Posted on 23-12-2003
African
countries 'ignoring ban on ivory trade'
By Todd Pitman in Dakar
More than four tons of illegal ivory is on sale in Nigeria,
Ivory Coast and Senegal, which have failed to regulate a trade
that encourages poaching and threatens the survival of elephants,
wildlife conservation groups say.
The three nations - which have nearly wiped out their elephant
populations - have virtually ignored a world ban on the ivory
trade and their flourishing illegal markets are "driving
elephant poaching" in West and Central Africa, according
to a report released yesterday by Traffic, an organisation which
monitors trade in endangered species, and the World-Wide Fund
for Nature (WWF).
"These studies show just a snapshot of the problem,"
said Tom Milliken of Traffic. "When we factor in all of
the uncontrolled manufacturing, buying and selling over a year,
these numbers climb to frightening dimensions."
The UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species,
or CITES, banned the ivory trade in 1989. It lists elephants
as an endangered species, but allows limited ivory trading in
several countries that already had stocks. The CITES ban is
applied in 164 nations, including Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Senegal.
But "all three governments are in breach of ivory market
control requirements under international regulations,"
the report says. It says that "inadequate legislation and
poor law enforcement" have allowed ivory sellers to flourish.
"Not only is there a lack of political will to implement
CITES, allowing traders to act with immunity from prosecution,
corruption is preventing effective controls on the ivory trade,"
said Susan Lieberman of the WWF.
Most of the illegal ivory comes from Congo, the Democratic
Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Central African Republic and Gabon
- countries, the report says, which comprise "Africa's
most troubled region for elephant conservation".
In Senegal, customs agents have "systematically barred"
wildlife authorities who were trying to enforce the worldwide
ban, the report says. Once across the border, tusks are carved
into intricate ornaments and sold to tourists and businessmen
from Europe, the United States, and Asian nations, particularly
China and South Korea. At the Soumbedioune market in Dakar,
the capital of Senegal, traders openly hawk jewellery, lamps
and human and animal figures carved from ivory, displaying them
under glass counters. "We do plenty of business. Everyone
knows the pieces are beautiful," said one trader, Cheikh
Mbacke, 43. Mr Mbacke and other traders claim that the ivory
is from old stocks or from elephants that died naturally.
In 1980, there were 1.2 million African and Asian elephants.
A decade later, that population had been halved. Elephant numbers
have stabilised since, with 500,000 elephants in Africa and
fewer than 50,000 in Asia.
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