Toner News Mobile › Forums › Toner News Main Forums › U.S. MAJOR ILLEGAL IVORY IMPORTER
- This topic has 0 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 9 years, 8 months ago by Anonymous.
-
AuthorPosts
-
AnonymousInactiveUS ‘major illegal ivory importer’
The report’s authors found thousands of ivory items for sale
The
US has become a major importer of illegal ivory, according to a report
from the British organisation Care for the Wild International (CWI).The
conservation group’s assessment is based on more than 1,000 visits to
shops by its investigators.CWI also notes that the internet is an
increasingly important conduit for the ivory trade.Leading online
auction site eBay has announced it will prevent ivory being traded
internationally from its sites.Its announcement followed an
investigation by another conservation group, the International Fund for
Animal Welfare (Ifaw), which recently documented the scale of ivory
movements on eBay.Asian origins
The
CWI report was released here at the Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species (CITES) summit.The group’s consultants Esmond
Martin and Daniel Stiles visited shops in 15 US cities, finding more
than 23,000 pieces of ivory on sale.They ranged from small trinkets
costing about $50 (£25) to large sculptures priced upwards of $400,000
(£200,000).With the exception of a small number of hunting trophies,
any new ivory coming into the US must be an illegal import.The
international trade was banned in 1989 after indiscriminate hunting had
halved the African elephant population in a decade.The only legal
exports from Africa since then involve a one-off sale of stockpiled
ivory from Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe into Japan. But re-export
from Japan is also illegal.CWI is calling on US authorities to step up
enforcement of international and domestic laws.
CITES EXPLAINED
Threatened organisms listed on three appendices depending on level of risk
Appendix 1 – all international trade banned
Appendix 2 – international trade monitored and regulated
Appendix 3 – trade bans by individual governments, others asked to assist
“Uplisting”
– moving organism to a more protective appendix, “downlisting” – the
reverse Conferences of the Parties (COPs) held every three years
CITES
administered by UN Environment Programme (Unep)While applauding the
efforts of customs forces to seize consignments of ivory, it says
monitoring and enforcement at the retail level is virtually
non-existent.”I never spoke to a single shop owner who said anyone came
to visit,” noted Esmond Martin.US assistant secretary of state Claudia
McMurray admitted that local level enforcement might be lacking.”If we
catch it coming into the US then it’s clearly illegal,” she said, “but
if it’s in a state that doesn’t have laws against the trade in ivory,
then the chances are they won’t have enforcement,” she told BBC News.A
second limited sale of stockpiled southern African ivory has just
received final approval, and more are being sought at this meeting.CWI
chief executive Barbara Maas said the US findings suggested no more
exports should be approved.”We feel it’s not safe to loosen trade
restraints further,” she told BBC News.”If [the importers] can evade
customs forces even in a well-resourced country like the US, they can
do it anywhere.”Tusks online
Following
Ifaw’s report on the internet wildlife trade, Bidding for Extinction,
the organisation has been working with eBay to tighten things up.Ifaw
found more than 9,000 wild animals and animal products on sale within a
single week, and that from looking only at English language websites.EBay has now responded by pledging to stop international sale of banned goods.
“It’s
the right thing to do,” said Matt Halprin, eBay’s vice president of
policy management.”By strengthening our policy we give sellers a clear
and consistent policy that in turn provides confidence for those people
who wish to buy legitimate and legal ivory items.”
The company says it will take down any adverts featuring an international shipping option.Horn trade pressures some rhinos
Across Africa as a whole, rhinos have been on the increase
A
rise in poaching has put some rhino populations at risk of
extinction.The wildlife trade organisation Traffic has documented a
five-fold increase in the volume of rhino horn entering the illegal
market between 2000 and 2005.The populations most affected are in
western and central Africa and Nepal, with one sub-species in Cameroon
believed extinct already.However, overall, rhinos are doing well with
Africa-wide numbers increasing by about 6% every year.The Traffic
report was released at the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species (CITES) summit in The Hague.”We are seeing an
increase in the quantity of horn which is leaving the continent,” said
Simon Milledge, Traffic’s deputy director for eastern and southern
Africa.”The main market remains in east and southeast Asia, as well as
in the Middle East. It’s a concern.”Poached to extinction
In
the middle of the 1800s, there were probably more than a million black
and white rhinos on the plains of Africa.Rapacious hunting by European
settlers brought numbers down spectacularly, and at one point the
southern white was thought extinct.Protective measures brought a
reversal for both species, and in southern and eastern Africa, the
revival continues, with countries such as Namibia and South Africa
having found a new use for their rhinos as a tourist attraction.Making conservation pay
Across
the continent, there are now more than 14,000 white and nearly 4,000
black rhinos. Live animals can legally change hands for between $20,000
and $50,000 (£10-25,000), far more money than an illegally traded horn
can bring.The Traffic report names Cameroon, Democratic Republic of
Congo and Zimbabwe as countries where protective measures have broken
down.An expedition in Cameroon last year found that the one remaining
tiny population of the northern black rhino sub-species Diceros
bicornis longipes had probably been poached to extinction.DRC is home
to the last four northern white rhinos (Ceratotherium simum cottoni) in
existence.Hunting profits
Asian
rhinos, meanwhile, show a mixed picture.Indian populations are rising;
but in Nepal, recent conflict has brought heavy poaching. And there are
other problems in Indonesia.”The Sumatran and Javan rhinos are very
vulnerable,” noted Simon Milledge.”The greatest threat is habitat loss
and the fragmentation of habitat; the threat of the horn trade is
there, but it’s mainly habitat issues for those two species.”
Arrest of two poacher in Nepal
Many of Nepal’s large animals have been poachedNo peace dividend for wildlife
CITES
voted through a resolution aimed at enhancing rhino protection through
greater monitoring of both the animals and the horn trade, better
co-operation between African range states, and an assessment of horn
stockpiles.A Kenyan amendment that stockpiles should be destroyed was
defeated.Earlier, another Kenyan proposal, to stop the annual export of
five black rhino hunting trophies by Namibia and a further five by
South Africa, was defeated. The exports had been approved at a previous
CITES meeting, and South Africa says that its quota brings in nearly
$1m per year which can be spent on conservation.Traffic is a joint
programme of the conservation group WWF and the IUCN, which is famous
for drawing up the Red Lists that document the status of the planet’s
flora and fauna. -
AuthorJune 7, 2007 at 3:02 PM
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.