At least 84 kilogrammes of ivory belonging to a passenger travelling on a Guinean passport have been impounded as it was being smuggled out of Entebbe International Airport, destined for the tiny West African country of Togo.On noticing danger, the owner fled and could not be traced perhaps with the help of some collaborators at the airport.13 pieces of ivory weighing about 27 kilogrammes was found at a restaurant in a Kampala suburb Zana by Uganda Wildlife Authority rangers . 62-kilogramme of more ivory was discovered at Entebbe airport ready to be loaded on to a waiting plane.The ivory was only discovered because the cargo section of the destined plane was full, hence the cargo had to be loaded onto another plane. Suspicious of the cargo, one cargo staff at the cargo section tipped off Uganda Wildlife Authority.Already two suitcases one red and another blue containing both processed and unprocessed ivory were at the airport tarmac ready to be loaded to the plane, having passed through the checkpoints. Police, Airport security and Wildlife Authority insisted on checking the suitcases,only to find the lucrative ivory. Uganda Police is holding the ivory. Smuggling of ivory is rampant in Africa and Uganda appears to be a conduit for smuggling ivory,since the smugglers collude with some unscrupulous airport staff to enable them carry out the lucrative business undetected through the departure lounge rather than the cargo section. In June 2011, ivory worth $5000 US Dollars destined for a Far Eastern country was seized at Entebbe International Airport. The ivory destined for Malaysia was declared as personal luggage. The origin of the ivory is unkown, but could be DR Congo where there is an on going armed conflict not far from the border with Uganda and Rwanda. African elephants are classified as endangered species in the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), whose trade is prohibited.A kilogramme of ivory costs not less than $3500 US Dollars. In 2009, a large cache of ivory was impounded in Kenya.Two men were arrested for carrying 703 kg (1,550 lb) of ivory in southern Kenya. The seizure, the biggest in Kenya, was made possible thanks to the efforts by AWF-supported game scouts. The two men were traveling by vehicle in Tanzania when they were ambushed by wildlife scouts from the Amboseli-Tsavo Game Scouts Association. The smugglers fled across the Kenyan border, where they were caught and arrested by authorities tipped off by the scouts. The arrest was made in the town of Mbirikani, 50 km from the Kenya-Tanzania border. Initial investigations indicated that the suspects were headed to Nairobi, a Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) statement said. The ivory was confiscated by KWS and suspects charged in a Kajiado court. The two men pleaded guilty to illegal possession of ivory. DNA testing revealed the origin of the ivory to have come from nearly 50 elephants, mainly adult males. AWF provides the Amboseli-Tsavo Game Scouts Association with uniforms, equipment, training and office space. Kenya is trying to recover its elephant population after it dropped from 167,000 in 1963 to the current 33,000.
HORRIFIC HARVEST OF IVORY
The elephant must be killed before the ivory can be procured - stoning, poison dart resulting in slow painful death or machine gun slaughter of entire herds at waterholes. Regardless of the mode in which the elephants are killed, the process of extracting the ivory is all the same. In order to obtain all the ivory from the elephant, the hunter and poacher must cut into the head because approximately 25% of the ivory is contained in the head. What is then left on the fields of the African or Asian plains is the corpse of a tusk less elephant with a mutilated face and head. The largest illegal ivory market in Asia – much of it poached from elephants in Africa – continues to thrive in Thailand.Domesticated elephants are providing cover for illegal trade in wild-caught, highly-endangered Asian elephants from both Thailand and neighboring Myanmar. Thailand has consistently been identified as one of the world’s top five countries most heavily implicated in the illicit ivory trade, but shows little sign of addressing outstanding issues.Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, a major tourist destination, has emerged as the main hub for illegal ivory activities, accounting for over 70 percent of the retail outlets in Thailand offering ivory items for sale. Ivory workshops–eight in Uthai Thani, one each in Chai Nat and Payuha Kiri, and three in Bangkok–”between them employing dozens of carvers in the production of ivory jewelry, belt buckles and knife-handles.” Much of the ivory being worked is illegally imported from Africa Some workshop owners boasted close ties with European knife makers, while others reported sending ivory, steel and silver items to the U.S. for sale in gun shops. Traders buy wild-caught elephant calves for use in Bangkok as beggars There are reports of traders buying wild-caught elephant calves for use in Bangkok as “beggars” on the streets in major tourist centres, or selling them to elephant camps and entertainment parks.Hundreds of live elephants are known to have been illegally imported from Myanmar in recent years, to be sold to elephant trekking companies catering to adventure tourism in Thailand. The capture of wild elephants has been banned in Thailand since the 1970s, but such trade usually goes undetected because domesticated elephants do not have to be registered legally until they are eight years of age. Growing demand of ivory in China, drives elephants at the brink of extinction! Unless poaching and the factors that promote it are reduced,the future of Central Africa’s remaining elephants remains under real and imminent threat.
MASS ELEPHANT MASSACRE IN CAMEROON
The mass slaughter of about 450 elephants showed that Cameroon's government was not alert and unequipped to deal with poachers. The year 2012 started dramatically for elephants in the central African country of Cameroon. According to the UN, 450 carcasses of these animals - a protected species - have been found in the Bouba N'Djida National Park, near Cameroon's northern border with Chad. The slaughter is especially worrisome given that, as of 2007, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) estimated that only 1,000 to 5,000 elephants are still left in Cameroon. The massacre is sad proof that in spite of serious efforts, poaching continues to damage Cameroon's biodiversity, endangering the elephants. Cameroon's Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife, the government agency in charge of the country's anti-poaching policy, saw its budget slashed from $43m in 2011 to just $33m in 2012. The money dedicated specifically to anti-poaching action was only $2m in 2011 - an amount clearly insufficient for tackling the problem. The Bouba N'Djida National Park, where the elephants were killed, comprises about 2,200 square kilometres, making it the biggest protected area in the country. Only five guards patrol its grounds, one of whom was killed in 2011. They receive a modest salary of $160 per month. In April 2011, it was announced that the US embassy donated $39,000 worth of equipment to the park, including motorcycles, bicycles, radios, digital cameras and truncheons. Given that the poachers - who are described as Sudanese and Chadian horsemen - cross the border armed with Kalashnikovs, we can only note the helplessness of Cameroonian guards. Corruption can easily induce the guards to allow the elephants be killed afterall they are payed very little. Desire for ivory has increased in Asia, specifically in China and Thailand, where demand is said to be the highest. Wealthy Chinese pay any price for ivory which is believed to have medical and mystical powers. The International Fund for Animal Welfare estimates that there were 600 elephants left in Bouba N'Djida before the slaughter - meaning that only about 150 likely remain.
Ornaments from Ivory
Illegal ivory bust shows growing appetite for elephant tusks.If you find ornaments or jewelery in a jewelry shop, imagine that they are made from the tusks of elephants illegally killed by poachers, therefore do not buy any of them. At a July 12 press conference in New York City, Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance announced the seizure of more than $2 million worth of illicit ivory items, one of the largest such seizures in state history. The ivory was mostly used to make small jewelry, animal statues and carved tusks, which were being sold at two shops in Manhattan. On a table at the press conference, a few objects were on display. Though they represented only a small fraction of almost one ton of ivory obtained in the case, 25 elephants were killed to produce them, estimated John Robinson, executive Vice President of the Wildlife Conservation Society, who was present at the event. Elephants disperse tree seeds throughout Central Africa’s Congo rain forest, Earth’s second-largest forest. Like the Amazon, the Congo forest can be considered a vast, planetary lung, and elephants help keep it healthy. The ongoing demise of elephants is “changing the forest structure throughout central Africa. In 50 years, it’s quite possible that it will change so dramatically that the climate throughout Africa, and perhaps the world, will be changed. Illicit ivory sold in the U.S. is typically used to make handles for guns or knives. Save Elephants - Stop Ivory Trade: The illegal ivory trade starts with the slaughter of elephants, continues with wildlife traffickers smuggling ivory across international borders and ends with the under-the-counter sale of carvings, signature stamps and trinkets, in marketplaces in Asia and online. Cut the supply chain at all its major touch points by training rangers in anti-poaching techniques, lobbying politicians to take action to block the sale of ivory, collaborating with customs and law enforcement authorities to arrest black-market sellers and reducing consumer demand through out the world, especially China, one of the largest consumers of wildlife products including ivory. Blocking the front lines of illegal trade is essential to protecting wildlife, and discouraging consumer demand as well as halt the sale of products made from animal parts. Grace Ge Gabriel, Director of IFAW Asia, pointed out that IFAW monitors found there were many suspected illegal ivory listings on Baidu.com, one of China’s largest search engines .Baidu shut down 13 forums engaging in the illegal trade of ivory, tiger bone, rhino horn, sea tortoise shell, and other derivatives and in live animals. Baidu also wiped 11 forums clean of any discussion related to banned species. In all, Baidu deleted 34,685 postings and is working with IFAW to find other ways to combat illegal online wildlife trade. IFAW study found that 70 percent of Chinese consumers did not know that elephants were killed for ivory. Some thought elephants may lose tusks like people lose teeth. In Chinese, “ivory” means “elephant tooth.” Save elephants by cutting the illegal ivory supply chain. When the buying stops, the killing will stop, too! DON'T BUY!
Paul Okia
Happy Tours Africa
info@happytoursug.com
www.happytoursug.com
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