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An update on the last ivory article from CNN.com

Ivory ban extended, but some sales allowed
Story Highlights

• € U.N. conference on endangered species backs compromise by African ministers.

• € A 1989 ban on elephant ivory exports will be extended for nine years.

• € Deal will allow one-off sales of ivory stockpiles by four southern African nations.

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (Reuters) — A U.N. wildlife conference extended a
1989 ban on African elephant ivory exports on Thursday by nine years, after
sales from stocks, in a pact hailed as a step to safeguard the giant
mammals.

“This will allow human beings and elephants to co-exist in Africa,” Francis
Nhema, Zimbabwe’s environment and tourism minister, told Reuters of the deal
approved by the 171-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species.

The conference backed an African plan, agreed after overnight talks among
ministers, to crack down on poaching while allowing Botswana, Namibia, South
African and Zimbabwe to make one-off ivory sales. They say their elephant
numbers are rising.

The deal will let the four sell government ivory stockpiles registered at
January 31, 2007, and then bar them from seeking exports for nine years.
Cash from sales will be ploughed back into conservation and local
communities.

Julius Kipng’etich, the Kenya Wildlife Service chief who led his country’s
delegation in arguing for a ban, said it was “Africa’s finest hour, a proud
moment for the continent, its people and the elephant.”

“This African solution to an African problem marks a great step forward for
wildlife conservation,” said Willem Wijnstekers, secretary-general for the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
African nations had never before agreed on a common ivory front at the
conference, which meets every three years.

Wijnstekers estimated the four African nations had stocks of 210-260 tons
that can be sold to Japan, the only importer although China is also seeking
the convention’s approval as a buyer. Stocks are from elephants that die
from natural causes, ivory seized from poachers and shootings of “problem”
elephants.

U.S. opposition to exports by Zimbabwe
“We believe this will help the elephant,” said Todd Willens, head of the
U.S. delegation. Still, he said Washington opposed exports by Zimbabwe,
saying President Robert Mugabe’s government had failed to curb a rise in
poaching.

“We’ll give Zimbabwe a chance to prove us wrong,” he said.

The compromise was far from the original demands at the June 3-15 conference
in The Hague.

Kenya and Mali had argued for a total ban on ivory exports for 20 years,
saying 19,000 elephants are killed a year and that poaching is pushing
elephants toward extinction in many areas.

Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa had sought regular sales,
saying rising elephant populations were running into increasing conflicts
with people in rural areas. Ivory is used mainly in jewelry and in carvings.
Conservation groups welcomed the compromise.

“This consensus is a milestone in elephant history,” said Susan Lieberman,
director of WWF Global Species Program.

And Zimbabwe’s Nhema said the deal might let Africa focus in the future on
other species — such as lions, cheetahs and leopards.
Elephants, the world’s largest land mammals, are under pressure in many
parts of Africa from poaching, loss of habitats to farms and towns,
pollution and climate change. Numbers have fallen to 470,000-685,000 against
millions decades ago.

“With good governance and proper management, nine years may be enough time
for them to clamp down on the illegal ivory market,” said Professor Rudi van
Aarde, an ecology expert at the University of Pretoria.

Since the 1989 ban, a one-off sale of 50 tons of ivory was approved in 1997
that raised $5 million. Another approved last week — of 60 tons to Japan –
would become part of the stockpile sale.

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So… what are your thoughts on this compromise?

At the end of the first article about the ban being lifted, i wrote this blurb.

“I personally think that ivory should not be for sale anywhere, at any time, for any reason. I know they claim the profits will be used for good, but i don’t buy it. Money can be made to save a species without degrading that very species by selling it’s body parts to rich people that want a nice peice for the mantle.”

I think i still agree with myself for the most part. I think it’s sick that someone would want carved animal parts in thier collection in the first place. But, it is going to a good cause. I think i will consider this compromise a step in the right direction. Hopefully when 9 years are up, they won’t be thinking in numbers. The ban should become permanent, and those tusks should be layed to rest with the rest of the poor Elephant. Whether it died of ‘natural causes’ or not. These parts are not takin to help someone, like a human recieving a donor organ. These parts are takin away from thier owners for all of the wrong reasons.

-Mr. SoVeg

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BBC ARTICLE

The BBC’s Richard Wilson: Game hunters will pay thousands of dollars to kill an elephant

The 10-year old ivory ban has been lifted. The UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) has agreed to a one-off sale of nearly 60 tonnes of stockpiled ivory.

The money raised by the sale will pay for conservation programmes in Africa. The decision was made after pressure from three southern African members at a meeting in Geneva.

They are Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana - known as the ZNB group - who argue their herds of African elephants are now so large they are damaging the environment. They say the elephants are destroying the vegetation on which other animal species depend. The elephants are also accused of trampling croplands.

The ZNB countries said the proceeds from the sale of the ivory would be ploughed back into elephant conservation and community development. This would benefit all wildlife, including the elephants.

Zimbabwe and Namibia will provide the ivory for the sale. Botswana will be allowed to market its stocks once it has fully complied with safeguards laid down by the CITES Secretariat.

Large stockpiles

The ZNB countries have large stockpiles of ivory. Zimbabwe has the tusks of more than a thousand elephants stored in one strong room alone. Its current value is thought to be £10m.

African elephant: Driven towards extinction

However, the decision to lift the ban has been attacked by other groups who fear it will once again open the door to illegal hunting. They say the safeguards promised by the ZNB countries to prevent poaching are not in place.

“It is clear that the criteria required by CITES for a resumption of ivory trade have not been met,” said Bill Snape, legal director of Washington-based Defenders of Wildlife. “No trade should be approved unless clear evidence is presented that shows every requirement is thoroughly satisfied.”

This view is supported by other African countries where elephant numbers have yet to recover from the poaching of the 1970s and 1980s.

Steep decline

Kenya, for example, has been one of the biggest supporters of the ban.

Ivory: There were big markets in some countries around the world

It lost 85% of its elephants to poaching between 1973 and 1987. Sudan reported a 30% annual decline, and Tanzania 16%. Across the continent, the rate of loss was huge. CITES said that between 1986 and 1989, more than 300,000 African elephants were killed - almost one third of the total.

The decline in the African elephant population was steep:

• 1979 - 1.3 million
• 1988 - 750,000
• 1992 - 600,000

At that rate, it was estimated, the species could be driven to extinction by 2025. But the ban made a real difference.

Some fear this will open the door to poachers

Kenya, which was losing 3,500 animals annually to the poachers in the early 1980s, lost about 50 in 1993.

The poachers’ lucrative markets for the tusks - notably Hong Kong, Japan and Taiwan - lost their supply source, and the trade in effect collapsed. Many African governments now fear the success of the ZNB countries in getting the ban lifted will rekindle the demand for ivory.

——- So I ran into this article and decided to share it. Leave your opinion if you have one. I personally think that ivory should not be for sale anywhere, at any time, for any reason. I know they claim the profits will be used for good, but i don’t buy it. Money can be made to save a species without degrading that very species by selling it’s body parts to rich people that want a nice peice for the mantle. -Mr. SoVeg

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