Ivory auctions net much less than African nations expected

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, December 2008:

 

 

Ivory auctions net much less than African nations expected

 

Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and South

Africa between October 31 and November 7, 2008

collected $15.4 million from the sale of 108 tons

of stockpiled elephant tusks to Chinese and

Japanese traders, in the first ivory sales

approved by the Convention on International Trade

in Endangered Species since 1999.

But the sellers were reportedly disappointed in their take.

The average price paid for ivory was $152

U.S. per kilogram, less than a fifth the price

that some conservationists have claimed is paid

for poached ivory.

" If ever there was a demonstration that

crime doesn't pay, this is it, " CITES

representative John Sellar told Agence

France-Press. " The poachers and the dealers in

Africa have taken people in Asia for mugs, and

they appear to have gotten away with it for

several years. If next week you're a dealer in

illegal ivory, " Sellars said, " and you try to

get 4, 5, 6, 7, 800 dollars a kilo for ivory,

you'll be laughed out of the room. "

Zimbabwe sold just under four tons of

ivory for $450,000. " We expected more than

this, " a Zimbabwean official who was not named

told Agence France-Presse. " This is the problem

when you just have two buyers who behave like a

cartel, " the official said.

The unexpectedly low take was a political

blow to the Robert Mugabe government. The

opposition Zim Daily reported that " Mugabe's

government--cash strapped and hungry for foreign

exchange to pay for imports--was planning to have

the Chinese government pay for the ivory with

guns Mugabe's people ordered just before this

year's Zimbabwean presidential run-off, " wrote

Samuel Maina of Wildlife Direct.

" Facing an imminent end to his

three-decade grip on power, Mugabe decided to

buy guns to wage war against the opposition,

should he lose the elections, " Maina summarized.

" The best place to buy the guns was from China,

since they are not participating in the arms

embargo of Zimbabwe by western nations. "

The Zim Daily web site soon disappeared,

as often occurs to news media critical of Mugabe,

but Maina offered further detail.

" In the run-up to the ivory auction, "

Maina wrote, " substantial quantities of high

caliber weapons disappeared from the armory of

Zimbabwe's department of parks and wildlife near

State House, Harare, " according to Zim Daily.

" During the same period, 200 elephants were

reported to have been killed in the Zambezi

Valley bordering Zambia. The Zimbabwe government

blamed this on animal rights groups which 'want

to thwart Mugabe's bid to have CITES relax its

trade rules.' "

Recalled Maina, " In July 2000 a German

wildlife conservation organization, EcoTerra, "

with an office in Nairobi, Kenya, " revealed

that Mugabe had sold eight tons of ivory to China

in exchange for firearms. "

Zimbabwean officials appeared to be

seeking pretexts to shoot elephants since 2006,

when the Mugabe regime reinvigorated efforts to

seek CITES permission to sell " culled " ivory.

Reports reached ANIMAL PEOPLE that elephants were

even shot to feed ranched crocodiles--and in at

least one instance, because an elephant with a

friendly reputation was provoked until he became

briefly violent.

" 2008 is now drawing to a close and one

cannot help but bitterly remember the tragic

shooting of Tusker, also known as Dustbin,

after the 2007 New Year's Party in Charara,

Kariba, " e-mailed Zimbabwe Conservation Task

Force chair Johnny Rodrigues. " He was teased and

tormented mercilessly by drunken youths and when

he retaliated by turning a couple of cars over,

he signed his own death warrant. We found out

later that fruit had been thrown under the cars

'to see what the elephant would do.' " Tusker was

shot, despite good behavior afterward, on

January 6, 2008-- almost a week after the

incident.

Rodrigues tried unsuccessfully to stop

further New Year's Eve partying at Charara.

" There are still some elephants in the Charara

area, " Rodrigues warned. " These elephants are

not as good-natured as Tusker was. Several

elephants have been shot in the area this year

and those remaining are skittish. We can

guarantee that if they are subjected to hairs

being pulled out of their tails, fireworks and

beer cans being thrown at them, cigarettes being

stubbed out on them, headlights being flashed in

their eyes, and cars being rammed into their

legs as Tusker was, they will do more than just

turn over a few cars. "

Ten days after the last of the legal

ivory auctions, the United Nations-sponsored

international police agency Interpol coordinated

Operation Baba, a one-day sweep targeting more

than 50 local ivory markets, airports, border

crossings, and suspected smuggling points in

Congo-Brazzaville, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, and

Zambia, involving " more than 300 law enforcement

officers from police, customs, wildlife and

national intelligence agencies, " an Interpol

press release said.

Directed at ivory trafficking, " The

crackdown also seized cheetah, leopard, serval

cat and python skins, as well as hippo teeth, "

reported Agence France-Presse.

" The operation was called Operation

Baba, " e-mailed Bill Clark, formerly African

programs coordinator for Friends of Animals,

" to honor the memory of Gilbert Baba, a Ghanian

wildlife ranger who was killed by traffickers

about 10 years ago. He was one of my students,

and learned how to fly the first ultralight "

donated by FoA in 1992 to help in anti-poaching

work.

" The traffickers learned he was after

them and somehow put poison into his food.

Gilbert walked about 15 kilometres after having

been poisoned, and got back to base in Mole

National Park, but died some hours afterward.

I keep a photo of him above my desk, " Clark said.

Despite the low bids on ivory at the

auctions and the success of Operation Baba, the

poached ivory traffic remained vigorous. Two

mid-November raids by Cameroonian rangers netted

a combined total of 1,576 contraband wildlife

items, including at least 30 " elephant pieces, "

reported Robert Tumasang, Bertoua correspondent

for the Buea Post. The traffickers escaped, and

the contraband " was then auctioned to buyers in

Bertoua by the Provincial Delegation of Forestry

and Wildlife, " Tumasang wrote.

Elephant poaching and ivory trafficking

also surged in India during the two years

preceding the CITES-approved sale. The Hindu in

October and November 2008 published reports of

ivory seizures and investigations of elephants

found dead without their tusks in Utterkhand and

Karnataka states. Kairali TV news broadcast an

exposé of a racket in which a retired forestry

officer and his son allegedly kill captive

elephants to collect the insurance on them, and

sell the tucks.

One major ivory trafficking case broke in

the U.S. A Houston federal magistrate on

December 5, 2008 ordered alleged ivory

trafficker Mamadi Doumbouya, 39, to be kept in

custody and moved to Brooklyn, New York, to

stand trial, reported Mary Flood of the Houston

Chronicle. Doumbouya and five alleged

co-conspirators, arrested in other states, are

accused of bringing elephant tusks from the Ivory

Coast, Cameroon and Uganda into the U.S.,

disguised by clay coatings as sculptures and

musical instruments.

Doumbouya's brother Drissa Diane

reportedly told an undercover agent, " Our

business is like a Mafia business. You know my

daddy used to be a dealer, so I learned a lot

and I know a lot of people. " Drissa Diane was

also arrested.

Born in Ivory Coast, Mamadi Doumbouya is

a legal resident of the U.S., and had a

citizenship application pending. He was fined in

2003 for his part in importing 22 ivory carvings,

and was questioned in 2006 about importing

wildlfe contraband including a baboon skull,

U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service special agent Philip

Alegranti testified.

Ivory trafficking within the U.S. may

become more difficult in 2009, as eBay Inc.

announced in late October that effective on

January 1, 2009 it will prohibit the sale via

eBay of all ivory items except for objects such

as pianos made before 1900, in which the ivory

keys are believed to be incidental to the value

of the item as a whole.

 

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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