Toko wrote:Where do these tusks come from
storage........
Ivory Trade
Re: Illegal ivory seized by crime intelligence unit and Whit
storage........
the future is not what it used to be
"Custodians" Involved in Poaching
Elephant expert from David Attenborough's Africa charged over ivory smuggling
A senior elephant researcher featured on Sir David Attenborough's Africa series has been charged with the illegal possession of 41 pounds of ivory close to the Kenyan game park where she works.
By Mike Pflanz, Nairobi 5:37PM BST 14 May 2013
Wildlife rangers found six tusks in Soila Sayialel's four-wheel-drive and arrested her and her son, Robert, on suspicion of smuggling.
Mrs Sayialel, 50, is the deputy director of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants, which was heavily featured in the final episode of Mr Attenborough's groundbreaking television show as an exemplary conservation organisation.
It is led by Cynthia Moss, 70, an American pioneer in elephant research who has spent more than 40 years working with the animals in Amboseli, a reserve in southern Kenya in the shadow of Mt Kilimanjaro.
"We are very sorry to report that the Amboseli Trust for Elephants is facing some of [its] most challenging times ever," Mrs Moss said.
"We have no belief in these allegations and we are confident an investigation will exonerate them of all charges.
"We ask everyone to remember that we have fought for and dedicated our lives to elephants for decades. We do not intend to stop now."
Lawyers for Mrs Sayialel and her son, an IT specialist at the trust, claimed in court in Kenya on Monday that the tusks were planted in the pair's Land Rover by Kenya Wildlife Service staff.
"The accused have been … spearheading conservation efforts," said Philip Murgor, their attorney. "This seems to have rubbed the Kenya Wildlife Service the wrong way."
Poaching for elephant ivory and rhino horn is at near-record levels across Africa as surging demand in the Far East drives prices higher.
Kenya last year officially lost 384 elephants, up from fewer than 50 just five years ago.
Conservationists calculate that the numbers being slaughtered are far higher, but their carcasses are never found in the country's remote hinterland.
There are now fewer than 35,000 elephants remaining in Kenya, part of a total population of only 400,000 across Africa.
Two average 10lb tusks from an adult female elephant are now worth more than £12,000 in China, close to double their value a decade ago.
The new demand is driven by the country's booming middle class for whom carved ivory and tusk trinkets are a sign of wealth.
Occasional "one-off sales" to China and Japan of stockpiled ivory from southern Africa, most recently in 2008, are also blamed for restarting a market that had been dormant since the trade was banned.
Mrs Sayialel and her son denied three counts of having ivory without permission and were bailed ahead of their next hearings on June 17.
Paul Udoto, spokesman for the Kenya Wildlife Service, said he could not comment now that legal proceedings had started.
A senior elephant researcher featured on Sir David Attenborough's Africa series has been charged with the illegal possession of 41 pounds of ivory close to the Kenyan game park where she works.
By Mike Pflanz, Nairobi 5:37PM BST 14 May 2013
Wildlife rangers found six tusks in Soila Sayialel's four-wheel-drive and arrested her and her son, Robert, on suspicion of smuggling.
Mrs Sayialel, 50, is the deputy director of the Amboseli Trust for Elephants, which was heavily featured in the final episode of Mr Attenborough's groundbreaking television show as an exemplary conservation organisation.
It is led by Cynthia Moss, 70, an American pioneer in elephant research who has spent more than 40 years working with the animals in Amboseli, a reserve in southern Kenya in the shadow of Mt Kilimanjaro.
"We are very sorry to report that the Amboseli Trust for Elephants is facing some of [its] most challenging times ever," Mrs Moss said.
"We have no belief in these allegations and we are confident an investigation will exonerate them of all charges.
"We ask everyone to remember that we have fought for and dedicated our lives to elephants for decades. We do not intend to stop now."
Lawyers for Mrs Sayialel and her son, an IT specialist at the trust, claimed in court in Kenya on Monday that the tusks were planted in the pair's Land Rover by Kenya Wildlife Service staff.
"The accused have been … spearheading conservation efforts," said Philip Murgor, their attorney. "This seems to have rubbed the Kenya Wildlife Service the wrong way."
Poaching for elephant ivory and rhino horn is at near-record levels across Africa as surging demand in the Far East drives prices higher.
Kenya last year officially lost 384 elephants, up from fewer than 50 just five years ago.
Conservationists calculate that the numbers being slaughtered are far higher, but their carcasses are never found in the country's remote hinterland.
There are now fewer than 35,000 elephants remaining in Kenya, part of a total population of only 400,000 across Africa.
Two average 10lb tusks from an adult female elephant are now worth more than £12,000 in China, close to double their value a decade ago.
The new demand is driven by the country's booming middle class for whom carved ivory and tusk trinkets are a sign of wealth.
Occasional "one-off sales" to China and Japan of stockpiled ivory from southern Africa, most recently in 2008, are also blamed for restarting a market that had been dormant since the trade was banned.
Mrs Sayialel and her son denied three counts of having ivory without permission and were bailed ahead of their next hearings on June 17.
Paul Udoto, spokesman for the Kenya Wildlife Service, said he could not comment now that legal proceedings had started.
Re: ATE director charged over ivory smuggling
Amboseli Trust for Elephants
Distressing Times
Mon, 2013-05-13 10:45 by cmoss
We are very sorry to report that ATE is facing some of our most challenging times ever. Our Deputy Director Soila Sayialel and Technical Support Assistant Robert Sayialel were arrested and charged with ivory smuggling. We have no belief in these allegations and we are confident an investigation will exonerate them of all charges. We will not comment further on the facts of the case until we have had chance to consult with our lawyers, but we ask everyone to remember that we have fought for and dedicated our lives to elephants for decades. We do not intend to stop now.
Back to the Elephants
Fri, 2013-05-17 13:40 by cmoss
The judicial process is on-going in the case brought against Soila Sayialel and Robert Ntawuasa. We cannot comment any further while this process unfolds, and nor will we be speaking to the press. We have been assured by KWS that they regard the Amboseli Trust for Elephants as a highly valued partner and that there is no question that we will be permitted to continue our work in the ecosystem. With this welcome reassurance, we will return our attention to what we are here for: a harmonious and secure future for Amboseli’s people, wildlife and elephants. CM
Distressing Times
Mon, 2013-05-13 10:45 by cmoss
We are very sorry to report that ATE is facing some of our most challenging times ever. Our Deputy Director Soila Sayialel and Technical Support Assistant Robert Sayialel were arrested and charged with ivory smuggling. We have no belief in these allegations and we are confident an investigation will exonerate them of all charges. We will not comment further on the facts of the case until we have had chance to consult with our lawyers, but we ask everyone to remember that we have fought for and dedicated our lives to elephants for decades. We do not intend to stop now.
Back to the Elephants
Fri, 2013-05-17 13:40 by cmoss
The judicial process is on-going in the case brought against Soila Sayialel and Robert Ntawuasa. We cannot comment any further while this process unfolds, and nor will we be speaking to the press. We have been assured by KWS that they regard the Amboseli Trust for Elephants as a highly valued partner and that there is no question that we will be permitted to continue our work in the ecosystem. With this welcome reassurance, we will return our attention to what we are here for: a harmonious and secure future for Amboseli’s people, wildlife and elephants. CM
Re: Elephant Poaching & Ivory Trade
Tanzanian elephant population faces extinction within 7 years
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Tanzania's jumbo elephant population could be wiped out in seven years if poaching continues at current rates, chairman of the parliamentary committee on land, environment and natural resources James Lembeli told the National Assembly recently. According to the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI), Tanzania had about 109,000 elephants in 2009, but fewer than 70,000 in 2012. "If this poaching trend is left unchecked, obviously the elephant population will disappear in the next seven years," Lembeli said, according to Tanzania's The Guardian. "This is a national disaster. The government and its agencies should take serious measures to address the problem." Lembeli called on the government to review the Wildlife Act of 2009, institute harsher punishments for poachers, hire more game rangers and procure adequate facilities and modern weapons to fight poaching. To this end, he requested a budget for his committee of almost 75.7 billion shillings ($46.5 million) for the 2013-2014 fiscal year. Source: Sabahi Online (Washington DC)
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Tanzania's jumbo elephant population could be wiped out in seven years if poaching continues at current rates, chairman of the parliamentary committee on land, environment and natural resources James Lembeli told the National Assembly recently. According to the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute (TAWIRI), Tanzania had about 109,000 elephants in 2009, but fewer than 70,000 in 2012. "If this poaching trend is left unchecked, obviously the elephant population will disappear in the next seven years," Lembeli said, according to Tanzania's The Guardian. "This is a national disaster. The government and its agencies should take serious measures to address the problem." Lembeli called on the government to review the Wildlife Act of 2009, institute harsher punishments for poachers, hire more game rangers and procure adequate facilities and modern weapons to fight poaching. To this end, he requested a budget for his committee of almost 75.7 billion shillings ($46.5 million) for the 2013-2014 fiscal year. Source: Sabahi Online (Washington DC)
Poached Ivory Is the New Criminal Currency
Poached Ivory Is the New Criminal Currency
The lucrative and illegal ivory trade is funding criminal enterprises across continents.
May 30, 2013
Joanna M. Foster
It's official. Africa's poaching crisis is no longer just keeping conservationists up late at night, it is a global security nightmare. Every conflict has its currency—diamonds in Sierra Leone, opium in Afghanistan, and now, elephant ivory in Central Africa has been connected with armed militia groups, including the Lord's Resistance Army and groups with links to Al-Qaeda.
In a briefing to the United Nations Security Council this week, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reported that "Poaching and its potential linkages to other criminal, even terrorist, activities constitute a grave menace to sustainable peace and security in Central Africa."
Elephant Poaching in Africa: China’s Lust for Ivory Spurs a Bloodbath
It's hardly worth romanticizing, but poaching used to be the domain of local subsistence farmers trying to earn a little cash on the side to improve their livelihoods.
Throughout much of Central Africa, poaching has metastasized into large-scale organized crime with the profits going to ammunition and weapon purchases.
The Secretary-General's report highlights the growing links between elephant poaching, weapons proliferation and regional insecurity. "Illegal ivory trade may currently constitute an important source of funding for armed groups," the report says. "Also of concern is that poachers are using more and more sophisticated and powerful weapons, some of which, it is believed, might be originating from the fallout in Libya."
"Conservation organizations are not the ones that are going to be there, standing on the front lines shooting back at armed militias," said Crawford Allan, director of TRAFFIC North America. "That's not our role. We do everything we can to protect wildlife and conserve their habitat, but ultimately a lot of the work that needs to be done now will involve serious, security-related issues like breaking up terrorism rings."
"I was recently in South Africa, in Kruger Park, and you are constantly aware of the sound of military helicopters flying overhead," said Allan. "You hear news that military drones are being used to track down poachers in the park, you hear that the army has gotten into fire fights with poachers and both sides are suffering casualties. It's very much like a war."
At present, ivory is going almost exclusively to China, with a bit headed for Thailand, and a bit coming to the U.S. after being carved in China.
For the Chinese, ornate ivory carvings are a highly desirable status symbol, and the price has gone through the roof.
The high prices for ivory, low penalties for poachers and the ever-growing business interests of China in Africa, open up easy avenues for illegal transport of ivory, and make ivory a kind of dream product for organized crime.
"Elephants are walking around with literally tens of thousands, if not millions of dollars on their faces," said Allan.
"All these gangs have to do is roll up with their weapons, mow them down, hack out their tusks and ship them back to where they can sell them with the consolidators who are trading with the Chinese businessmen set up in Africa. Then, before you know it, it's on its way in a shipping crate back to China and everybody is happy, except for the elephants and the people who care about them."
Source: http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/05 ... hant-ivory
The lucrative and illegal ivory trade is funding criminal enterprises across continents.
May 30, 2013
Joanna M. Foster
It's official. Africa's poaching crisis is no longer just keeping conservationists up late at night, it is a global security nightmare. Every conflict has its currency—diamonds in Sierra Leone, opium in Afghanistan, and now, elephant ivory in Central Africa has been connected with armed militia groups, including the Lord's Resistance Army and groups with links to Al-Qaeda.
In a briefing to the United Nations Security Council this week, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon reported that "Poaching and its potential linkages to other criminal, even terrorist, activities constitute a grave menace to sustainable peace and security in Central Africa."
Elephant Poaching in Africa: China’s Lust for Ivory Spurs a Bloodbath
It's hardly worth romanticizing, but poaching used to be the domain of local subsistence farmers trying to earn a little cash on the side to improve their livelihoods.
Throughout much of Central Africa, poaching has metastasized into large-scale organized crime with the profits going to ammunition and weapon purchases.
The Secretary-General's report highlights the growing links between elephant poaching, weapons proliferation and regional insecurity. "Illegal ivory trade may currently constitute an important source of funding for armed groups," the report says. "Also of concern is that poachers are using more and more sophisticated and powerful weapons, some of which, it is believed, might be originating from the fallout in Libya."
"Conservation organizations are not the ones that are going to be there, standing on the front lines shooting back at armed militias," said Crawford Allan, director of TRAFFIC North America. "That's not our role. We do everything we can to protect wildlife and conserve their habitat, but ultimately a lot of the work that needs to be done now will involve serious, security-related issues like breaking up terrorism rings."
"I was recently in South Africa, in Kruger Park, and you are constantly aware of the sound of military helicopters flying overhead," said Allan. "You hear news that military drones are being used to track down poachers in the park, you hear that the army has gotten into fire fights with poachers and both sides are suffering casualties. It's very much like a war."
At present, ivory is going almost exclusively to China, with a bit headed for Thailand, and a bit coming to the U.S. after being carved in China.
For the Chinese, ornate ivory carvings are a highly desirable status symbol, and the price has gone through the roof.
The high prices for ivory, low penalties for poachers and the ever-growing business interests of China in Africa, open up easy avenues for illegal transport of ivory, and make ivory a kind of dream product for organized crime.
"Elephants are walking around with literally tens of thousands, if not millions of dollars on their faces," said Allan.
"All these gangs have to do is roll up with their weapons, mow them down, hack out their tusks and ship them back to where they can sell them with the consolidators who are trading with the Chinese businessmen set up in Africa. Then, before you know it, it's on its way in a shipping crate back to China and everybody is happy, except for the elephants and the people who care about them."
Source: http://www.takepart.com/article/2013/05 ... hant-ivory
China Ivory Prosecution:Success Exposes Fundamental Failure
China Ivory Prosecution: A Success Exposes Fundamental Failure
Posted by Bryan Christy in A Voice for Elephants on May 30, 2013
Chinese media reported last week that China has convicted a major ivory seller in Fujian and his accomplices for their role in an international ivory trafficking scheme that smuggled nearly eight tonnes of ivory out of Kenya, Tanzania, and Nigeria.
The arrest and conviction of a government-accredited ivory trader by Chinese authorities is a major law enforcement development, long overdue, and to be commended. It brings into further question, however, the decision by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to approve China in the first place. And it casts a further shadow over TRAFFIC, a World Wildlife Fund subsidiary hired by CITES to monitor ivory trafficking.
“The magnitude of these seizures is a shocking blow to the integrity of China’s legal ivory trade system and demonstrates the need for an independent audit to be carried out,” said TRAFFIC’s top ivory trade expert, Tom Milliken, in a press release Friday (“Court Case Verdict Reveals True Scale of 2011′s ‘Annus Horribilis’ for African Elephants“).
But it was Milliken himself who officially endorsed China’s legal ivory trade system as part of a three-man CITES inspection team, an endorsement that enabled the sale of more than 60 tonnes of ivory to China in 2008, opening the door to a new era of elephant poaching.
Ivory Tower Enforcement
In 2005 the CITES Secretariat sent the three-person team to China to evaluate that country’s internal control system before deciding whether to allow China to buy ivory from Africa in a “one-time” exception to the 1989 global ivory ban. The team consisted of CITES law enforcement director John Sellar, World Customs Organization official Kazunari Igarashi, and TRAFFIC’s Tom Milliken.
“It was the unanimous opinion of the team that China generally complies with the requirements for control of internal ivory trade…,” the CITES Secretariat reported. “The team believes that the legal ivory trade system that has been established in China offers an opportunity to eradicate, or at least significantly reduce, illicit trade.”
Despite objections from conservation organizations, the Secretariat endorsed China’s ivory control program, and CITES’s Standing Committee member countries approved China to participate in a 2008 ivory auction.
NGO experts prophesied that an ivory sale to China would lead to increased poaching and smuggling, something borne out by undercover investigations done by the Environmental Investigation Agency, an NGO based in London. Officials, however, often dismiss such ad hoc investigations as “anecdotal” and unscientific.
CITES prefers statistics. It hired TRAFFIC to conduct statistical studies of global ivory seizures through a program called the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS), run by Milliken. While opening an important window on illegal trade, CITES parties have made their ivory trade policy decisions based overwhelmingly on a misinterpretation of ETIS results. In particular, they concluded that because ETIS can’t prove statistically that ivory auctions lead to crime, ivory auctions don’t lead to crime.
By every measure the result has been catastrophic. Tens of thousands of elephants a year are being slaughtered. Hundreds at a time have been mowed down by terroristic bands operating in West and Central Africa. Others are fed poisoned watermelons; some are even shot from military helicopters. Lately, tourists have been finding it difficult to see any elephants in some of East Africa’s premiere wildlife viewing destinations. Instead, morning radios crackle with news of dead elephants and orders from authorities to keep tourists away.
The Most Lucrative Ivory Market in the World Is China
China, the world’s largest ivory consumer, did not report the Fujian-related seizures to ETIS, presumably because it was conducting an investigation. This is good police work, but it meant that CITES parties had no idea how bad ivory trafficking that year really was. “2011 was already the worst year for the volume of ivory seized since records were first compiled in 1989,” Milliken said last week, “but this new information puts the total into the astronomic zone.”
Here we see yet another weakness of CITES’s near complete dependence on ivory seizures to set policy. If countries are doing good police work, they will keep an ivory “seizure” to themselves and follow a shipment’s trail to its kingpin. ETIS then undervalues crime, and CITES parties can’t make informed decisions.
The amount of ivory seized in 2011 is now 46.5 tonnes, equivalent to more than 46 million dollars on the Chinese market. According to Interpol, seizures equal only about 10 percent of contraband actually in trade, which means that nearly half a billion dollars’ worth of raw ivory may have been smuggled in 2011.
In 24 years no major transnational ivory trafficking kingpin has been convicted in this multi-billion dollar black market industry. The conviction of a man responsible for 7.7 tonnes is a start, but enforcement still lags far behind what is necessary to achieve anything close to an acceptably clean, legal ivory trade.
Milliken’s call for an independent audit of China’s legal ivory trade system suggests that TRAFFIC approves of China’s ivory trade system if only regulation of it were tightened. (My requests to him and to TRAFFIC for clarification received no response.) This is a position CITES Secretary-General John Scanlon has expressed, too.
But earlier this year, TRAFFIC’s parent, the World Wildlife Fund, pressed for a total ban on ivory trade in Thailand. What is good enough for Thailand for some reason is not good enough for China.
Ostrich Enforcement: Chinese Agency Responsible for Ivory Denies Responsibility
It is essential that governments at all points in the ivory trail commit to enforcement. China’s commitment has been weak, or worse, on multiple levels. As discussed in National Geographic’s October 2012 Blood Ivory: Ivory Worship story, the Chinese government conspired with the Japanese government to control ivory prices during the 2008 ivory auctions in Africa. And, after the sale it raised ivory prices in China, making it more profitable to be in the illegal ivory business, not less.
In a recent poll conducted to supplement the National Geographic film Battle for the Elephants, 84 percent of Chinese middle class respondents said they intend to buy ivory in the future. They also said the number one reason they might stop buying ivory is if their government told them to stop.
But the Chinese government is in the ivory business. It controls the country’s largest ivory carving factory as well as retail outlets. At a CITES meeting in Bangkok earlier this year, China’s delegate Wan Ziming of the State Forestry Administration (SFA) told CITES parties that ivory trafficking and elephant poaching were Africa’s problem, not China’s. He has condemned the ivory ban as ineffective, has pushed for more ivory sales to China, and has claimed it is reasonable to supply consumer countries with 200 tonnes of ivory a year.
Ironically, at the same time media reported last week’s sentencing, another SFA official, Yan Xun, denied a link between China’s ivory market and poaching: “Has China’s legal ivory trade caused the poaching of wild elephants? I don’t think there is necessarily a connection,” he told a press conference.
China’s prosecution of this ivory trafficking ring is a significant development, and its willingness to expose a government-authorized dealer should be seen as a very positive development.
But the CITES system for evaluating whether to allow ivory sales is broken, and the organization it goes to for advice has a track record of getting it wrong.
Source: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com ... l-failure/
Posted by Bryan Christy in A Voice for Elephants on May 30, 2013
Chinese media reported last week that China has convicted a major ivory seller in Fujian and his accomplices for their role in an international ivory trafficking scheme that smuggled nearly eight tonnes of ivory out of Kenya, Tanzania, and Nigeria.
The arrest and conviction of a government-accredited ivory trader by Chinese authorities is a major law enforcement development, long overdue, and to be commended. It brings into further question, however, the decision by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to approve China in the first place. And it casts a further shadow over TRAFFIC, a World Wildlife Fund subsidiary hired by CITES to monitor ivory trafficking.
“The magnitude of these seizures is a shocking blow to the integrity of China’s legal ivory trade system and demonstrates the need for an independent audit to be carried out,” said TRAFFIC’s top ivory trade expert, Tom Milliken, in a press release Friday (“Court Case Verdict Reveals True Scale of 2011′s ‘Annus Horribilis’ for African Elephants“).
But it was Milliken himself who officially endorsed China’s legal ivory trade system as part of a three-man CITES inspection team, an endorsement that enabled the sale of more than 60 tonnes of ivory to China in 2008, opening the door to a new era of elephant poaching.
Ivory Tower Enforcement
In 2005 the CITES Secretariat sent the three-person team to China to evaluate that country’s internal control system before deciding whether to allow China to buy ivory from Africa in a “one-time” exception to the 1989 global ivory ban. The team consisted of CITES law enforcement director John Sellar, World Customs Organization official Kazunari Igarashi, and TRAFFIC’s Tom Milliken.
“It was the unanimous opinion of the team that China generally complies with the requirements for control of internal ivory trade…,” the CITES Secretariat reported. “The team believes that the legal ivory trade system that has been established in China offers an opportunity to eradicate, or at least significantly reduce, illicit trade.”
Despite objections from conservation organizations, the Secretariat endorsed China’s ivory control program, and CITES’s Standing Committee member countries approved China to participate in a 2008 ivory auction.
NGO experts prophesied that an ivory sale to China would lead to increased poaching and smuggling, something borne out by undercover investigations done by the Environmental Investigation Agency, an NGO based in London. Officials, however, often dismiss such ad hoc investigations as “anecdotal” and unscientific.
CITES prefers statistics. It hired TRAFFIC to conduct statistical studies of global ivory seizures through a program called the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS), run by Milliken. While opening an important window on illegal trade, CITES parties have made their ivory trade policy decisions based overwhelmingly on a misinterpretation of ETIS results. In particular, they concluded that because ETIS can’t prove statistically that ivory auctions lead to crime, ivory auctions don’t lead to crime.
By every measure the result has been catastrophic. Tens of thousands of elephants a year are being slaughtered. Hundreds at a time have been mowed down by terroristic bands operating in West and Central Africa. Others are fed poisoned watermelons; some are even shot from military helicopters. Lately, tourists have been finding it difficult to see any elephants in some of East Africa’s premiere wildlife viewing destinations. Instead, morning radios crackle with news of dead elephants and orders from authorities to keep tourists away.
The Most Lucrative Ivory Market in the World Is China
China, the world’s largest ivory consumer, did not report the Fujian-related seizures to ETIS, presumably because it was conducting an investigation. This is good police work, but it meant that CITES parties had no idea how bad ivory trafficking that year really was. “2011 was already the worst year for the volume of ivory seized since records were first compiled in 1989,” Milliken said last week, “but this new information puts the total into the astronomic zone.”
Here we see yet another weakness of CITES’s near complete dependence on ivory seizures to set policy. If countries are doing good police work, they will keep an ivory “seizure” to themselves and follow a shipment’s trail to its kingpin. ETIS then undervalues crime, and CITES parties can’t make informed decisions.
The amount of ivory seized in 2011 is now 46.5 tonnes, equivalent to more than 46 million dollars on the Chinese market. According to Interpol, seizures equal only about 10 percent of contraband actually in trade, which means that nearly half a billion dollars’ worth of raw ivory may have been smuggled in 2011.
In 24 years no major transnational ivory trafficking kingpin has been convicted in this multi-billion dollar black market industry. The conviction of a man responsible for 7.7 tonnes is a start, but enforcement still lags far behind what is necessary to achieve anything close to an acceptably clean, legal ivory trade.
Milliken’s call for an independent audit of China’s legal ivory trade system suggests that TRAFFIC approves of China’s ivory trade system if only regulation of it were tightened. (My requests to him and to TRAFFIC for clarification received no response.) This is a position CITES Secretary-General John Scanlon has expressed, too.
But earlier this year, TRAFFIC’s parent, the World Wildlife Fund, pressed for a total ban on ivory trade in Thailand. What is good enough for Thailand for some reason is not good enough for China.
Ostrich Enforcement: Chinese Agency Responsible for Ivory Denies Responsibility
It is essential that governments at all points in the ivory trail commit to enforcement. China’s commitment has been weak, or worse, on multiple levels. As discussed in National Geographic’s October 2012 Blood Ivory: Ivory Worship story, the Chinese government conspired with the Japanese government to control ivory prices during the 2008 ivory auctions in Africa. And, after the sale it raised ivory prices in China, making it more profitable to be in the illegal ivory business, not less.
In a recent poll conducted to supplement the National Geographic film Battle for the Elephants, 84 percent of Chinese middle class respondents said they intend to buy ivory in the future. They also said the number one reason they might stop buying ivory is if their government told them to stop.
But the Chinese government is in the ivory business. It controls the country’s largest ivory carving factory as well as retail outlets. At a CITES meeting in Bangkok earlier this year, China’s delegate Wan Ziming of the State Forestry Administration (SFA) told CITES parties that ivory trafficking and elephant poaching were Africa’s problem, not China’s. He has condemned the ivory ban as ineffective, has pushed for more ivory sales to China, and has claimed it is reasonable to supply consumer countries with 200 tonnes of ivory a year.
Ironically, at the same time media reported last week’s sentencing, another SFA official, Yan Xun, denied a link between China’s ivory market and poaching: “Has China’s legal ivory trade caused the poaching of wild elephants? I don’t think there is necessarily a connection,” he told a press conference.
China’s prosecution of this ivory trafficking ring is a significant development, and its willingness to expose a government-authorized dealer should be seen as a very positive development.
But the CITES system for evaluating whether to allow ivory sales is broken, and the organization it goes to for advice has a track record of getting it wrong.
Source: http://newswatch.nationalgeographic.com ... l-failure/
Re: "Custodians" Involved in Poaching
10 KWS staff investigated for spying for poachers
Posted by Kevin Heath posted on June 3rd, 2013 at 7: 28 am and last updated on June 3rd, 2013 at 7: 28 am
The re-organisation of the Kenya Wildlife Service earlier this year appears to be starting to pay dividends. 10 officers of the Kenya Wildlife Service, including a senior warden and company commander, in Tsavo have been suspended for working with poaching gangs.
Tsavo was one of the regions in Kenya that saw a massive increase in elephant poaching last year and earlier this year. The spike came at a time when there were claims that local officials were trying to undermine the authority of the new Director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, Dr William Kiprono . In an effort to try and bring down the poaching in the region Kiprono suspended staff and sent senior staff from the KWS headquarters into the regions. Julius Kimani who is Senior Assistant Director (Intelligence) was sent to Tsavo.
Now the KWS have just announced the 10 staff in Tsavo have been interdicted for providing information to poachers which has interfered with the fight against poaching in Tsavo East and West national parks in Taita Taveta County. Those interdicted include:
an acting senior warden,
a company commander,
five platoon commanders
and three rangers.
TCA Senior Assistant Director Julius Kimani told local media The Standard yesterday, “We have interdicted the officers for engaging in omission and commission of poaching activities. They have secretly been giving information to the poachers making it difficult for KWS to effectively deal with the poaching menace. The officers received their interdiction letters last Thursday and will be reporting to their respective duty stations twice a month. Once we find they have been involved in criminal activities they will be sacked and prosecuted.”
Posted by Kevin Heath posted on June 3rd, 2013 at 7: 28 am and last updated on June 3rd, 2013 at 7: 28 am
The re-organisation of the Kenya Wildlife Service earlier this year appears to be starting to pay dividends. 10 officers of the Kenya Wildlife Service, including a senior warden and company commander, in Tsavo have been suspended for working with poaching gangs.
Tsavo was one of the regions in Kenya that saw a massive increase in elephant poaching last year and earlier this year. The spike came at a time when there were claims that local officials were trying to undermine the authority of the new Director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, Dr William Kiprono . In an effort to try and bring down the poaching in the region Kiprono suspended staff and sent senior staff from the KWS headquarters into the regions. Julius Kimani who is Senior Assistant Director (Intelligence) was sent to Tsavo.
Now the KWS have just announced the 10 staff in Tsavo have been interdicted for providing information to poachers which has interfered with the fight against poaching in Tsavo East and West national parks in Taita Taveta County. Those interdicted include:
an acting senior warden,
a company commander,
five platoon commanders
and three rangers.
TCA Senior Assistant Director Julius Kimani told local media The Standard yesterday, “We have interdicted the officers for engaging in omission and commission of poaching activities. They have secretly been giving information to the poachers making it difficult for KWS to effectively deal with the poaching menace. The officers received their interdiction letters last Thursday and will be reporting to their respective duty stations twice a month. Once we find they have been involved in criminal activities they will be sacked and prosecuted.”
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Mel
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Re: Elephant Poaching & Ivory Trade
Warlord Kony poaching elephants
2013-06-03 16:20
Kampala - Members of a militia run by fugitive African warlord Joseph Kony are killing elephants across Central Africa to support Kony's struggling group, according to a report by watchdog organisations that are urging the expansion of programmes to encourage defections from the Lord's Resistance Army.
The Enough Project, the Satellite Sentinel Project and two other groups said in the report released on Monday that the LRA has turned to elephant poaching "as a means to sustain itself," and that the militia uses money from the illegal trade in ivory to acquire food and other supplies.
"With prices at record-high levels, trading illegal ivory offers the LRA another way to sustain itself in addition to its habitual pillaging," the report said. "Former senior fighters who defected from the group report that the LRA trades ivory for arms, ammunition, and food."
The report said Kony, a cruel warlord who is accused of using boys as fighters and girls as sex slaves, gave the order to butcher elephants for their ivory as far back as 2010. Former captives say that LRA groups in Central African Republic and Congo "trade ivory with unidentified people who arrive in helicopters."
In February Ugandan troops operating in Central African Republic discovered six elephant tusks believed to have been hidden in the bush by the LRA. Ugandan army officials said at the time that they were acting on information given by an LRA defector who said Kony long ago instructed his fighters to find ivory and bring it to him.
Experts say that Africa's elephants are under increased threat from habitat loss and poachers motivated by rising demand for ivory in Asia. About 70 years ago, up to 5 million elephants are believed to have roamed sub-Saharan Africa. Today fewer than a million remain.
The elephants of Central Africa, a region long plagued by armed conflict and lawlessness, are especially vulnerable. Much of the harvested ivory ends up as small trinkets.
The new report said Congo's expansive but poorly protected Garamba National Park, which once was used by LRA commanders as safe haven, is the source of some of the ivory that ends up before Kony. But Garamba's elephants also are being targeted by "members of the armed forces of (Congo), South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda," the report said, citing the concerns of park rangers there.
It said the LRA is part of "the larger poaching crisis that puts wild African elephants at risk of local extinction."
Child soldiers
Facing pressure from US backed African Union troops tasked with eliminating its leaders, the LRA - which used to have several thousand men - is now degraded and scattered in small numbers in Congo, South Sudan, and Central African Republic.
Fewer than 500 LRA rebels are still active in the bush, according to the Ugandan military, but they can conduct hit-and-run operations that terrorise villagers and move across the region's porous borders in small groups.
Kony himself is believed to be highly mobile, but the US-based watchdog group Resolve said in a report in April that he recently directed killings from an enclave protected by the Sudanese military.
Until early this year, Resolve's report said, Kony and some of his commanders were operating in Kafia Kingi, a disputed area along the Sudan-South Sudan border where African troops tasked with catching Kony don't have access. Sudan's government denies this charge.
Kony, whose rebellion originated in Uganda before spreading to other parts of Central Africa, was indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2005 for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Last year he became the focus of international attention after the advocacy group Invisible Children released a popular online video highlighting LRA crimes and calling for Kony to be stopped from recruiting children.
Some 100 US military advisers are helping Uganda-led African troops to hunt down Kony and other LRA commanders. Their mission was recently set back by a change in government in Central African Republic, where former rebels who now control the country are reportedly hostile to foreign troops.
Anti-Kony operations there have been suspended since April, raising fears among watchdog groups that the LRA could use the opportunity to recruit or regroup.
Poaching has also been rampant in the Dzanga-Sangha reserve in the rainforests of southwestern Central African Republic where more than 3 400 forest elephants roam, conservationists have reported.
The political chaos since March has allowed poaching to escalate, and anti-poaching rangers who fled the rebel-controlled areas said that Sudanese hunters are now working in tandem with the armed rebels who overthrew the government in March.
- AP
2013-06-03 16:20
Kampala - Members of a militia run by fugitive African warlord Joseph Kony are killing elephants across Central Africa to support Kony's struggling group, according to a report by watchdog organisations that are urging the expansion of programmes to encourage defections from the Lord's Resistance Army.
The Enough Project, the Satellite Sentinel Project and two other groups said in the report released on Monday that the LRA has turned to elephant poaching "as a means to sustain itself," and that the militia uses money from the illegal trade in ivory to acquire food and other supplies.
"With prices at record-high levels, trading illegal ivory offers the LRA another way to sustain itself in addition to its habitual pillaging," the report said. "Former senior fighters who defected from the group report that the LRA trades ivory for arms, ammunition, and food."
The report said Kony, a cruel warlord who is accused of using boys as fighters and girls as sex slaves, gave the order to butcher elephants for their ivory as far back as 2010. Former captives say that LRA groups in Central African Republic and Congo "trade ivory with unidentified people who arrive in helicopters."
In February Ugandan troops operating in Central African Republic discovered six elephant tusks believed to have been hidden in the bush by the LRA. Ugandan army officials said at the time that they were acting on information given by an LRA defector who said Kony long ago instructed his fighters to find ivory and bring it to him.
Experts say that Africa's elephants are under increased threat from habitat loss and poachers motivated by rising demand for ivory in Asia. About 70 years ago, up to 5 million elephants are believed to have roamed sub-Saharan Africa. Today fewer than a million remain.
The elephants of Central Africa, a region long plagued by armed conflict and lawlessness, are especially vulnerable. Much of the harvested ivory ends up as small trinkets.
The new report said Congo's expansive but poorly protected Garamba National Park, which once was used by LRA commanders as safe haven, is the source of some of the ivory that ends up before Kony. But Garamba's elephants also are being targeted by "members of the armed forces of (Congo), South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda," the report said, citing the concerns of park rangers there.
It said the LRA is part of "the larger poaching crisis that puts wild African elephants at risk of local extinction."
Child soldiers
Facing pressure from US backed African Union troops tasked with eliminating its leaders, the LRA - which used to have several thousand men - is now degraded and scattered in small numbers in Congo, South Sudan, and Central African Republic.
Fewer than 500 LRA rebels are still active in the bush, according to the Ugandan military, but they can conduct hit-and-run operations that terrorise villagers and move across the region's porous borders in small groups.
Kony himself is believed to be highly mobile, but the US-based watchdog group Resolve said in a report in April that he recently directed killings from an enclave protected by the Sudanese military.
Until early this year, Resolve's report said, Kony and some of his commanders were operating in Kafia Kingi, a disputed area along the Sudan-South Sudan border where African troops tasked with catching Kony don't have access. Sudan's government denies this charge.
Kony, whose rebellion originated in Uganda before spreading to other parts of Central Africa, was indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2005 for war crimes and crimes against humanity. Last year he became the focus of international attention after the advocacy group Invisible Children released a popular online video highlighting LRA crimes and calling for Kony to be stopped from recruiting children.
Some 100 US military advisers are helping Uganda-led African troops to hunt down Kony and other LRA commanders. Their mission was recently set back by a change in government in Central African Republic, where former rebels who now control the country are reportedly hostile to foreign troops.
Anti-Kony operations there have been suspended since April, raising fears among watchdog groups that the LRA could use the opportunity to recruit or regroup.
Poaching has also been rampant in the Dzanga-Sangha reserve in the rainforests of southwestern Central African Republic where more than 3 400 forest elephants roam, conservationists have reported.
The political chaos since March has allowed poaching to escalate, and anti-poaching rangers who fled the rebel-controlled areas said that Sudanese hunters are now working in tandem with the armed rebels who overthrew the government in March.
- AP
God put me on earth to accomplish a certain amount of things. Right now I'm so far behind that I'll never die.
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Mel
- Global Moderator
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- Joined: Sat May 19, 2012 12:31 pm
- Country: Germany
- Location: Wolfsburg
- Contact:
Re: Elephant Poaching & Ivory Trade
Cameroon: NGOs Advocate Reinforced Laws on Illegal Poaching
By Yaboa Ndula Munteh, 4 June 2013
A recent study has indicated that 62 per cent of forest elephants in the Central African Sub-Region have been massacred by poachers using sophisticated weapons since 2002.
In Cameroon, thousands of forest elephants are said to be slaughtered in South-East Cameroon as well as the 2012 attack at the Bouba Ndjida National Park where scores of elephants were massacre by poachers from Sudan. The persistence of such mass massacre of the protected elephant species has paved the way for extinction. Reason why the European Union, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network (TRAFFIC) and International Union for the Conservation of Nature (UICN) unanimously said during a press conference in Yaounde on May 30, that the protection of Cameroon elephants from extinction will yield fruits if the Head of State, President Paul Biya is at the helm.
To wage the anti poaching war and emerge victorious, a team of resource persons from the above organisations urged the government to reinforce the law against poaching which stipulates a jail term of one to three years and a fine of three to 10 million for killing a protected species like elephant. They argued that the creation of a National Coordination Union with actors like the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, Defense Ministry, customs, Interpol, agents of the national parks among other actors will better fight the scorch. The seizure and destruction of ivory (though a kilogramme is sold at 200 US dollars) and zero tolerance towards corruption they say, will curb poaching. The reinforcement of cross boarder collaboration and dialogue with legal ivory trading countries like China and Thailand on the consequences of elephant extinction in the sub-region will be of help. Since ivory is transported to the airports and seaports by land, Bas Huijbregts of WWF said they go through numerous check points and police posts but no ivory tusk is confiscated. Thus, there is the complicity of some government officials who facilitate the transportation of elephant tusks out of the country.
By Yaboa Ndula Munteh, 4 June 2013
A recent study has indicated that 62 per cent of forest elephants in the Central African Sub-Region have been massacred by poachers using sophisticated weapons since 2002.
In Cameroon, thousands of forest elephants are said to be slaughtered in South-East Cameroon as well as the 2012 attack at the Bouba Ndjida National Park where scores of elephants were massacre by poachers from Sudan. The persistence of such mass massacre of the protected elephant species has paved the way for extinction. Reason why the European Union, World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network (TRAFFIC) and International Union for the Conservation of Nature (UICN) unanimously said during a press conference in Yaounde on May 30, that the protection of Cameroon elephants from extinction will yield fruits if the Head of State, President Paul Biya is at the helm.
To wage the anti poaching war and emerge victorious, a team of resource persons from the above organisations urged the government to reinforce the law against poaching which stipulates a jail term of one to three years and a fine of three to 10 million for killing a protected species like elephant. They argued that the creation of a National Coordination Union with actors like the Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, Defense Ministry, customs, Interpol, agents of the national parks among other actors will better fight the scorch. The seizure and destruction of ivory (though a kilogramme is sold at 200 US dollars) and zero tolerance towards corruption they say, will curb poaching. The reinforcement of cross boarder collaboration and dialogue with legal ivory trading countries like China and Thailand on the consequences of elephant extinction in the sub-region will be of help. Since ivory is transported to the airports and seaports by land, Bas Huijbregts of WWF said they go through numerous check points and police posts but no ivory tusk is confiscated. Thus, there is the complicity of some government officials who facilitate the transportation of elephant tusks out of the country.
God put me on earth to accomplish a certain amount of things. Right now I'm so far behind that I'll never die.
Re: "Custodians" Involved in Poaching
KWS suspends 32 officers over elephant, rhino poaching
SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 2013 - 00:00 -- BY KIBIWOTT KOROSS
THE Kenya Wildlife Service has suspended 32 officers following persistent poaching. Most of the affected officers are from Tsavo National Park where at least 55 elephants have been killed since January.
The 13 officers were accused of colluding with poachers to kill elephants and rhinos for trophies. Those interdicted are a senior warden, company commanders, platoon commanders and several rangers.
Tsavo is the country's largest single continuous ecosystem, home to more than 10,000 elephants. "Yes it is true we have interdicted 32 officers across ranks throughout the country," said KWS director William Kiprono.
He said this has been done to pave way for investigations. "This does not mean they are culpable," Kiprono said. He said the interdicted officers are suspected of engaging in "omission and commission" of poaching activities.
"They are suspected of secretly been giving information to the poachers making it difficult for KWS to effectively deal with the poaching menace," said Kiprono. Taita Taveta governor John Mruttu said the continued poaching of elephants and other game will have an adverse impact on tourism in the country.
"The situation is disturbing as three elephants are being killed every week," he said. Peter Leitoro, who was in charge of security, and Benjamin Kavu, the deputy director wildlife and community, were sacked in February.
SATURDAY, JUNE 8, 2013 - 00:00 -- BY KIBIWOTT KOROSS
THE Kenya Wildlife Service has suspended 32 officers following persistent poaching. Most of the affected officers are from Tsavo National Park where at least 55 elephants have been killed since January.
The 13 officers were accused of colluding with poachers to kill elephants and rhinos for trophies. Those interdicted are a senior warden, company commanders, platoon commanders and several rangers.
Tsavo is the country's largest single continuous ecosystem, home to more than 10,000 elephants. "Yes it is true we have interdicted 32 officers across ranks throughout the country," said KWS director William Kiprono.
He said this has been done to pave way for investigations. "This does not mean they are culpable," Kiprono said. He said the interdicted officers are suspected of engaging in "omission and commission" of poaching activities.
"They are suspected of secretly been giving information to the poachers making it difficult for KWS to effectively deal with the poaching menace," said Kiprono. Taita Taveta governor John Mruttu said the continued poaching of elephants and other game will have an adverse impact on tourism in the country.
"The situation is disturbing as three elephants are being killed every week," he said. Peter Leitoro, who was in charge of security, and Benjamin Kavu, the deputy director wildlife and community, were sacked in February.