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China drives elephant poaching for ivory trade Thousands of elephants killed for resurgent ivory market in China Rhett A. Butler, mongabay.com February 26, 2007
In a paper published in the online edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Dr. Samuel Wasser, director of the University of Washington Center for Conservation Biology, shows that elephants are being slaughtered at the highest rate since the international ban on the ivory trade took effect in 1989. Wasser reports that authorities seized more than 23,400 kilograms (nearly 24 tons) of illegal ivory for the year ending in August 2006. Wasser reckons this number represents only about 10 percent of the total trade, so the actual amount of poached ivory probably is closer to 234,000 kilograms. To produce this volume of ivory means that 23,000 elephants -- about 5 percent of Africa's remaining population -- were killed. Wasser says that Chinese demand for ivory is driving the black market where the material sells for $750 per kilogram, up from $100 in 1989 and $200 in 2004. The high prices have attracted organized crime which run sophisticated trafficking networks.
"Shortly before the seizure, Zambia had petitioned for permission to sell its ivory stockpiles internationally, stockpiles that were supposed to have existed before the international ban took effect in 1989," explained a statement from the University of Washington. "But the application said only 135 elephants were known to have been killed illegally in Zambia in the previous 10 years, far fewer than would have had to be slaughtered to produce the ivory in just the single seizure in 2002." Wasser says that Zambia, being a poor nation, needs Western help to address the trade. While Western Nations contributed generously in the four years after the ivory ban was implemented in 1989, their success in stopping the trade spawned complacency in subsequent years and eventually money for enforcement dried up and ivory poaching lacerated.
"If people really realized what is happening they would be ashamed to be part of the crisis," he said. "We don't want to spend our time catching criminals, we want to stop the crime from happening. That's the most effective enforcement you can do." Between 1970 and 1989, the African elephant population fell from 1.3 million to about 600,000 in 1989. The current population is estimated to be between 400,000 and 660,000. The African elephant is Earth's largest land animal. Comments? News options News index | RSS | Add to MyYahoo! Advertisements: Organic Apparel from Patagonia | Insect-repelling clothing |
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