disappear, the eco-system becomes imbalanced and the effect cascades\u00a0to other animals and plants.<\/p>\n

As the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species considers Zambia\u2019s and Tanzania\u2019s requests to legally sell their ivory stockpiles, Wasser fears that the organization is more concerned with politics than with saving endangered species.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is unbelievable that these proposals have even been made. Now it\u2019s looking like it will pass,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow could that be?\u201d<\/p>\n

For more information, Wasser recommends the <\/em>Species Survival Network<\/em><\/a>, the wildlife trade monitoring network <\/em>Traffic<\/em><\/a> and the <\/em>Environmental Investigation Agency<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2010 Green Right Now | Distributed by GRN Network<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Melissa Segrest Green Right Now Selling ivory is illegal \u2013 except when it\u2019s not. Illegal poaching of elephants for their tusks is increasing. (Photo: Wildlife Pictures Online) A confusing array of restrictions, bans and occasional legal mass sales make tracking and finding illegal ivory \u2013 made from the tusks of elephants\u00a0slaughtered in spite of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6460,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-421688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6460"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421688\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}