Call for 20-year Ban on Ivory Trade
Posted by sky | Tags: Animals, extinction, nature
Read article at Herald Sun.AFRICAN states have called for a 20-year ban on trade in ivory to protect the continent's elephants from poachers and possible extinction in the wild. The African representatives lashed out at partial bans and quotas that have been implemented in the past. “Every time CITES authorises the sale of limited quantities of ivory, we witness an increase in poaching and illegal trade,” Bourama Niagate, head of the delegation and of nature conservation in Mali, said. “We are confronted with men who are very organised and better armed than our standing armies, and at the same time we are in charge of protecting hundreds of thousands of hectares of parks and preserves without even basic communication tools,” he said. Some 20,000 elephants are killed by poachers every year, according to the document. Illegal hunting has devastated elephant populations in Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Congo, the DRC, as well as in Niger, Mali, Malawi and Chad, where poachers recently killed three park officials.Previous Post Next Post