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This is an ivory stockpile that was
destroyed by the US Fish and Wildlife service last year.
Credit: Julie Larsen Maher/WCS
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The
message is simple: to save elephants, all ivory markets must close
and all ivory stockpiles must be destroyed, according to a new
peer-reviewed paper by the Wildlife Conservation Society. The paper
says that corruption, organized crime, and a lack of enforcement make
any legal trade of ivory a major factor contributing to the demise of
Africa's elephants.
Appearing in the August 7th online
edition of the journal Conservation Biology, the paper says that if
we are to conserve significant wild populations of elephants across
all regions of Africa, all domestic and international ivory markets
need to be closed. In addition, government stockpiles of ivory,
currently scattered around the world, need to be destroyed since they
are known to be significant sources of ivory leaking into the illegal
trade. According to the paper's author, corruption undermines all
aspects of controls as long as a legal market remains.
"If we are to conserve remaining
wild populations of elephants, we must close all markets because,
under current levels of corruption, they cannot be controlled in a
way that does not provide opportunities for illegal ivory being
laundered into legal markets," said the paper's author,
Elizabeth Bennett, WCS Vice President for Species Conservation.
The paper looked at the corruption
index of 177 assessed countries, noting that half of the 12 countries
in Africa that contain elephants are in the bottom 40 percent. Six of
the eight countries identified by the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) as most
implicated in ivory trafficking globally are in the bottom half of
the most corrupt countries in the world.
The paper comes at a time of growing
opposition to ivory bans by some groups claiming that carefully
regulated ivory sales would help protect elephants and contribute to
conservation through sales of ivory stockpiles and other legal
sources.
Bennett refutes this saying that saying
that financial incentives to break the law and reap profits far
outweigh those of abiding by it, as poachers and traffickers can
rapidly pay their way out of trouble. Once illegal ivory has entered
into the legal trade, it is difficult or impossible for enforcement
officers to know what is legal and what is not.
Bennett says that with good enforcement
on the ground, the tide of poaching can be slowed. For example,
forest elephants in Central Africa occur in densities seven times
higher in sites with ecoguards than without them. However, the costs
of such site-based protection in terms of funds and human lives will
continue to increase and be unsustainable as long as ivory profits
continue to escalate giving ever-increasing incentives to kill
elephants illegally and traffic in their ivory.
Says Bennett: "In the long term,
the only sustainable solution is for the demand for ivory – the
ultimate driver of the system – to be reduced. Until that happens,
if elephants are to survive, we need to close existing legal
markets."
Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS)
Mission: WCS saves wildlife and wild
places worldwide through science, conservation action, education, and
inspiring people to value nature.
Vision: WCS envisions a world where
wildlife thrives in healthy lands and seas, valued by societies that
embrace and benefit from the diversity and integrity of life on
earth. To achieve our mission, WCS, based at the Bronx Zoo, harnesses
the power of its Global Conservation Program in more than 60 nations
and in all the world's oceans and its five wildlife parks in New York
City, visited by 4 million people annually. WCS combines its
expertise in the field, zoos, and aquarium to achieve its
conservation mission. Visit: http://www.wcs.org;
http://www.facebook.com/TheWCS; http://www.youtube.com/user/WCSMedia
Follow: @thewcs.
Contact: Stephen Sautner
ssautner@wcs.org
718-220-3682
Wildlife Conservation Society
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