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We need a total ban on ivory salesBog'liq 1,2 - THE GUARDIAN WEEKLY Elementary (2)We need a total ban on ivory sales
Richard Leakey
Fifteen years ago, together with the ex-
president of Kenya, Daniel arap Moi, I set fire
to 2,000 elephant tusks. Television stations
around the world showed pictures of this
event. The tusks were worth millions of
dollars to Kenya, but it was important to show
the world that the only way to save the
elephants of Africa was to destroy the ivory
trade.
During the 1980s, the number of elephants in
Africa fell from 1.3 million to just 625,000.
This was a result of the ivory trade. During
this period Kenya lost 80% of its elephants.
Poachers killed most of these elephants. A
few months after we burnt the tusks, the UN
Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species (Cites) banned the ivory
trade, and the number of elephants killed fell
dramatically.
Recently Cites announced an “action plan” to
control the illegal ivory trade. The plan asks
African countries with large elephant
populations to ban unregulated domestic sales
of ivory but to allow regulated sales. But
conservationists say the plan does not do
enough to protect elephants.
People will only stop killing elephants if they
receive money for not killing them. Trade is
the main reason for the destruction of animal
species. Even a limited legal trade in ivory
will allow the illegal market to increase.
It is not surprising that the ban on the ivory
trade has ended. Cites agreed to allow
countries to sell old stocks of ivory. This
followed pressure from a few southern
African countries with protected elephant
populations, where poaching is not a problem.
Since then, poaching has increased again but
some countries want to increase the trade in
ivory. Namibia is asking Cites for an annual
ivory export quota, and also wants to sell
worked ivory and elephant hair and, with
South Africa, elephant leather.
These countries say they have the right to
earn money from their natural resources. This
may be true but you must remember that
many poorer countries are against this.
Kenya, supported by many other African
states, is proposing a 20-year moratorium on
ivory trade. The economics of the ivory trade
do not make sense. Most countries where
elephants live are poor, and the even a limited
trade in ivory would cause problems. It is
already difficult for these countries to protect
their elephants and allowing the ivory trade
again would bring poachers to these countries.
As the world’s human population grows,
people are destroying animal habitats in many
countries. I am in favour of giving financial
compensation to farmers if animals destroy
their land. However, as Kenya now has only
20% of the elephants it had in 1970, the
answer to this problem is to control the use of
land and not to kill animals.
Richard Leakey was director of the Kenya Wildlife
Service until 1999
The Guardian Weekly
15/10/2004, page 13
Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2004
Taken from the news section in
www.onestopenglish.com
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