London: The greed for ivory in Asia has led
to a massive surge in the slaughter of African elephants in
the past year, says an international wildlife organisation.
According to the Traffic International, the UK-based
group that monitors trade in wildlife, more than 14,000
products made from the tusks and other body parts of elephants
were seized across Asia in 2009, an increase of more than
2,000 on their previous analysis in 2007.
"It is a really worrying situation," said Richard Thomas,
director of Traffic International. "However, it is not
absolutely clear what should be done."
Details of this disturbing trend have been made public on
the eve of the 20th anniversary of the world ivory trading
ban, which was implemented on 18 January 1990 to check
elephant slaughtering in the world, the report said.
However, the recent growth in Asia's appetite for
ivory -- a status symbol for the middle classes of the
region's newly industrialised economies -- has sent ivory
prices soaring from 150 pound a kilogram in 2004 to more than
4,000 pound at present.
To meet the increasing demand, experts said, about 8 per
cent to 10 percent of Africa's elephants are now being killed
every year, putting the world's largest land animal at risk.
They believe the issue of elephant slaughtering would be
a main topic of discussion during the upcoming meeting of
'Cites' -- the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species.
A key source of contention will be the future of
legitimate stockpile sales of ivory that have been permitted
by international agreement.
Killing elephants for their tusks is illegal, but selling
ivory from animals that have died of natural causes has been
permitted on occasions.
In 2008 a stockpile of tusks from Botswana, Namibia,
South Africa and Zimbabwe was bought by dealers from China
and Japan. The sale, of 105,000 kilograms of ivory, raised
more than 15 million pound, the report said.
But now countries including Kenya and the Democratic
Republic of Congo are to call for a ban of these stockpile
sales at the Cites meeting. They say such trade albeit
sporadic only increases demand for ivory goods and is
responsible for triggering the recent rise in illegal trade
and the killing of thousands of elephants across Africa.
This point is backed by Britain's shadow environment
secretary Nick Herbert, who said: "On the 20th anniversary of
the international ban on the ivory trade, we should be taking
a stand."
"Instead of flooding the market with more ivory and
legitimising the trade, we should be choking demand, not
stoking it," he said recently.
According to experts, elephants are intelligent animals
whose sophisticated social ties are exploited by poachers.
They will often shoot young elephants to draw in a grieving
parent, which is then killed for its ivory.
More than 38,000 elephants were killed in this way in
2006, the report said.
PTI
First Published: Monday, January 18, 2010, 17:58