Good People of the World,
Do you see how the irregular business idea
without borders, discipline or order has invited Political thugs to serve the
special greedy Corporate Special Business Interest who in a conspiracy,
engineered and sponsored Pirating, terrorism, offshoring, Militia Groups,
spillages of arm proliferation, drug trafficking, child prostitution and
phonograph, forced child labor in Militia insurgencies, currency trafficking,
Land Grabbing, Blood Diamond and Gold with Poaching, territorial invasions
insurgencies, extra-judicial killings without mercies, Crime, violation and
Abuse of Human Rights with pain and
sufferings becoming an order of the day……..as well as, environmental degradation and pollution that
altogether, has inflicted deeper
catastrophic effects endangering livelihood and survival are all reasons why,
domestic institutions are presently threatened and likewise, if the Domestic
Unity is in danger, the Community suffers and the Nation and ultimately the
whole world get the fever.
The irregular business idea are far from the
principles of fair sharing backed by principles of Democracy where Peoples
Government structures defines how Public Mandate is facilitated and services are
delivered and made accessible with ease to the public mutually for common good
of all in a balance.
Consequently,
the Free Market idea without borders have brought adverse quest for selfish
greed that has gone haywire but promoted and invited carelessness with extreme
wastes that are so complex with it uncertainties that threatens Peace with Unity
of Purpose and as a result, has puts the International Economic Crisis on the
edge of collapse never seen in the world before …….. all in the name of Free
Trading that add no value but endangers the
world.............
This
is why, to stop Kagame and Musevenis madness, ICC Hague is the most secure best
place to handle the occurrences Human Rights Injustices of genocide and
atrocities that are a menace in the Great Lakes Region of East Africa and are
threatening the world with Militia gangs of Millionaires of the
world…………
And,
if we do not fix it now, who will and
when???
Judy Miriga
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
Diaspora Spokesperson
Executive Director
Confederation Council Foundation for Africa Inc.,
USA
http://socioeconomicforum50.blogspot.com
------------------------------------------------
Uganda: Kenya Seizes Uganda's Smuggled Ivory Destined for Turkey
9 October 2013Kenyan officials have seized more than 1,600 pieces of illegal ivory in the past week weighing almost five tonnes and hidden inside sesame seed sacks destined for Turkey, wildlife officials said.
Poaching has surged across sub-Saharan Africa, where armed criminal gangs are slaughtering elephants to feed Asia's demand for ivory and rhinos whose horns are ground into powder for use in Asian medicines.
"(The ivory) came through the Kenya-Uganda border stashed in sacks, and they were hidden ... in two 40-foot containers," Arthur Tuda, Kenya Wildlife Service's (KWS) officer in charge of Coast region, told reporters late on Tuesday. "Export documents declared the containers as carrying sesame seeds."
The ivory was found in two separate seizures and valued at a total of 97 million shillings ($1.14 million), the largest weekly haul in the past five years.
A customs official said smugglers were increasingly shipping the contraband through countries not normally associated with demand for ivory and rhino horn powder to avoid raising authorities' suspicions.
DNA studies would be conducted to determine where the ivory originated from, KWS said. ($1 = 84.8500 Kenyan shillings) Reuters
--------------------------------------------
Kenya seizes more smuggled ivory destined for Malaysia
MOMBASA, Kenya |
(Reuters) - Kenyan officials have impounded another large consignment of smuggled elephant ivory barely a week after intercepting a similar haul, highlighting the rise of poaching in Africa.
The ivory, weighing 3.3 metric tons and valued at 65 million shillings ($748,400), was impounded this week. It had been wrapped in gunny sacks and declared as groundnuts being shipped to Malaysia from Kenya's capital, Nairobi, officials said on Tuesday.
"From the ivory we see displayed, we can clearly conclude that this haul amounts to over 200 elephants that were killed," said Fatuma Yusuf, a senior Kenya Revenue Authority official whose team discovered the ivory at the port.
Two other containers suspected of containing ivory are due for inspection, officials at the port city of Mombasa, east Africa's main trade gateway, said.
The seized consignment comprised 382 whole pieces and 62 cut pieces of ivory. Together with the ivory inside the container were unprocessed groundnuts.
On Wednesday, officials seized 775 pieces of ivory weighing 1.3 metric tons, also at the port, hidden under fish and destined for Malaysia from Uganda.
Poaching has risen in recent years across sub-Saharan Africa where well armed criminal gangs have killed elephants for tusks and rhinos for their horns that are often shipped to Asia for use in ornaments and medicines.
Arthur Tuda, the assistant director of Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) in Coast region, said that from his assessment, the ivory appeared to have been extracted from the savannah elephants which he said were characterized by big tusks.
"These elephants occur from central, east and all the way to South Africa. The tusks are definitely from very mature elephants, perhaps 50 or more years old. One of the tusks is seven feet long and weighing 46 kgs (101 lb), clearly from a very mature elephant," Tuda told journalists.
The seizure comes barely two months after customs officials in United Arab Emirates seized 259 pieces of ivory shipped from Mombasa, a port that has long been seen as a transit point for drugs and other contraband goods.
While in Tanzania on his recent tour of Africa, U.S. President Barack Obama announced a $10 million plan to help curb illegal trafficking in rhino horn, elephant tusks and body parts from other endangered wildlife across Africa.
A senior director of KWS said Kenya had been given a six- month ultimatum to curb poaching and smuggling of game trophies, by the convention on international trade in endangered species of wild life, CITES. Failure would result in Kenya being blacklisted.
Kenya's cabinet this year approved stiffer fines and lengthy jail sentences for anyone convicted of poaching or trafficking in wildlife trophies, saying poaching was harming tourism, a major foreign exchange earner.
(Writing by James Macharia)
---------------------------------------------------
(Reuters) - Kenyan officials have impounded another large consignment of smuggled elephant ivory barely a week after intercepting a similar haul, highlighting the rise of poaching in Africa.
The ivory, weighing 3.3 metric tons and valued at 65 million shillings ($748,400), was impounded this week. It had been wrapped in gunny sacks and declared as groundnuts being shipped to Malaysia from Kenya's capital, Nairobi, officials said on Tuesday.
"From the ivory we see displayed, we can clearly conclude that this haul amounts to over 200 elephants that were killed," said Fatuma Yusuf, a senior Kenya Revenue Authority official whose team discovered the ivory at the port.
Two other containers suspected of containing ivory are due for inspection, officials at the port city of Mombasa, east Africa's main trade gateway, said.
The seized consignment comprised 382 whole pieces and 62 cut pieces of ivory. Together with the ivory inside the container were unprocessed groundnuts.
On Wednesday, officials seized 775 pieces of ivory weighing 1.3 metric tons, also at the port, hidden under fish and destined for Malaysia from Uganda.
Poaching has risen in recent years across sub-Saharan Africa where well armed criminal gangs have killed elephants for tusks and rhinos for their horns that are often shipped to Asia for use in ornaments and medicines.
Arthur Tuda, the assistant director of Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) in Coast region, said that from his assessment, the ivory appeared to have been extracted from the savannah elephants which he said were characterized by big tusks.
"These elephants occur from central, east and all the way to South Africa. The tusks are definitely from very mature elephants, perhaps 50 or more years old. One of the tusks is seven feet long and weighing 46 kgs (101 lb), clearly from a very mature elephant," Tuda told journalists.
The seizure comes barely two months after customs officials in United Arab Emirates seized 259 pieces of ivory shipped from Mombasa, a port that has long been seen as a transit point for drugs and other contraband goods.
While in Tanzania on his recent tour of Africa, U.S. President Barack Obama announced a $10 million plan to help curb illegal trafficking in rhino horn, elephant tusks and body parts from other endangered wildlife across Africa.
A senior director of KWS said Kenya had been given a six- month ultimatum to curb poaching and smuggling of game trophies, by the convention on international trade in endangered species of wild life, CITES. Failure would result in Kenya being blacklisted.
Kenya's cabinet this year approved stiffer fines and lengthy jail sentences for anyone convicted of poaching or trafficking in wildlife trophies, saying poaching was harming tourism, a major foreign exchange earner.
(Writing by James Macharia)
---------------------------------------------------
US wakes up to illegal ivory
trade
------------------------------------------
Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
theguardian.com,
Jump to comments (17)
---------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------
The world has watched in horror as the scale of the
Al-Shabaab attack on the Westgate shopping centre in Nairobi unfolded. It was
the latest – and largest – attack in the campaign by the terrorist group which
has spread across Africa. Up to 40% of the funds that Al-Shabaab needs to
undertake these terrorist attacks comes from ivory buyers and
consumers.
While much press is targeted at the elephant poacher the reality is that they are there to meet the demands of a market. It is the consumer and buyer of ivory – whether for ornamental purposes or consumption in medicinal ‘cure’ – that creates the market and sends funds to the terrorist groups.
In an investigation in 2011, Nir Kalron (Founder & CEO of Maisha Consulting) and Andrea Crosta (Executive Director & Co-Founder of the Elephant Action League), discovered that 40% of funding to keep Al-Shabaab operational came from elephant poaching and ivory smuggling activities. It’s not just ivory that the terrorist group is involved with, rhino horn is also a lucrative trade that helps them buy guns, ammunition and explosives.
Al-Shabaab in 2011 were earning between $200,000 and $600,000 a month from ivory sales which helps top pay their soldiers and terrorists a higher wage and better living conditions than rangers and soldiers of governments. With an estimated wage bill (in 2011) of $1.5 million a month ivory sales can contribute up to 40% of the organisations operational costs.
Following the recent announcement by the White House to boost its actions against poaching a hearing was held by the U.S. International Conservation Caucus. At that meeting Ian Saunders, founder of Tsavo Trust, revealed that the Al Qaeda attacks on the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salam during 1998 cost and estimated $50,000 – or the street value of less than 2 decent size elephant tusks.
In 2012 the estimated retail value of black-market ivory was about $1800 a kilogramme. With adult elephant tusks weighing up to 50kg or even 70kg the rewards for Al-Shabaab are high. The profits are so high because Al-Shabaab controls so much of the middle section of the supply chain. They pay poachers less than $100 for a pair of adult tusks.
Earlier this year the Kenya Wildlife Service announced that they had launched an investigation in to the scale of involvement of Al-Shabaab in poaching in Kenya.
Elgiva Bwire, who is currently in prison in Kenya for Al-Shabaab terrorist offences, has claimed that the South Kitui Game Reserve and Kora National Reserve are major hide-outs for Al-Shabaab in Kenya. The parks have a long history of problems with poachers. Kora National Reserve was made a national park in 1989 following the murder of George Adamson and two colleagues by poachers.
The link between terrorism and ivory is now so strong that the term ‘blood ivory’ has been coined. Those who buy ivory now are actively supporting terrorism around the world and the murder of innocent people including children.
The former director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, Julius Kipng’etich, in March 2012 told the US Congressional Staff that Al-Shabaab was so involved in poaching that he asked people to stop wearing ivory based jewellery as doing so was effectively supporting groups such as Al-Shabaab and Al-Qaeda
External sites:
Africa’s White Gold of Jihad: Al Shabaab and Conflict Ivory,
The African Poaching Crisis & America’s Responsibility.
Kitui reserves are terrorist ‘safe havens’
http://wildlifenews.co.uk/2013/ivory-buyers-helped-fund-the-nairobi-massacre/
-------------------------------------------------
How elephant poaching helped fund Kenya terrorist attack
The recent terrorist attack in Kenya may not seem like a story about sustainability or the environment, but in fact there is a disturbing connection between the deadly attack at the Westgate mall in Nairobi, which has left at least 68 dead and more than 150 injured and the illegal ivory trade that fuels poaching of elephants, rhinos and other wildlife.
Two weeks ago, I wrote about the United States taking more action in the fight against illegal wildlife trafficking. In July, President Obama issued an executive order establishing a cabinet-level Task Force on Wildlife Trafficking, which has this month formed an advisory council including cabinet members, as well as executives from the major anti-trafficking and wildlife conservation organizations. The US has also announced plans to destroy its 25-year-old stockpile of seized ivory to send a message to the world about crisis of the ivory trade.
All of this is being done, not simply to preserve the lives and ecosystem benefits of rhinos and elephants, but also because the United States now sees wildlife trafficking as national security threat. Why? Because poaching and illegal wildlife trafficking is a major source of funding for terrorist groups, including Al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda-backed Somali terror group responsible for Saturday's attack in the Nairobi mall.
TIME magazine's Ishaan Tharoor explains the recent history of Al-Shabaab:
Three years ago, The Elephant Action League published an 18-month-long investigation that found that Al-Shabaab's trafficking of ivory through Kenya "could be supplying up to 40% of the funds needed to keep them in business."
Two weeks ago, Hilary Clinton spoke at the White House Forum to Counter Wildlife Trafficking and cited this increased militarization of poaching as a reason for the US to become more involved:
Highlighting this connection between the sale of ivory and violence is important because a powerful tool in combating the demand for poached ivory is to so thoroughly taint the image of ivory goods that potential consumers are shamed and discouraged from ever buying ivory again.
For more on the ivory trade, ABC News had a good segment on the challenges of distinguishing "illegal" ivory from that which was on the market before the ban was in place.
http://www.treehugger.com/endangered-species/how-elephant-poaching-helped-fund-kenyan-terrorist-attack.html
---------------------------------------------
These Are Definitely criminal tugs and terrorist in my
opinion, Habar-gidir Hawiye
Jehadist barbaric pirates are the the worst
ones
The devastating Somali civil war since 1991 forced the Somali marine and fisheries sector to an abrupt collapse and almost all Somali fisheries activities shut down. The vessels of the Somali national fishing fleet were abducted and have never been returned. It is estimated that at least 200,000 people lost their jobs and the Somali fishing communities are still struggling to recover. However, illegal fishing by foreign fleets and the more serious nuclear and toxic waste dumping from the industrialised world pose since then an environmental, socio-economic and ecological threat, which is unparalleled.Very sophisticated factory-style fishing-vessels, which were designed for distant-water fishing and travel from faraway countries, whose harbours are thousands of miles away from Somalia and whose own fisheries resources are either under tight legal protection or already drastically overexploited, poured into the unprotected Somali waters.
They are in search of high-priced tuna, mackerel, swordfish, grouper, emperor, snapper, shark and of course the other valuable species in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. With impunity they rob rock-lobster and shrimps for the tables of the wealthiest in this world, and dolphins, sea turtles and sea-cucumbers for the deranged tastes of the Far East. They have diminished the extraordinary population of dugong to near extinction.Their task is solely oriented toward short-term gains, knowing the ecological limits, since Somalia does not only experience political but also resource displacement. Besides civil strife and outright war, the massive foreign fishing piracy, bringing criminal poaching and wanton destruction of the Somali marine resources for the last 19 years, may be one of the most damaging factors for the country, economically, environmentally and security-wise.While biased UN resolutions, big power orders and news reports continue to condemn the hijackings of merchant ships by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, pirate fishing was and is ignored. Why are the UN resolutions, NATO orders and EU decrees to invade the Somali seas persistently failing to include the protection of the Somali marine resources from IUU violations in the same
----------------------------------------------------
Elephants
machine gunned for ivory. Rhinos driven nearly to extinction. Forest rangers
murdered. The illegal international trade in endangered species has integrated
with organized crime and militant groups worldwide, warns a wildlife report out
Monday.
Despite long-standing worldwide concern over endangered species, the "Criminal Nature" report released by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) details how wildlife crime has grown into the fourth-largest branch of illegal international trade in the past half-decade. Now worth $19 billion annually, the black market in animals and their parts, notably ivory and furs, threatens to eradicate many of the most iconic of wild species, such as rhinos, elephants and tigers.
"Within the last few years, poaching has grown tremendously from one-off killings to wholesale massacres using automatic weapons," says IFAW's Beth Allgood.
About 1,000 forest rangers worldwide have been killed in the past decade, she notes, often at the hands of militants involved in insurgencies. "We can't just see this as an environmental problem anymore, when it has grown into a criminal and security one."
The report comes as international observers have become more concerned about links between the illegal animal trade and terror groups in Africa and Asia. Last November, then-secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton declared illegal wildlife trade a security threat. In May, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon released a report linking the Lord's Resistance Army militant group to the illegal ivory trade and slaughter of elephants in Central Africa. Rebel groups killed 450 elephants in 2012 at a national park in Cameroon, for example, and more elephant massacres have happened there this year and in Chad and the Central African Republic. Worldwide demand for illegal ivory has driven the price of rhino tusk, used in folk medicines, to values exceeding gold and platinum.
"The recommendations in the report are in close alignment with the Department's own strategy to combat wildlife trafficking," said State Department spokeswoman Beth Gosselin, by email. "We welcome the release of this report."
Overall, the report draws a picture of militant
groups worldwide increasingly turning to mass poaching to supply international
organized wildlife smuggling rings in exchange for arms. More than just Africa's
lions, elephants and rhinos are threatened:
"It's time the world wakes up to this threat," says Richard Jenkins, manager of the IUCN Global Species Programme, an international wildlife science group that monitors the status of endangered species. Gains in preserving species made in past decades, through building parks and reserves staffed by rangers, have been overtaken by increasing instability in Africa, Jenkins says. "We have to look for greater cooperation with agencies that have more experience with criminal and security issues."
China, the USA and Europe are the leading markets for the illegal trade, the report concludes, calling for elevating wildlife crime penalties to equal those in human-trafficking and narcotics crimes. International trade organizations and military alliances should take steps to monitor and halt the trade as well. "If you don't care about animals, you should care about the instability fueled by the international trade in some of the world's poorest countries drawing us into their conflicts," Jenkins says.
Demand for illegal wildlife goods, from elephant ivory to antelope shawls needs to be reduced through education, says Allgood. "My advice is that tourists should think twice before they buy," she says, noting many people are unaware of the role that demand for illegal wildlife goods plays in driving species to extinction. It is illegal to bring any ivory back in the U.S., she notes, unless it is a trophy with appropriate paperwork, or antique ivory with a permit. "Preferably, decide not to," she says.
Park ranger Benjamin Kalimutima Lulimba
with the skull of an elephant killed for its ivory. Security forces in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo have been accused of complicity in attacks on
rangers by marauding militias exploiting animals and minerals. Photograph:
Francesca Tosarelli
African elephants have been thrust into the global
spotlight by four events in the US: the Clinton Global Initiative last week, the March for Elephants on 4 October, the sentencing of American ivory trafficker Victor Gordon on 7
October [update: this has been rescheduled to February 2014], and the
crushing of 6 tons of US-held ivory in Denver on 8
October.
At the Clinton Global initiative, seven African nations joined Hillary and Chelsea Clinton in a commitment to end the slaughter of elephants by banning domestic trade in ivory, stopping the killing of elephants, the trafficking of ivory, and the demand for ivory. The countries were Botswana, Cote D'Ivoire, Gabon, Kenya, South Sudan, Malawi and Uganda.
Richard Leakey, founder of WildlifeDirect and the man who is credited with saving elephants from extinction by engineering the first ever and most iconic bonfire of ivory in 1989, said:
Some of the ivory seized during the arrest
of Victor Gordon in 2011. Photograph: USFWS Any time in jail is
bad in Kenya, but WildlifeDirect says this is still not enough and is pushing
for seizure of assets, prosecution under the Organised crime Act and Economic
Crimes Act, and minimum jail sentences of 15 years in proposed new legislation
that is expected to pass in coming weeks.
Next up is the Elephant March. Millions of people are expected to participate on 4 October in cities around the world. This is one of the things that citizens around the world can do to demonstrate their concern about the elephant slaughter.
Later, the US Fish and Wildlife Service will make an international statement by crushing six tons of elephant ivory seized by its special agents and wildlife inspectors for violations of US wildlife laws.
All this attention to elephants is well-deserved. Ivory is leaving Africa at an unprecedented rate, part of a surge in poaching that could lead to the extinction of the elephant within 10 years if it is not halted. But it isn't just about elephants.
The illegal trade in ivory is fueling conflicts and terrorism including the deadly attacks on a shopping mall in Kenya, and the US is not exempt from the problem.
Ironically ivory trade is permitted in the US and while it involves mostly old pre-ban ivory, like the situation in China, the legal trade is being used as a cover for a significant amount of illegal trade. Although China is ranked as the top consumer of illegal ivory, the US is considered the second largest market in the world.
The ivory crush will include ivory items seized last year when the US Fish and Wildlife Service seized more than $2m worth of ivory from two New York City shops. Dan Stiles writes in Swara Magazine that New York and San Francisco "appear to be gateway cities for illegal ivory import in the USA … China is not the only culprit promoting elephant poaching through its illegal ivory markets. The USA is right there with them."
Finally, we have the case of a Philadelphia-based ivory smuggler, Victor Gordon, who was arrested in connection with one of the largest US seizures of illegally imported ivory in July 2011. More than one ton of elephant ivory was seized. He pleaded guilty on 27 September 2012 and faces up to 20 years in prison.
His lawyer, Daniel-Paul Alva, told the Wall Street Journal his client has been co-operating with the investigation, and was "an innocent dupe". He has already managed to postpone his sentencing for more than a year. This would be unthinkable in Africa.
At the Clinton Global initiative, seven African nations joined Hillary and Chelsea Clinton in a commitment to end the slaughter of elephants by banning domestic trade in ivory, stopping the killing of elephants, the trafficking of ivory, and the demand for ivory. The countries were Botswana, Cote D'Ivoire, Gabon, Kenya, South Sudan, Malawi and Uganda.
Richard Leakey, founder of WildlifeDirect and the man who is credited with saving elephants from extinction by engineering the first ever and most iconic bonfire of ivory in 1989, said:
"I congratulate Senator Clinton for her actions and commitment and am all for each nation taking responsibility for saving one of the world's most magnificent animals. I hope that the USA will follow Africa and ban domestic trade in ivory … and provide support for strategic African initiatives to save elephants and stop the poaching."A study by WildlifeDirect reveals that fewer than 5% of convictions for wildlife crimes lead to jail sentences. Not surprisingly, suspected elephant killers and ivory traffickers plead guilty in order to hasten the case and gain a light sentence. Most cases last only 24 hours and most convictions result in a fine of $100-$300. The laxity of the courts had been driving impunity and encouraging poaching, but now the magistrates are delivering jail sentences of three to five years.
Some of the ivory seized during the arrest
of Victor Gordon in 2011. Photograph: USFWS Any time in jail is
bad in Kenya, but WildlifeDirect says this is still not enough and is pushing
for seizure of assets, prosecution under the Organised crime Act and Economic
Crimes Act, and minimum jail sentences of 15 years in proposed new legislation
that is expected to pass in coming weeks.Next up is the Elephant March. Millions of people are expected to participate on 4 October in cities around the world. This is one of the things that citizens around the world can do to demonstrate their concern about the elephant slaughter.
Later, the US Fish and Wildlife Service will make an international statement by crushing six tons of elephant ivory seized by its special agents and wildlife inspectors for violations of US wildlife laws.
All this attention to elephants is well-deserved. Ivory is leaving Africa at an unprecedented rate, part of a surge in poaching that could lead to the extinction of the elephant within 10 years if it is not halted. But it isn't just about elephants.
The illegal trade in ivory is fueling conflicts and terrorism including the deadly attacks on a shopping mall in Kenya, and the US is not exempt from the problem.
Ironically ivory trade is permitted in the US and while it involves mostly old pre-ban ivory, like the situation in China, the legal trade is being used as a cover for a significant amount of illegal trade. Although China is ranked as the top consumer of illegal ivory, the US is considered the second largest market in the world.
The ivory crush will include ivory items seized last year when the US Fish and Wildlife Service seized more than $2m worth of ivory from two New York City shops. Dan Stiles writes in Swara Magazine that New York and San Francisco "appear to be gateway cities for illegal ivory import in the USA … China is not the only culprit promoting elephant poaching through its illegal ivory markets. The USA is right there with them."
Finally, we have the case of a Philadelphia-based ivory smuggler, Victor Gordon, who was arrested in connection with one of the largest US seizures of illegally imported ivory in July 2011. More than one ton of elephant ivory was seized. He pleaded guilty on 27 September 2012 and faces up to 20 years in prison.
His lawyer, Daniel-Paul Alva, told the Wall Street Journal his client has been co-operating with the investigation, and was "an innocent dupe". He has already managed to postpone his sentencing for more than a year. This would be unthinkable in Africa.
---------------------------------------
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each week including data, opinion pieces and
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The plight of elephants is in the
spotlight thanks to Hillary Clinton, the courts and the American public
Park ranger Benjamin Kalimutima Lulimba
with the skull of an elephant killed for its ivory. Security forces in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo have been accused of complicity in attacks on
rangers by marauding militias exploiting animals and minerals. Photograph:
Francesca Tosarelli
African elephants have been thrust into the global
spotlight by four events in the US: the Clinton Global Initiative last week, the March for Elephants on 4 October, the sentencing of American ivory trafficker Victor Gordon on 7
October [update: this has been rescheduled to February 2014], and the
crushing of 6 tons of US-held ivory in Denver on 8
October.
At the Clinton Global initiative, seven African nations joined Hillary and Chelsea Clinton in a commitment to end the slaughter of elephants by banning domestic trade in ivory, stopping the killing of elephants, the trafficking of ivory, and the demand for ivory. The countries were Botswana, Cote D'Ivoire, Gabon, Kenya, South Sudan, Malawi and Uganda.
Richard Leakey, founder of WildlifeDirect and the man who is credited with saving elephants from extinction by engineering the first ever and most iconic bonfire of ivory in 1989, said:
Some of the ivory seized during the arrest
of Victor Gordon in 2011. Photograph: USFWS
Any time in jail is bad in Kenya, but WildlifeDirect says this is still not enough and is pushing for seizure of assets, prosecution under the Organised crime Act and Economic Crimes Act, and minimum jail sentences of 15 years in proposed new legislation that is expected to pass in coming weeks.
Next up is the Elephant March. Millions of people are expected to participate on 4 October in cities around the world. This is one of the things that citizens around the world can do to demonstrate their concern about the elephant slaughter.
Later, the US Fish and Wildlife Service will make an international statement by crushing six tons of elephant ivory seized by its special agents and wildlife inspectors for violations of US wildlife laws.
All this attention to elephants is well-deserved. Ivory is leaving Africa at an unprecedented rate, part of a surge in poaching that could lead to the extinction of the elephant within 10 years if it is not halted. But it isn't just about elephants.
The illegal trade in ivory is fueling conflicts and terrorism including the deadly attacks on a shopping mall in Kenya, and the US is not exempt from the problem.
Ironically ivory trade is permitted in the US and while it involves mostly old pre-ban ivory, like the situation in China, the legal trade is being used as a cover for a significant amount of illegal trade. Although China is ranked as the top consumer of illegal ivory, the US is considered the second largest market in the world.
The ivory crush will include ivory items seized last year when the US Fish and Wildlife Service seized more than $2m worth of ivory from two New York City shops. Dan Stiles writes in Swara Magazine that New York and San Francisco "appear to be gateway cities for illegal ivory import in the USA … China is not the only culprit promoting elephant poaching through its illegal ivory markets. The USA is right there with them."
Finally, we have the case of a Philadelphia-based ivory smuggler, Victor Gordon, who was arrested in connection with one of the largest US seizures of illegally imported ivory in July 2011. More than one ton of elephant ivory was seized. He pleaded guilty on 27 September 2012 and faces up to 20 years in prison.
His lawyer, Daniel-Paul Alva, told the Wall Street Journal his client has been co-operating with the investigation, and was "an innocent dupe". He has already managed to postpone his sentencing for more than a year. This would be unthinkable in Africa.
At the Clinton Global initiative, seven African nations joined Hillary and Chelsea Clinton in a commitment to end the slaughter of elephants by banning domestic trade in ivory, stopping the killing of elephants, the trafficking of ivory, and the demand for ivory. The countries were Botswana, Cote D'Ivoire, Gabon, Kenya, South Sudan, Malawi and Uganda.
Richard Leakey, founder of WildlifeDirect and the man who is credited with saving elephants from extinction by engineering the first ever and most iconic bonfire of ivory in 1989, said:
"I congratulate Senator Clinton for her actions and commitment and am all for each nation taking responsibility for saving one of the world's most magnificent animals. I hope that the USA will follow Africa and ban domestic trade in ivory … and provide support for strategic African initiatives to save elephants and stop the poaching."A study by WildlifeDirect reveals that fewer than 5% of convictions for wildlife crimes lead to jail sentences. Not surprisingly, suspected elephant killers and ivory traffickers plead guilty in order to hasten the case and gain a light sentence. Most cases last only 24 hours and most convictions result in a fine of $100-$300. The laxity of the courts had been driving impunity and encouraging poaching, but now the magistrates are delivering jail sentences of three to five years.
Some of the ivory seized during the arrest
of Victor Gordon in 2011. Photograph: USFWS Any time in jail is bad in Kenya, but WildlifeDirect says this is still not enough and is pushing for seizure of assets, prosecution under the Organised crime Act and Economic Crimes Act, and minimum jail sentences of 15 years in proposed new legislation that is expected to pass in coming weeks.
Next up is the Elephant March. Millions of people are expected to participate on 4 October in cities around the world. This is one of the things that citizens around the world can do to demonstrate their concern about the elephant slaughter.
Later, the US Fish and Wildlife Service will make an international statement by crushing six tons of elephant ivory seized by its special agents and wildlife inspectors for violations of US wildlife laws.
All this attention to elephants is well-deserved. Ivory is leaving Africa at an unprecedented rate, part of a surge in poaching that could lead to the extinction of the elephant within 10 years if it is not halted. But it isn't just about elephants.
The illegal trade in ivory is fueling conflicts and terrorism including the deadly attacks on a shopping mall in Kenya, and the US is not exempt from the problem.
Ironically ivory trade is permitted in the US and while it involves mostly old pre-ban ivory, like the situation in China, the legal trade is being used as a cover for a significant amount of illegal trade. Although China is ranked as the top consumer of illegal ivory, the US is considered the second largest market in the world.
The ivory crush will include ivory items seized last year when the US Fish and Wildlife Service seized more than $2m worth of ivory from two New York City shops. Dan Stiles writes in Swara Magazine that New York and San Francisco "appear to be gateway cities for illegal ivory import in the USA … China is not the only culprit promoting elephant poaching through its illegal ivory markets. The USA is right there with them."
Finally, we have the case of a Philadelphia-based ivory smuggler, Victor Gordon, who was arrested in connection with one of the largest US seizures of illegally imported ivory in July 2011. More than one ton of elephant ivory was seized. He pleaded guilty on 27 September 2012 and faces up to 20 years in prison.
His lawyer, Daniel-Paul Alva, told the Wall Street Journal his client has been co-operating with the investigation, and was "an innocent dupe". He has already managed to postpone his sentencing for more than a year. This would be unthinkable in Africa.
------------------------------------------
Hillary and Chelsea Clinton unveil $80m effort to fight illegal ivory trade
Clinton Global Initiative
supports renewed effort to protect African elephants from poachers chasing
lucrative profits
Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
Nearly 100 African elephants are killed
for their ivory every day. Photo: IFAW/EPA
Hillary and Chelsea Clinton on Thursday deployed their
mother-daughter star power to help the effort to save African elephants,
brokering an $80m effort to stop the ivory poaching which threatens the animals with extinction.
The crackdown on 50 poaching hot spots in Africa involves several conservation groups and African governments. But conservation leaders, unveiling the plan at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) annual meeting, went out of their way to credit Hillary Clinton for giving prominence to the issue of the illegal trade in wildlife while she was secretary of state.
"She has been directly involved," said Cristián Samper, president of the Wildlife Conservation Society, at a press conference. "She personally reached out to a number of African leaders."
The CGI anti-poaching plan was the first big international cause championed by Hillary Clinton after she stepped down as secretary of state at the start of this year, after four years in the job. Clinton also gave prominence to wildlife trafficking as a national security threat during her time in the Obama administration. The White House has also taken up the issue, with a new initiative to stop poaching.
The funds now mobilised will be used to hire and train 3,100 park rangers at 50 sites in eastern and central Africa; to fund sniffer-dog teams along the top smuggling routes; and to train law-enforcement officials and judges responsible for prosecuting international trafficking gangs. The CGI is looking to raise an additional $70m for the anti-poaching plan over the next three years.
Stopping the illegal trade in wildlife will take a far broader effort than arresting individual poachers, the conservation groups said.
"The poor guy that goes out there with a gun, they are cannon fodder," said Patrick Bergin, president of the African Wildlife Foundation. "We need to go higher up the food chain. There are people commissioning this ivory."
About 285,000 elephants – or two-thirds of the entire elephant population in Africa – live in the targeted areas. The money will also be used to lobby for a ban on all commercial ivory sales until elephant populations are brought back to healthy levels in Africa, conservation leaders said.
Hillary Clinton speaks at the 2013 Clinton
Global Initiative, in New York. Photo: Rex Hillary and Chelsea
Clinton were introduced to the poaching threat to elephants during a visit to
Africa in 1997. Chelsea Clinton made a return trip last July. The Clintons'
involvement boosts the profile of the fight against the illegal wildlife trade
at a time when the elephants need it most, conservation leaders said. Some 95
African elephants are killed every day for their ivory – park rangers in Zimbabwe this week found the corpses of 90 that
had been poisoned with cyanide – in an illegal trade that has grown
exponentially since the late 1990s.
A kilo of ivory can sell for $3,000 to collectors in China or America – the prospect of huge profits has attracted criminal gangs and rebel militias, such as the Lord's Resistance Army, which originated in Uganda, or al-Shabaab in Somalia, which claimed last weekend's deadly attack on a Nairobi mall.
The initiative announced on Thursday brings together the main conservation groups, including the Wildlife Conservation Society, the African Wildlife Foundation, Conservation International, the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the World Wildlife Fund, as well as a number of African governments. These include Botswana, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Kenya, South Sudan, Malawi and Uganda.
The crackdown on 50 poaching hot spots in Africa involves several conservation groups and African governments. But conservation leaders, unveiling the plan at the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) annual meeting, went out of their way to credit Hillary Clinton for giving prominence to the issue of the illegal trade in wildlife while she was secretary of state.
"She has been directly involved," said Cristián Samper, president of the Wildlife Conservation Society, at a press conference. "She personally reached out to a number of African leaders."
The CGI anti-poaching plan was the first big international cause championed by Hillary Clinton after she stepped down as secretary of state at the start of this year, after four years in the job. Clinton also gave prominence to wildlife trafficking as a national security threat during her time in the Obama administration. The White House has also taken up the issue, with a new initiative to stop poaching.
The funds now mobilised will be used to hire and train 3,100 park rangers at 50 sites in eastern and central Africa; to fund sniffer-dog teams along the top smuggling routes; and to train law-enforcement officials and judges responsible for prosecuting international trafficking gangs. The CGI is looking to raise an additional $70m for the anti-poaching plan over the next three years.
Stopping the illegal trade in wildlife will take a far broader effort than arresting individual poachers, the conservation groups said.
"The poor guy that goes out there with a gun, they are cannon fodder," said Patrick Bergin, president of the African Wildlife Foundation. "We need to go higher up the food chain. There are people commissioning this ivory."
About 285,000 elephants – or two-thirds of the entire elephant population in Africa – live in the targeted areas. The money will also be used to lobby for a ban on all commercial ivory sales until elephant populations are brought back to healthy levels in Africa, conservation leaders said.
Hillary Clinton speaks at the 2013 Clinton
Global Initiative, in New York. Photo: Rex Hillary and Chelsea
Clinton were introduced to the poaching threat to elephants during a visit to
Africa in 1997. Chelsea Clinton made a return trip last July. The Clintons'
involvement boosts the profile of the fight against the illegal wildlife trade
at a time when the elephants need it most, conservation leaders said. Some 95
African elephants are killed every day for their ivory – park rangers in Zimbabwe this week found the corpses of 90 that
had been poisoned with cyanide – in an illegal trade that has grown
exponentially since the late 1990s.A kilo of ivory can sell for $3,000 to collectors in China or America – the prospect of huge profits has attracted criminal gangs and rebel militias, such as the Lord's Resistance Army, which originated in Uganda, or al-Shabaab in Somalia, which claimed last weekend's deadly attack on a Nairobi mall.
The initiative announced on Thursday brings together the main conservation groups, including the Wildlife Conservation Society, the African Wildlife Foundation, Conservation International, the International Fund for Animal Welfare and the World Wildlife Fund, as well as a number of African governments. These include Botswana, Ivory Coast, Gabon, Kenya, South Sudan, Malawi and Uganda.
---------------------------------------
Chinese ivory smuggler jailed in Kenya
Chinese woman jailed for over two years
for attempting to smuggle ivory in macadamia nut packaging
A Chinese woman, Chen Biemei, was jailed
by a Kenyan court for 2 years and 7 months for attempting to smuggle ivory out
of Kenya in this macadamia nut packets, August 2013. Photograph:
WildlifeDirect
In what was described as a victory for the Kenyan
Public, a Chinese woman, Chen Biemei, has been jailed by a Kenyan court for 2
years and 7 months for attempting to smuggle ivory out of the
country.
"This is a win for the people of Kenya whose voices have been heard by the government and that it is serious about doing the right thing," said Richard Leakey, conservationist and the founder of the charity WildlifeDirect, on learning the news. He was referring to the fact that the conviction and sentence was allowed despite the fact that Kenya's president, Uhuru Kenyatta, is on his inaugural visit to China and many feared that the case would be politicized.
Arrested on 14 August, Chen was caught with an ingenious effort to smuggle ivory out of Kenya using clever packaging identical to a local brand of macadamia nuts.
"It looked exactly like nuts except they were a little bigger, and were just too heavy to be nuts," said a government official at the airport.
Chen first pleaded innocent, and then did what most Chinese smugglers have done before her, pleading guilty. The Kenyan court system rarely sends people to jail for ivory smuggling crimes. But this time the magistrates were on notice. The Kenya public have been increasingly angered over the poaching epidemic that threatens the country's iconic elphants and rhino.
WildlifeDirect launched a public awareness campaign 'hands off our elephants' with full page newspaper infomercials that have been trending on Twitter. The campaign not only informs the general public about the crisis facing elephants due to poaching, it directly targeted the justice system to demand custodial sentences as allowed by law.
Chen will be held in Langata Womens prison just a few kilometers from the Chinese Embassy in Nairobi. Kenyan prisons are notorious for the tough conditions and Kenyans are hoping that this sentence has sent a strong message to other would-be smugglers and poachers.
The Kenyan public have much to celebrate with this case, and still greater expectations. The Wildlife Bill will be debated in Kenya from September and once passed will provide for a minimal sentence of 15 years for ivory smuggling crimes, but Kenyans fear this is too lenient and are hoping for life imprisonment for crimes which they believe threaten their heritage, economy and future aspirations.
"This is a win for the people of Kenya whose voices have been heard by the government and that it is serious about doing the right thing," said Richard Leakey, conservationist and the founder of the charity WildlifeDirect, on learning the news. He was referring to the fact that the conviction and sentence was allowed despite the fact that Kenya's president, Uhuru Kenyatta, is on his inaugural visit to China and many feared that the case would be politicized.
Arrested on 14 August, Chen was caught with an ingenious effort to smuggle ivory out of Kenya using clever packaging identical to a local brand of macadamia nuts.
"It looked exactly like nuts except they were a little bigger, and were just too heavy to be nuts," said a government official at the airport.
Chen first pleaded innocent, and then did what most Chinese smugglers have done before her, pleading guilty. The Kenyan court system rarely sends people to jail for ivory smuggling crimes. But this time the magistrates were on notice. The Kenya public have been increasingly angered over the poaching epidemic that threatens the country's iconic elphants and rhino.
WildlifeDirect launched a public awareness campaign 'hands off our elephants' with full page newspaper infomercials that have been trending on Twitter. The campaign not only informs the general public about the crisis facing elephants due to poaching, it directly targeted the justice system to demand custodial sentences as allowed by law.
Chen will be held in Langata Womens prison just a few kilometers from the Chinese Embassy in Nairobi. Kenyan prisons are notorious for the tough conditions and Kenyans are hoping that this sentence has sent a strong message to other would-be smugglers and poachers.
The Kenyan public have much to celebrate with this case, and still greater expectations. The Wildlife Bill will be debated in Kenya from September and once passed will provide for a minimal sentence of 15 years for ivory smuggling crimes, but Kenyans fear this is too lenient and are hoping for life imprisonment for crimes which they believe threaten their heritage, economy and future aspirations.
----------------------------------------------------
Ivory buyers helped fund the Nairobi massacre
Posted by Kevin Heath posted on September 24th, 2013 at 9: 17 am
and last updated on September 24th, 2013 at 9: 21
am
Al-Shabaab gets up to 40% of its funding from
elephant poaching
While much press is targeted at the elephant poacher the reality is that they are there to meet the demands of a market. It is the consumer and buyer of ivory – whether for ornamental purposes or consumption in medicinal ‘cure’ – that creates the market and sends funds to the terrorist groups.
In an investigation in 2011, Nir Kalron (Founder & CEO of Maisha Consulting) and Andrea Crosta (Executive Director & Co-Founder of the Elephant Action League), discovered that 40% of funding to keep Al-Shabaab operational came from elephant poaching and ivory smuggling activities. It’s not just ivory that the terrorist group is involved with, rhino horn is also a lucrative trade that helps them buy guns, ammunition and explosives.
Al-Shabaab in 2011 were earning between $200,000 and $600,000 a month from ivory sales which helps top pay their soldiers and terrorists a higher wage and better living conditions than rangers and soldiers of governments. With an estimated wage bill (in 2011) of $1.5 million a month ivory sales can contribute up to 40% of the organisations operational costs.
Following the recent announcement by the White House to boost its actions against poaching a hearing was held by the U.S. International Conservation Caucus. At that meeting Ian Saunders, founder of Tsavo Trust, revealed that the Al Qaeda attacks on the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salam during 1998 cost and estimated $50,000 – or the street value of less than 2 decent size elephant tusks.
In 2012 the estimated retail value of black-market ivory was about $1800 a kilogramme. With adult elephant tusks weighing up to 50kg or even 70kg the rewards for Al-Shabaab are high. The profits are so high because Al-Shabaab controls so much of the middle section of the supply chain. They pay poachers less than $100 for a pair of adult tusks.
Earlier this year the Kenya Wildlife Service announced that they had launched an investigation in to the scale of involvement of Al-Shabaab in poaching in Kenya.
Elgiva Bwire, who is currently in prison in Kenya for Al-Shabaab terrorist offences, has claimed that the South Kitui Game Reserve and Kora National Reserve are major hide-outs for Al-Shabaab in Kenya. The parks have a long history of problems with poachers. Kora National Reserve was made a national park in 1989 following the murder of George Adamson and two colleagues by poachers.
The link between terrorism and ivory is now so strong that the term ‘blood ivory’ has been coined. Those who buy ivory now are actively supporting terrorism around the world and the murder of innocent people including children.
The former director of the Kenya Wildlife Service, Julius Kipng’etich, in March 2012 told the US Congressional Staff that Al-Shabaab was so involved in poaching that he asked people to stop wearing ivory based jewellery as doing so was effectively supporting groups such as Al-Shabaab and Al-Qaeda
External sites:
Africa’s White Gold of Jihad: Al Shabaab and Conflict Ivory,
The African Poaching Crisis & America’s Responsibility.
Kitui reserves are terrorist ‘safe havens’
http://wildlifenews.co.uk/2013/ivory-buyers-helped-fund-the-nairobi-massacre/
-------------------------------------------------
How elephant poaching helped fund Kenya terrorist attack
The recent terrorist attack in Kenya may not seem like a story about sustainability or the environment, but in fact there is a disturbing connection between the deadly attack at the Westgate mall in Nairobi, which has left at least 68 dead and more than 150 injured and the illegal ivory trade that fuels poaching of elephants, rhinos and other wildlife.
Two weeks ago, I wrote about the United States taking more action in the fight against illegal wildlife trafficking. In July, President Obama issued an executive order establishing a cabinet-level Task Force on Wildlife Trafficking, which has this month formed an advisory council including cabinet members, as well as executives from the major anti-trafficking and wildlife conservation organizations. The US has also announced plans to destroy its 25-year-old stockpile of seized ivory to send a message to the world about crisis of the ivory trade.
All of this is being done, not simply to preserve the lives and ecosystem benefits of rhinos and elephants, but also because the United States now sees wildlife trafficking as national security threat. Why? Because poaching and illegal wildlife trafficking is a major source of funding for terrorist groups, including Al-Shabaab, the al-Qaeda-backed Somali terror group responsible for Saturday's attack in the Nairobi mall.
TIME magazine's Ishaan Tharoor explains the recent history of Al-Shabaab:
The group, whose name means the Youth in Arabic, was once the militant youth wing of a coalition of Islamist forces that held sway in parts of Somalia more than half a decade ago. The country has had no real functional central government for over two decades, and the Islamists, for a time, provided a veneer of security and stability despite the harshness of the Shari‘a they sought to impose. That control slipped following a series of offensives spearheaded by the African Union, beginning with an Ethiopian-led invasion in 2006.Dana Liebelson at Mother Jones notes that in addition to their power slipping in recent years, some sources of Al Shabaab's funding have been disrupted:
Until 2012, al-Shabaab ran the port city of Kismayo, and it made a bunch of money from a racketeering business that exploited the city's thriving coal industry. But after foreign forces kicked the group out of Somalia's capital and Kismayo, it lost much of this revenue...According to the Council on Foreign Relations, the group also gets funding from kidnapping operations and allied terrorist groups.While it is good that efforts to defund Al Shabaab have been successful in some areas, this has led the group to turn to poaching to make up for that lost income.
Three years ago, The Elephant Action League published an 18-month-long investigation that found that Al-Shabaab's trafficking of ivory through Kenya "could be supplying up to 40% of the funds needed to keep them in business."
The role of Al Shabaab in ivory trafficking is of immense concern. The harsh environment in which they operate, deprived of natural resources or infrastructure to raid (such as in eastern DRC or the Niger delta), makes ivory and rhino horn trade that much more important.In April of 2013, Ian J. Saunders wrote a detailed report for International Conservation Caucus Foundation (ICCF) on how Al-Shabaab was dependent on ivory to fund its operations:
Shabaab’s role is not limited to poaching and brokerage, but is a major link in the chain, enabling them to reap huge profits from the mark-up in the trade. Shabaab’s strength and conviction to continue its fight will increase its need for fighters, arms, ammunition and other equipment, and increase its need for funds. As the West continues to fight radical terrorist organizations through seizing assets in offshore bank accounts, straw companies and “charities”, these organizations, including Al Shabaab, will rely increasingly on trafficking in contraband as a source of finance.
Since 2011, Kenya has suffered from unsustainable increases in elephant poaching in all its major elephant habitats. The rapid escalation of the threat to elephants is due to heightened levels of participation from the heavily armed poaching gangs, often hailing from Somalia, operating either for organized crime syndicates or for fundamentalist organizations. Ivory has the potential to provide an easily accessible and untraceable source of revenue to terrorist and extremist organizations in both Kenya and Somalia, providing a direct threat to the U.S. and its African allies.Saunders notes that the escalation in the number of poaching incidents and the sophistication of the operations that has overwhelmed the capabilities of local agencies.
Wildlife managers with security experience who are operating on the ground have seen an evolution of activity that, combined with specific indicators, represents a credible and increasing threat that Al Shabaab in East Africa is gaining financial support through trading in illegal ivory.
This source of finance will always be available to Al Shabaab and other Islamic terrorist organizations in East Africa as long as the security/anti-poaching deterrent on the ground is not sufficient to deny them access to it. Ivory is a source of revenue too convenient for Al Shabaab to ignore, and it would be naïve to think otherwise.
In the last few years, the increase in ivory prices fuelled by demand mainly from China has created a security situation over and above what was previously faced by wildlife authorities. In essence, anti-poaching has moved from a simple policing operation to a low-level form of counterinsurgency, increasingly involving some of the world’s most notorious and professional crime syndicates and international terrorist organizations.This explains why the United States has started calling wildlife trafficking a national security threat and is beginning to take more significant action to address the crisis.
This has resulted in the overstretching of existing resources and a lack of sufficient deterrents on the ground. No wildlife agency in the world is set up to fight terrorism, insurgents and rebel armies, but that is what is expected of the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), the Institut Congolais pour la Conservation de la Nature (ICCN) in the Congo and the wildlife authorities in Chad, to name but a few.
Two weeks ago, Hilary Clinton spoke at the White House Forum to Counter Wildlife Trafficking and cited this increased militarization of poaching as a reason for the US to become more involved:
“Illegal poaching and trafficking also represent an economic and security challenge in Africa and beyond. Wildlife trafficking has become more organized, more lucrative and more dangerous than ever before. Poachers now use helicopters, automatic weapons, night vision goggles, satellite phones to overwhelm and even murder park rangers and other local authorities.”The slaughter of elephants is no doubt a tragedy, but as the deadly attack at the Westgate mall in Kenya shows, the bloodshed fueled by the sale of ivory does not stop with the elephants. Buying ivory helps pay for the bullets and bombs used by terrorists to kill innocent people, including park rangers and now these shoppers in Nairobi.
Highlighting this connection between the sale of ivory and violence is important because a powerful tool in combating the demand for poached ivory is to so thoroughly taint the image of ivory goods that potential consumers are shamed and discouraged from ever buying ivory again.
For more on the ivory trade, ABC News had a good segment on the challenges of distinguishing "illegal" ivory from that which was on the market before the ban was in place.
http://www.treehugger.com/endangered-species/how-elephant-poaching-helped-fund-kenyan-terrorist-attack.html
Illegal ivory trade leads to Cairo
November 27,
2012 4:11 PM
Thousands of elephants are
slaughtered to feed the illegal market for ivory. CBS News' Holly Williams
reports from Cairo, Egypt, where much of the illegal ivory is sold.
Wealthy Chinese drive illegal ivory trade
boom
---------------------------------------------
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Pirates or Protectors?
The devastating Somali civil war since 1991 forced the Somali marine and fisheries sector to an abrupt collapse and almost all Somali fisheries activities shut down. The vessels of the Somali national fishing fleet were abducted and have never been returned. It is estimated that at least 200,000 people lost their jobs and the Somali fishing communities are still struggling to recover. However, illegal fishing by foreign fleets and the more serious nuclear and toxic waste dumping from the industrialised world pose since then an environmental, socio-economic and ecological threat, which is unparalleled.Very sophisticated factory-style fishing-vessels, which were designed for distant-water fishing and travel from faraway countries, whose harbours are thousands of miles away from Somalia and whose own fisheries resources are either under tight legal protection or already drastically overexploited, poured into the unprotected Somali waters.
They are in search of high-priced tuna, mackerel, swordfish, grouper, emperor, snapper, shark and of course the other valuable species in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden. With impunity they rob rock-lobster and shrimps for the tables of the wealthiest in this world, and dolphins, sea turtles and sea-cucumbers for the deranged tastes of the Far East. They have diminished the extraordinary population of dugong to near extinction.Their task is solely oriented toward short-term gains, knowing the ecological limits, since Somalia does not only experience political but also resource displacement. Besides civil strife and outright war, the massive foreign fishing piracy, bringing criminal poaching and wanton destruction of the Somali marine resources for the last 19 years, may be one of the most damaging factors for the country, economically, environmentally and security-wise.While biased UN resolutions, big power orders and news reports continue to condemn the hijackings of merchant ships by Somali pirates in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden, pirate fishing was and is ignored. Why are the UN resolutions, NATO orders and EU decrees to invade the Somali seas persistently failing to include the protection of the Somali marine resources from IUU violations in the same
----------------------------------------------------
The illicit trade in endangered animals has grown to the fourth-largest kind of illegal trade worldwide, sparking concern about links to militants and organized crime in developing nations.
Despite long-standing worldwide concern over endangered species, the "Criminal Nature" report released by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) details how wildlife crime has grown into the fourth-largest branch of illegal international trade in the past half-decade. Now worth $19 billion annually, the black market in animals and their parts, notably ivory and furs, threatens to eradicate many of the most iconic of wild species, such as rhinos, elephants and tigers.
"Within the last few years, poaching has grown tremendously from one-off killings to wholesale massacres using automatic weapons," says IFAW's Beth Allgood.
About 1,000 forest rangers worldwide have been killed in the past decade, she notes, often at the hands of militants involved in insurgencies. "We can't just see this as an environmental problem anymore, when it has grown into a criminal and security one."
The report comes as international observers have become more concerned about links between the illegal animal trade and terror groups in Africa and Asia. Last November, then-secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton declared illegal wildlife trade a security threat. In May, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon released a report linking the Lord's Resistance Army militant group to the illegal ivory trade and slaughter of elephants in Central Africa. Rebel groups killed 450 elephants in 2012 at a national park in Cameroon, for example, and more elephant massacres have happened there this year and in Chad and the Central African Republic. Worldwide demand for illegal ivory has driven the price of rhino tusk, used in folk medicines, to values exceeding gold and platinum.
"The recommendations in the report are in close alignment with the Department's own strategy to combat wildlife trafficking," said State Department spokeswoman Beth Gosselin, by email. "We welcome the release of this report."
- A tiger is killed every day in India, where only about 3,200 are left in the wild.
- Fish and Wildlife Service investigations suggest that 7 of 10 major East Coast importers in the U.S.have been relying on illegal caviar tied to a Caspian Sea "caviar mafia."
- Roughly 100 of the world's 350 parrot species are threatened with extinction because of the illegal trade in live birds from Central America to Europe.
"It's time the world wakes up to this threat," says Richard Jenkins, manager of the IUCN Global Species Programme, an international wildlife science group that monitors the status of endangered species. Gains in preserving species made in past decades, through building parks and reserves staffed by rangers, have been overtaken by increasing instability in Africa, Jenkins says. "We have to look for greater cooperation with agencies that have more experience with criminal and security issues."
China, the USA and Europe are the leading markets for the illegal trade, the report concludes, calling for elevating wildlife crime penalties to equal those in human-trafficking and narcotics crimes. International trade organizations and military alliances should take steps to monitor and halt the trade as well. "If you don't care about animals, you should care about the instability fueled by the international trade in some of the world's poorest countries drawing us into their conflicts," Jenkins says.
Demand for illegal wildlife goods, from elephant ivory to antelope shawls needs to be reduced through education, says Allgood. "My advice is that tourists should think twice before they buy," she says, noting many people are unaware of the role that demand for illegal wildlife goods plays in driving species to extinction. It is illegal to bring any ivory back in the U.S., she notes, unless it is a trophy with appropriate paperwork, or antique ivory with a permit. "Preferably, decide not to," she says.
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