Ivory Sale Opened Door for Illegal Trade Says IFAW
8/6/99
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Title: Ivory Sale Opened Door for Illegal Trade Says IFAW
Source: The International Fund for Animal Welfare
www.ifaw.org
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: August 6, 1999
YARMOUTH PORT, Mass., Aug. 6 -/E-Wire/-- The International Fund for
Animal Welfare (IFAW -- www.ifaw.org) today reiterated its opposition
to the reopening of the ivory trade, following the discovery of
illegal ivory hauls in Kenya and China earlier this week.
On July 30, Kenya Wildlife Service officials discovered 770 pounds of
elephant ivory buried in a remote northern location of the country.
The ivory is said to be from at least 23 poached elephants, including
10 bulls.
On August 3, Chinese customs officials arrested six men, following
the seizure of 221 pairs of elephant tusks, weighing in at more than
2 tonnes, from a shipment originating in South Africa.
These seizures follow the purchase in April of 58.6 tonnes of African
elephant ivory by Japanese bidders, in sales that were sanctioned by
the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana participated in these closed-door
sales.
FAW came out strongly against the April sales, saying, "Any way they
spin it, this is bad news for elephants. This sale will now proceed
based on the assurances from CITES and national authorities that the
capacity exists in Africa today to enforce and monitor elephant
poaching. Yet now we are being told that this so-called 'non-
commercial' sale will provide desperately needed funds to increase
enforcement. It doesn't take a brain the size of an elephant's to
figure out that something is fundamentally wrong here."
CITES plans to meet in Nairobi, Kenya in April 2000 to consider
lifting of the ivory trade ban.
"The discovery of these recent illegal elephant ivory hauls
reinforces our concerns over the April sales," said Fred O'Regan,
IFAW President. "A 'legal' trade in ivory puts elephant populations
around the world at risk. At the slightest sign of an open ivory
market, elephants are being poached by the dozens for their 'white
gold.' Opening the trade in ivory would spell certain death to the
African elephant. IFAW remains committed to supporting the ivory
trade ban."
The Kenya Wildlife Service agrees, saying in a recent Associated
Press report, "We hope that it will not take the deaths of any more
elephants for the world to recognize the threat that the ivory trade
poses to our elephants."