Born Free Foundation - Keep Wildlife in the Wild

In June 2007, as we reported here, the last CITES¹ Conference of the Parties meeting in the Hague (Cop14) made the controversial decision to allow the sale of over 100 tonnes of stockpiled ivory by four African nations (South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe) to a single approved trading partner, Japan, (as approved by the Standing Committee on the 2nd June 2007).

At that time China’s request to be a trading partner was defeated – by just one vote.

Since then China has been lobbying to turn the vote around. This process has seen a Mission from the CITES Secretariat visit China to receive certain reassurances that all ivory sales in China are legal, that smuggling is under control and that any future legal trade in ivory between Africa and one of the world’s largest markets would not negatively impact on the security of elephants throughout Africa, nor give rise to poaching.

Following their trip, the Secretariat Secretariat concluded (after a limited amount of time, visiting a limited number of sites) that things in China were  in order regarding implementation and enforcement of ivory trade regulations.

The Species Survival Network (SSN), a group of concerned NGOs of which Born Free is a part, estimate about 25,000 elephants are year are currently being killed, and that the poaching pressure is falling on those countries (West and Central Africa) least able to protect their elephants.

They believe that the approved trade with Japan would be bad enough, but trade to China (huge porous borders, heavy infiltration by smugglers, poorly controlled ivory sales, lack of proper registration of items sold) will be a green light to increased smuggling and further elephant killing.

Born Free and SSN will be doing all in our power to make sure that China not become an approved trading partner, when the Standing Committee meets to vote on the issue in Geneva.

Born Free CEO Will Travers will be attending the meeting and will be providing regular reports in his Blog as events progress.

¹ Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora