(IN- ZA) Indian peacekeepers allegedly swapping ammunition for ivory in Africa

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Link:

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/01/africa/AF-GEN-Africa-Elephants.php

 

Conservationists: Ending SAfrican ban on killing elephants could encourage

poachers

 

 

DAKAR< Senegal: South Africa lifted a 13-year ban on killing elephants

Thursday — a move conservationists warn could encourage poachers to

slaughter the animals for ivory and threaten dwindling tusker populations

elsewhere on the continent.

 

Elephants — once on the verge of extinction in some parts of South Africa —

are flourishing, with the population in that country growing at a rate of

more than 5 percent annually in recent years as a result of a well-managed

national parks industry.

 

South African authorities want to keep a lid on their burgeoning numbers and

protect the elephants' viability. Killing elephants, which, have no

predators and can turn woodlands to grass and stubs in a matter of years, is

the best way to control the population, South African officials say.

 

However, the huge mammals have not done as well elsewhere, and some

conservationists say the end of South Africa's moratorium on killing

elephants will have repercussions far beyond its borders.

 

In war-ravaged Congo's Virunga National Park, for example, 14 elephants have

been killed since mid-April by soldiers, militias and villagers — an upsurge

in poaching that is " part of a widespread slaughter across the Congo Basin "

of central Africa, according to Dr. Emmanuel de Merode, director of the

conservation group WildlifeDirect.

 

 

The increase in elephant poaching is " being driven by developments on the

international scene: the liberalization of the ivory trade, being pushed by

South Africa, and the increased presence of Chinese operators on the ground,

who feed a massive domestic demand for ivory in their home country, " de

Merode said.

 

A four-year war ended in Congo in 2002, but huge swathes of the east remain

gripped by violence involving militias and rebels, who since last year have

occupied a southern part of Virunga park that is home to one of the last

mountain gorilla populations on earth.

 

Virunga, a forested region straddling eastern Congo's borders with Rwanda

and Uganda, today is home to around 350 elephants, a 10th of the number

found there in 1959. The 14 elephants were killed in the Mabenga district,

north of the so-called gorilla sector near the regional capital, Goma.

 

WildlifeDirect said the end of South Africa's culling moratorium raised

" concerns of a return to the international trade in ivory seen in the 1970s

and 1980s. "

 

And in Virunga, " the concern is that this news is filtering through to the

well-armed groups in the area who now see an opportunity to raise funds by

killing elephants for ivory, " the group said in a statement.

 

Indian peacekeepers in the region have been accused of flying helicopters

into Virunga park to swap ammunition for ivory.

 

Trade in ivory has been banned since 1989 to try to combat poaching, despite

appeals by South Africa to resume sales and invest the proceeds in its

parks.

 

Some environmental groups, like the World Wildlife Fund, have cautiously

welcomed the South African move, calling it " responsible. " Others, such as

Animal Rights Africa, have threatened to promote tourist boycotts, saying

the lifting of the ban could be repeated in other southern African nations.

 

South Africa has about 18,000 elephants, and the southern Africa region is

home to about 300,000 total — half of all the elephants on the continent.

 

Elephants need to roam widely to get their daily diet of up to 300 kilograms

(660 pounds) of grass, leaves and twigs and up to 200 liters (52 gallons) of

water. And they increasingly clash with people.

 

There is no consensus on how to manage elephant populations. Southern

African countries favor killing elephants while East African nations such as

Kenya are struggling to keep numbers up.

 

In the past, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana all culled before international

outrage forced an end to the scenes of game rangers rounding up trumpeting,

frightened herds and shooting the elephants.

 

South Africa's new regulations on managing elephants, say killing must be

through " quick and humane methods, " preferably by a single lethal shot to

the brain delivered by a skilled marksman in a helicopter.

 

 

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