Day 1 - 57th CITES Standing Committee
Category: Born Free | Date: Jul 14 2008 | By: bornfree
Geneva - 14th July 2008 – 57th Standing Committee to CITES*
Will Travers, Born Free Foundation’s CEO is present at the 57th CITES Standing Committee and will be blogging each day.
Once more elephants are top of the bill: will China get to bid for 110 tonnes of ivory?
A highly critical report by the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a member of the Species Survival Network (SSN) (www.ssn.org) indicates that any move to approve ivory trade with China is dangerously premature.
- Ivory sales continue apace in Chinese shops
- Illegal shipments are being sent to China
- Chinese nationals based in Africa are implicated in illegal activities involving ivory
- The whereabouts of over 100 tonnes of ivory from the Chinese stockpile that allegedly went missing in the decade up to 2002 remain unknown.
- Such surveys that have taken place looking at the effectiveness of domestic law enforcement measures in China appear to be limited in nature.
Born Free Foundation (BFF) and SSN member organisations remain deeply concerned about the current situation which could see a bidding war break out between Japan (already an approved trading partner) and China (seeking approval) that could drive up the price of ivory, increase the incentive to trade and quite possibly accelerate poaching which would in all likelihood hit the most vulnerable elephant populations hardest.
The elephant debate and decision is set to take place on Tuesday 15th July during the afternoon session. Right now, I fear the wrong decision will be made: bureaucrats with little experience of what can actually happen on the ground, little understanding of the poaching phenomenon and little appreciation of the enormous challenges faced by elephant conservation authorities across much of Africa and throughout Asia and who are unelected and unrepresentative, will make the fateful decision.
May it be a wise one.
For many millions of people around the world are watching and elephants’ lives depend on it.
Blogging off,
Will
*Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
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4 Responses to “Day 1 - 57th CITES Standing Committee”
sheryl, washington dc, on 14 Jul 2008
I’m glad that Mr. Travers is attending and blogging here. But every story I read about this upcoming decision makes me sick to my stomach. To sacrifice elephants, to possibly wipe them off the earth, for the sake of Chinese cultural tradition is just about as greedy, self-important, and arrogant as the human species can be. Sickening.
s.
Paula, on 14 Jul 2008
Hi Will, please keep us updated as things develop. Also check out the baraza blog to see what IUCN science chief had to say!
Annie, Texas, on 15 Jul 2008
Will, I pray they make the right decision….however, this does not sound good!
Anna M, on 15 Jul 2008
Keep up the work Will and thanks for keeping us in the loop first hand, we will all be hoping for the common sense to prevail at the meeting. Baraza have also summarised the issue in detail. The world is watching them in numbers this time !
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