Massive Ivory Seizure

On Wednesday, over 1000 tusks were seized from a boat in Zanzibar headed to Malaysia. This means over 500 African elephants were killed.

This huge seizure underscores the point that the war against poaching and the wildlife trade is being lost. The demand in China and Japan is huge, value attributed to ivory is rising. Therefore sophisticated smuggling networks have been created. Let us redouble our efforts for protection of African Elephants and also to the education of the world's citizens about our natural environment and the flora and fauna which share this earth with us.

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Tusks From Over 500 Elephants Seized in Zanzibar
DAR es SALAAM, Tanzania, August 25, 2011 (ENS) - Tanzanian officials have confiscated 1,041 elephant tusks they found hidden in sacks of dried fish at the Port of Zanzibar, authorities said on Wednesday. The island of Zanzibar is located in the Indian Ocean, about 22 miles off the coast of mainland Tanzania.

Shipping documents for the container in which the elephant tusks were discovered show the destination as Malaysia.

Two suspects are in custody and are being questioned, Zanzibar police spokesman Mohammed Mhina told Reuters.

"Interpol officials from Dar es Salaam have arrived to investigate the incident," he said of the international police force.

The seizure comes as 27 wildlife law enforcement officials from 11 Southern African countries gather in Gaborone, Botswana this week for a training session on the prevention of illegal trade in wildlife given jointly by Interpol and the nonprofit International Fund for Animal Welfare.

"This seizure makes it clear that the ongoing Interpol wildlife enforcement training, which IFAW is supporting in Gabarone, is vital to saving elephants - particularly those elephants of the Congo Basin which are most threatened," said Kelvin Alie, IFAW's Wildlife Trade Programme director. "While we gather to discuss combating the ivory trade, elephants continue to be killed for their ivory."

"At a certain point you stop saying these seizures are alarming or surprising and accept them as a grim and inevitable reminder that we are losing the war against wildlife trafficking," said James Isiche, IFAW East Africa director. "We need a global outcry to spur investment in creating the necessary wildlife law enforcement capacity to take on the international criminal syndicates who benefit from these massacres."

Yet conservationists say they were "stunned" by news of the seizure. "Just imagine discovering the remains of at least 521 dead elephants in a single haul," said Will Travers, CEO of the Born Free Foundation and president of the Species Survival Network. "This news has truly numbed us all to the core, and made us even more determined to redouble our efforts in the fight against elephant poaching and the illegal ivory trade."

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, CITES, approved a complete ban on trade in ivory in 1989, following a decade of bloodshed when 700,000 elephants were slaughtered. But since then there have been numerous concerted efforts to re-open legal trade, and two legal sales of ivory approved by CITES.

"Many experts believe the battle for elephants must not only be fought in the forests or on the savannahs of Africa, or even in the ivory markets of the Far East, but in the corridors of power at CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species," said Travers. "Africa's elephants need action - and they need it now."

The elephant battles at CITES are truly something to behold. Elephant and ivory trade discussions are possibly the most divisive and contentious issues discussed by the 175 countries that have signed the treaty.

In 1999, CITES approved a legal export of 58 tonnes of ivory from Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana to Japan.

In 2008, China joined Japan as an approved "ivory trading partner" in a decision that the United Kingdom government justified at the time as an attempt to satisfy demand and thus reduce poaching.

In 2009, the second CITES-approved shipment of 108 tonnes of ivory to China and Japan took place, despite an international outcry that such legal trade would surely only stimulate demand, and therefore increase poaching.

In 2010, Tanzania and Zambia both asked CITES for approval to sell their stockpiled ivory. However, a group of 23 African elephant range states, known as the African Elephant Coalition, prevented this from happening. More ivory trade proposals are predicted for future CITES meetings, which take place every three years.

Conservationists point out that elephant poaching levels now are rising. "Seizures of illegal ivory this year alone run into tens of thousands of kilos; and the price of illegal raw ivory in the Far East has risen exponentially," Travers said.

A recent report by the EU-funded Monitoring the Illegal Killing of Elephants Programme (MIKE) reveals an upward trend in poaching across East, Southern and Central Africa.

"There are not enough elephants left on this planet to meet Asian demand for ivory," said Shelley Waterland, Born Free's wildlife trade expert.

"Enforcement efforts are essential, but so is reducing demand. A complete ban on any trade in ivory whatsoever must be the only way forward if we are to have any hope of saving elephants across their current range," Waterland said. "Many fragile populations will simply not survive for very much longer if this level of threat continues unabated."

China is now recognized by CITES as the single biggest consumer of illegal ivory. "With the growth in disposable income of Chinese citizens," Travers says, "many believe the demand will keep on rising."

As a matter of urgency, Born Free is calling for China's status as an approved ivory trading partner to be withdrawn.

The group says all countries should agree that future proposals to sell stockpiled ivory be abandoned.

The conservationists are calling on Interpol and the Lusaka Agreement Task Force to step up measures to infiltrate and destroy the organized criminal gangs that operate the poaching syndicates responsible for the current high level of illegal elephant poaching.

In addition, conservationists say money is needed to support law enforcement. "What elephant range states now need is the commitment of the international community to financially support these highly skilled and motivated trainees to be able to meet the task of protecting elephants and stop the legal trade in ivory which facilitates poaching and illegal trade," said Alie.

An African elephant trust fund for the implementation of an African Elephant Action Plan was launched last week at a meeting of the CITES Standing Committee, which manages the affairs of the agency between the tri-annual meetings.

CITES officials and conservationists are urging the international community to join the Netherlands, France and Germany in donating to the African Elephant Fund, which has a goal of $100 million over the next three years. The fund is intended to help pay for priority elephant conservation actions identified in the African Elephant Action Plan, which has been agreed by all 37 African elephant range states.

Copyright Environment News Service (ENS) 2011. All rights reserved.

Abraham Conservation Award recipients

The two park guards from Okapi Wildlife Reserve who were killed on 23 Dec 2010 will be posthumously honored with the Abraham Conservation Award, a prestigious honor which recognizes the sacrifice, courage, and bravery with which individuals have acted to protect nature. The guards' widows will attend a ceremony on Sept 25 in the capital city of Kinshasa. May their sacrifice not have been in vain and the memory of their courage be forever appreciated.

OKAPI WILDLIFE RESERVE
James Kumbayangu Biangbale, ICCN, Second in Command of the RFO guards

James joined ICCN in Epulu after paramilitary training in 2002. He continued para military training and was named instructor at the Ishango training (Virunga) in 2005 because of his high achievement. His bravery and clever strategizing caused him to rise in rank becoming the associate commanding chief of the guard force in the RFO. On this occasion 23 December 2010, his mixed team of guards and military encountered a group of 48 poachers with lookouts hidden in the forest. James team captured one, but as James spoke with him, another, still hidden, fired on James from behind. Struck in the hip he continued to encourage and guide his guards until he died. This included not only instructing one of his team on how to fire a rocket propelled grenade, but also use of his own arm. He died an hour later.

Kambale Bemu, ICCN Patrol guard
Known as Didi, he joined ICCN in 2008. He was appreciated as brave and responsive in guard patrols. He was particularly recognized by his superiors for his refusal to take bribes when posted at potential mining sites. In the same confrontation that cost James his life he forged forward and took two bullets while recovering an arm. The injury cost his life 2 days later, before he managed to reach the road. In the battle the ICCN managed to recuperate two military arms and to kill 8 poachers at the site. The identity of the uncontrolled military that were among the poachers has not been made public, nor are any in custody.

Elephant Poaching publicity

In the last month, several important articles have been published which document the massacre of African Elephants since 2008.

Orphans No More, National Geographic, September 2011:
After the trauma of attack and loss comes healing—and a richer understanding of the emotions and intelligence of elephants.

- this article depicts the complexity and "humanness" of elephant emotions as encountered at a unique orphanage / rehabilitation center operated by the David Sheldrick Trust in Kenya. One must note that very few elephants actually arrive in an orphanage and elephant orphans like them are scattered all over the African elephant range

Agony and Ivory, Vanity Fair, August 2011:
With a booming illegal-ivory market in China and impoverished poachers desperate for tusks, Alex Shoumatoff discovers, Africa’s elephants face an “extinction vortex.”

- this article travels to Kenya, Gabon, Zimbabwe, as well as Hong Kong and Guangzhou to trace the lethally sophisticated and antediluvian ivory trade.

Okapi Reserve retains Imperiled Status

Since 1997, the Okapi Wildlife Reserve has been inscribed on the dubious list of 35 UNESCO World Heritage Sites which are "in danger". It is reviewed at the annual session held by the World Heritage Committee which appears to be composed of all manner of conservation folk.

DRC's other sites inscribed on the List of World Heritage in Danger were also retained. They include: Virunga National Park, Kahuzi-Biega National Park, Garamba National Park, and Salonga National Park. DRC's extraordinary biodiversity continues to be under extraordinary pressure.