(CN) Concerns heighten on China ivory import (3 stories)

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Concerns heighten on China ivory import

Published: July 15, 2008 at 1:53 AM

 

GENEVA, Switzerland, July 15 (UPI) -- A Geneva meeting on endangered species

will decide whether to let China import elephant ivory but the issue has already

raised alarm among animal rights groups.

Among the issues on the agenda of the five-day meeting of the U.N. Convention on

Endangered Species is whether China should be allowed to import about 108 tons

of African elephant ivory.

 

The stockpile, offered for sale by Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe,

has come from culling operations in overpopulated areas, natural deaths and

seizures, Britain's Guardian reported.

 

The report said the meeting may allow China to import the ivory as the communist

country is seen as having cracked down on its illegal domestic trade. However,

those opposed to the sale insist it would only be a " smokescreen " for more

poaching.

 

Environmental groups told the BBC China does not have adequate control of its

ivory trade and warned the import would only lead to more illegal marketing.

 

The United Nations banned trade in elephant ivory in 1989. Since then only the

four African countries, where elephant population is seen as having stabilized,

have been allowed to sell their ivory.

 

Environmental groups told the BBC elephant ivory fetches hundreds of millions of

dollars in the black-market, where China is the largest customer. Some of the

groups allege those meeting in Geneva, bowing to pressure from China, have

ignored the advice of their own wildlife experts.

 

Britain's Independent said allowing China to import the ivory would pose a dire

threat to the survival of wild elephants in Africa and in Asia.

 

China wants approval to buy ivory

GENEVA, Switzerland, July 13 (UPI) -- China is seeking " approved buyer " status

for an upcoming auction of ivory from African elephants, a move conservationists

fear could doom the animals.

The auction is being held under the auspices of the Convention for International

Trade in Endangered Species, The Independent reported.

 

The ivory comes from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, which won an

exemption from a worldwide ban on selling ivory in 1997. The countries promised

at the time that all ivory would come from elephants that had died a natural

death or were rogues.

 

In 1999, when the first auction was held, Japan was the only country approved as

a buyer, able to give assurances it was preventing illegal ivory from crossing

its borders.

 

" This is going to mean a return to the bad old days where elephants are being

shot into extinction, " said Allan Thornton of the Environmental Investigation

Agency, and international group that investigates and campaigns against

environmental abuses.

 

Wildlife trade convention opens

Published: July 14, 2008 at 4:03 PM

 

GENEVA, Switzerland, July 14 (UPI) -- Wildlife trade and resulting species

decline are the topics at an international convention in Switzerland on

endangered species of wildlife and native plants.

" Innovative and courageous solutions are required to correct the spiral of

species decline, " Secretary-General Willem Wijnstekers of the Convention on

International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora said Monday in

a statement at the start of the conference.

 

Representatives from the 173 CITES member nations will discuss the quantities of

raw ivory stockpiled in four southern African countries that have been approved

for export, Wijnstekers said. Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe were

authorized last year to make a one-time sale of all government-owned stocks of

ivory registered by the end of 2007.

 

The convention will also focus on tiger farming in Asia. CITES officials decided

captive tiger populations should be restricted to numbers that can support wild

tiger conservation and tigers should not be bred for trade in their parts,

Wijnstekers said. Also on the table will be the level of mahogany exports from

the Amazon basis and improvements to the timber verification system, and setting

up a multi-national task force to address the illegal trade in rhinoceros horn.