There has been a global ban on ivory since 1989, but a new proposal from CITES (Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species), proposes to make legal the ivory trade again as a way to combat the increase of poaching of the African elephant.
The proposal would allow the sale of ivory from elephants that either died naturally or as a result of trophy hunting, or were considered a threat or culled for ecological reasons.
There are too many problems with such a proposal. One cannot expect to rely on "honesty" regading the killing of elephants considered a threat, or expect that death from natural causes would not include intentional and willful poisoning simply for the ivory of a dead elephant. And thirdly, trophy hunting of an endangered animal is unconscionable.
We ask CITES to keep the ban on ivory and to invest more in fighting the illegal poaching.
Mr. John Macfarlane Sellar
Chief of Enforcement
CITES Secretariat
Maison Internationale de l’Environnement
Chatelaine-Geneva, Switzerland 1219
Tel: +41-229178293
E-mail: john.sellar@cites.org
There has been a global ban on ivory since 1989, but a new proposal from CITES (Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species), proposes to make legal the ivory trade again as a way to combat the increase of poaching of the African elephant.
The proposal would allow the sale of ivory from elephants that either died naturally or as a result of trophy hunting, or were considered a threat or culled for ecological reasons.
There are too many problems with such a proposal. One cannot expect to rely on "honesty" regading the killing of elephants considered a threat, or expect that death from natural causes would not include intentional and willful poisoning simply for the ivory of a dead elephant. And thirdly, trophy hunting of an endangered animal is unconscionable.
We ask CITES to keep the ban on ivory and to invest more in fighting the illegal poaching.
