China seeks ivory trade approval - July 14, 2008
China is pushing for legal permission to trade in ivory, amid concerns from environmental groups that approval could put serious pressure on elephant populations.
As a meeting of the UN’s Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) starts in Geneva, China is seeking approval as a trading partner, allowing it to buy into a 100-tonne stockpile of ivory in Africa which Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe are authorised to sell.
However, environmentalists say China’s ivory trade is not regulated well enough and approval could allow illegal ivory into the supply chain, increasing demand and therefore increasing threats to elephants (BBC, AP, Independent).
Their concerns may have some foundation. AP reported two days ago that China lost track of 120 tonnes of ivory in 2003.
However CITES says China’s enforcement score for Ivory trading was 63% in 2008, up from 6% in 2002. Crucially, this score is above the level required for sales of the African stockpile (press release).
Image: USFWS
Comments
I documented an answer from IUCN science chief to questions on this issue in my blog www.baraza.wildlifedirect.org Jeff McNeely says that China has 'no control' over llegal trade but 'they can do whatever they put their minds to" - so the backwards logic is 'give them the ivory and they will put their minds to stopping the illegal trade'. That's the kind of argument my 15 year old gives me. When did we throw out the "precautionary principle"?
Posted by: Paula Kahumbu | July 14, 2008 04:44 PM
I wrote about IUCN's scientific cheif Jeff McNeely's response to a question on this on my blog baraza.wildlifedirect.org he says "China can do whatever they put their mind to so we should give them the ivory and they will put their mind to stopping the illegal trade". Another FAIL for logic.
Posted by: Paula Kahumbu | July 14, 2008 04:47 PM