Southern Africa?s untold elephant story
“A conference on the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) will be held in The Hague, Netherlands, from 3 ? 15 June this year. But the conference is expected to disclose Southern Africa?s untold elephant story.” - afrol News
May 19, 2007
3 comments
The African elephant is being reduced rapidly by crime syndicates employing Government officials and villagers to kill them. In Zambia, we have the return of the ‘killing fields’ - recent DNA work suggesting that between 1994 and 2004 alone, 130 tons of ivory was shipped by one crime syndicate through Malawi, and via Durban to the Far East. This ivory came mainly from the Luangwa Valley. If the rich southern African countries of South Africa, Namibia and Botswana - and the wretched Zimbabwe, are allowed to sell their ivory stockpiles to Japan et al, the elephant will disappear over much of its range. They will then be held responsible.
Interesting. I would think that countries should be held responsible for their own failure to properly conserve their elephant population. You cannot shift this blame to those countries that have succesfully conserved their population and wish to reap the benefits from that.
For the other side of the elephant story see:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MX3ULvn1wXk
Rra, it is not a case of shifting the blame. If the rich countries sell their ivory stocks it will make it impossible to know where the hankos came from as they will be admixed with the illegal source, and the areas where elephant are taking a hammering will suffer even more.
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