(IN): Indian elephants threatened as Britain backs China move on ivory

July 16, 2008

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Indian elephants threatened as Britain backs China move on ivory

Wed, Jul 16 11:31 AM

London, July 16 (IANS) Animal support groups fear for elephants in India and

Africa following the British government's official backing to China to buy

ivory.

The government voted in China's favour at the UN, despite protests from its

own MPs. The vote, at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in

Endangered Species (Cites), gives China the right to buy ivory auctioned by

four southern African countries, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and

Zimbabwe.

Britain's Wildlife Minister Joan Ruddock defended the vote, saying China had

complied with the criteria set for the sale.

According to the minister, there is a 2002 agreement for a one-off sale of

legal stocks of ivory in Africa and that China has assured that the ivory

coming in to China will not be exported, and will be effectively monitored

within China.

China is considered the centre of the world's illegal ivory trade, although

the government is cracking down on it.

Environmentalists claim that the entry of China into the market will provide

a substantial opportunity for the laundering of illegal ivory, and provide

the impetus for further poaching across Africa, where more than 20,000

elephants are killed illegally every year.

They say while Asian countries, India in particular, have begun to take

elephant poaching seriously, the move could once again encourage poachers to

kill elephants for illegal sale of ivory.

British MPs were threatening to table a protest motion against the

government for supporting China in the vote.

More than 150 MPs of all parties had signed a cross-party motion calling for

the government not to vote for China to be given a licence to trade in

ivory.

--

United against elephant polo

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