Wed, Mar 6, 2013 - Enhanced
Law Enforcement, International Collaboration
and Reducing Demand Required to Avert Crisis
FURTHER RESOURCES
Elephants in the Dust - The African Elephant
Crisis
Press Release in French
Article: 'Devastating Decline of Forest
Elephants in Central Africa'
Bangkok, 6 March 2013 - Populations of elephants
in Africa continue to be under severe threat
as the illegal trade in ivory grows - with
double the numbers of elephants killed and
triple the amounts of ivory seized, over
the last decade.
According to a new report entitled "Elephants
in the Dust - The African Elephant Crisis",
increasing poaching levels, as well as loss
of habitat are threatening the survival
of African elephant populations in Central
Africa as well as previously secure populations
in West, Southern and Eastern Africa.
The report - produced
by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP),
the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species (CITES), the International
Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN),
and the Wildlife Trade Monitoring Network
(TRAFFIC) - says that systematic monitoring
of large-scale seizures of ivory destined
for Asia is indicative of the involvement
of criminal networks, which are increasingly
active and entrenched in the trafficking
of ivory between Africa and Asia.
At sites monitored through
the CITES-led Monitoring Illegal Killing
of Elephants (MIKE) programme alone, which
hold approximately 40 per cent of the total
elephant population in Africa, an estimated
17,000 elephants were illegally killed in
2011. Initial data from 2012 shows that
the situation did not improve. However,
overall figures may be much higher.
These threats compound
the most important long-term threat to the
species' survival - increasing loss of habitat
as a result of rapid human population growth
and large-scale land conversion for agriculture,
which provides for international markets.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary
General and UNEP Executive Director, said,
"CITES must re-engage on illegal wildlife
crime with a renewed sense of purpose, commitment,
creativity, cooperation and energy involving
range states and transit countries to consuming
nations of products such as ivory."
"The surge in the
killing of elephants in Africa and the illegal
taking of other listed species globally
threatens not only wildlife populations
but the livelihoods of millions who depend
on tourism for a living and the lives of
those wardens and wildlife staff who are
attempting to stem the illegal tide,"
he added.
John Scanlon, Secretary-General
of CITES said, "This report provides
clear evidence that adequate human and financial
resources, the sharing of know-how, raising
public awareness in consumer countries,
and strong law enforcement must all be in
place if we are to curb the disturbing rise
in poaching and illegal trade."
The report recommends
critical actions, including improved law-enforcement
across the entire illegal ivory supply chain
and strengthened national legislative frameworks.
Training of enforcement officers in the
use of tracking, intelligence networks and
innovative techniques, such as forensic
analysis, is urgently needed.
"Urgent action
is needed to address the growing challenges
elephant populations are facing, but it
will only happen if there is adequate political
will to do so," said Dr Holly Dublin,
Chair of the IUCN/SSC African Elephant Specialist
Group.
Better international
collaboration across range states, transit
countries and consumer markets - through
the UN Office for Drugs and Crime, CITES,
INTERPOL, the World Customs Organization,
the World Bank and other international actors
? is needed in order to enhance law enforcement
- from the field to the judiciary - to deter
criminal activities and combat illegal trade.
These efforts include
the need to fight collusive corruption,
identifying syndicates and reducing demand.
"Organized criminal
networks are cashing in on the elephant
poaching crisis, trafficking ivory in unprecedented
volumes and operating with relative impunity
and with little fear of prosecution,"
said Tom Milliken, TRAFFIC's ivory trade
expert.
Elephants are also threatened
by the increasing loss of habitat in around
29 per cent of their range as a result of
rapid human population growth and agricultural
expansion.
Currently, some models
suggest this figure may increase to 63 per
cent by 2050, a major additional threat
to the survival of the elephant in the long-term.
Other key findings from
the report
Large-scale seizures
of ivory (consignments of over 800 kg) destined
for Asia have more than doubled since 2009
and reached an all-time high in 2011.
Large movements of ivory that comprise the
tusks of hundreds of elephants in a single
shipment are indicative of the increasingly
active grip of highly organized criminal
networks on Africa's illicit ivory trade.
These criminal networks operate with relative
impunity as there is almost no evidence
of successful arrests, prosecutions or convictions.
Globally, illegal ivory trade activity has
more than doubled since 2007, and is now
over three times larger than it was in 1998.
The prevalence of unregulated domestic ivory
markets in many African cities, coupled
with the growing number of Asian nationals
residing in Africa also facilitates the
illegal trade in ivory out of Africa.
Poaching is spreading primarily as a result
of weak governance and rising demand for
illegal ivory in the rapidly growing economies
of Asia, particularly China, which is the
world's largest destination markets.
The high levels of poaching are, in some
cases, facilitated by conflicts that, through
lawlessness and ensuing abundance of small
arms, provide optimal conditions for the
illegal killing of elephants.
The report - released in Bangkok, at the
16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties
to the CITES convention - combines information
from sources including the IUCN Species
Survival Commission (SSC) African Elephant
Specialist Group, MIKE and the Elephant
Trade Information System (ETIS), managed
by TRAFFIC on behalf of CITES.
Notes to Editors:
High resolution graphics
and photos from the report for use in media
are available at www.grida.no
Results from the report
were synthesized from the latest data based
on sources including the CITES-led Monitoring
the Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE)
Programme, the Elephant Trade Information
System (ETIS) and the IUCN/SSC African Elephant
Specialist Group (AfESG), the African and
Asian Elephant Database, the International
Consortium on Combating Wildlife Crime (ICCWC),
expert consultations and a range of other
sources.
+ More
CITES Conference Opens
Amid Calls to Combat Overfishing, Illegal
Logging and Wildlife Crime
Sun, Mar 3, 2013
Bangkok, 3 March 2013
- The Convention on International Trade
in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and
Flora (CITES) will hold its next triennial
conference in Bangkok from 3 to 14 March
to decide how to improve the world's wildlife
trade regime that has been in place for
40 years.
Some 2,000 delegates
representing 177 governments, indigenous
peoples, non-governmental organizations
and businesses are expected to attend and
discuss, among other things, 70 proposals
for amending the rules for specific species.
Many of these proposals reflect growing
international concern about the escalation
of poaching and illegal trafficking of wild
animals, the destruction of the world's
marine and forest resources through overfishing
and excessive logging and the risks that
wildlife crime represents for the security
of the planet.
FURTHER RESOURCES
CITES - COP 16
Opening Statement by UNEP Executive Director,
Achim Steiner
Opening Statement by CITES Secretary General,
John Scanlon
UNEP-WCMC at COP 16
"2013 is the 40th anniversary of CITES
and it will be a critical year for the world's
wildlife. CITES is known for taking meaningful
decisions that have an impact 'on-the-ground'.
CITES is where the 'rubber hits the road'
and the outcomes of our world wildlife conference
in 2013 will be of great significance to
the future of many species of plants and
animals", said John E. Scanlon, Secretary-General
of the Convention.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General
and Executive Director UN Environment Programme
(UNEP), said: "CITES is as relevant
today as it was four decades ago, indeed
perhaps even more so. As over-exploitation
of the world's critical natural resource
base continues on an unsustainable path,
ever more pressure is being put on species".
"Yet CITES alongside
many other international agreements provides
a wealth of examples where countries seizing
the opportunites from far more resource
efficient developmental pathways The outcomes
of Rio+20 and meetings like CITES offer
a focus for accelerating and scaling-up
positive environmental change with significant
social and economic outcomes," he added.
The 70 proposals submitted
by 55 countries from across all regions
of the world seek to improve the conservation
and sustainable use of marine species (including
several shark species) and timber species
(including over a 100 species from Madagascar),
the vicuna population of Ecuador, freshwater
turtles, frogs, crocodiles, ornamental and
medicinal plants and many other animals
and plants. Proposals addressing elephants,
white rhinoceros, and polar bears were also
submitted.
Governments will consider
and accept, reject or adjust these proposals
for amending the CITES Appendices at the
Conference of the Parties. The world's conference
will also consider: how CITES can further
enhance efforts to combat the illegal trade
in elephant ivory and rhino horn - and other
species; whether CITES should request the
Global Environment Facility to serve as
a financial mechanism for CITES - to assist
countries implement their obligations at
the national level; the potential impacts
of CITES measures on the livelihoods of
the rural poor, who are often on the frontlines
of using and managing wildlife; the use
of secret ballots; and whether 3 March,
the date of adoption of CITES in Washington
DC in 1973, should be declared as World
Wildlife Day.
Many of these proposals
are submitted jointly, including by producing
and consuming countries, and they reflect
the growing international concern about
the accelerating decline of biodiversity
through the illegal or unsustainable trade
of individual species.
The CITES Appendices
lists species that could be at risk and
whose import, export and re-export is controlled
through a permit system (Appendix II) and
species that are already threatened with
extinction and cannot be commercially traded
(Appendix I).
