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2013: A Year of Positive Developments in the Wildlife Trafficking War

12/18/2013

Source: Annamiticus.com

By Rhishja Cota-Larson

In 2013, horrifying headlines about the voiceless victims of wildlife trafficking captured public attention around the world. Has a turning point in the war on wildlife crime finally arrived?

Make no mistake: This is not a fight that will one day be “won” so we can all go home. Rather, it is an ongoing state of vigilance for law enforcement, activists, NGOs, environmental journalists and concerned citizens. Nevertheless, we need to recognize — and celebrate — our progress.

I’ve been writing about wildlife trafficking for nearly five years and I think there is something different about 2013. World leaders have publicly committed to tackling the illegal wildlife trade and there seems to be a consensus that this scourge is nothing less than transnational organized crime which — and it should be dealt with accordingly. Wildlife trafficking breeds corruption in governments and encourages greed in the private sector. It threatens regional security and funds global terrorism.

So, what happened in 2013?

Experts agree that demand for wildlife products must be reduced. It can be said that from almost every corner of the world, demand reduction was a unifying battle cry for 2013.

John E. Scanlon, Secretary-General, Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), writes that CoP16 was a “watershed moment” for combating wildlife crime.

“In addition to addressing enforcement, there was a clear recognition by CITES Parties that we need to reduce demand for illegal and untraceable products and to enhance overall public awareness of the severe damage caused by unregulated and illegal trade.”

The Clinton Global Initiative launched “Partnership to Save Africa’s Elephants”, a coalition of non-governmental organizations brought together to “directly target the chief drivers” of ivory trafficking.

This commitment takes a triple pronged approach by dedicating funding to: “stop the killing,” “stop the trafficking,” and “stop the demand.”

A post on the ARREST (Asia’s Regional Response to Endangered Species Trafficking) blog notes that as part of NGO Education for Nature-Vietnam’s demand reduction campaign, banners discouraging consumption of wildlife were hung at nearly 30 markets in major Vietnamese cities such as Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh and Da Nang. More....

Obama Administration Picks up Pace on Animal Welfare in 2013

12/10/2013

Source: HSUS.typepad.com

By Wayne Pacelle

During President Obama’s tenure, The HSUS has worked to secure stronger policies from federal agencies to help animals – from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to the National Marine Fisheries Service to the National Institutes of Health. Every one of those agencies – and there are at least a dozen at the federal level relevant to our work – makes life and death decisions for animals.

During the president’s first term, the administration was slow to respond to animal protection concerns. But the pace has picked up in a good way, although the results haven’t been uniformly positive. In last year’s 2012 Animal Protection Record, we noted that the administration made some strong moves to protect animals, but came up short in a number of areas.

This year, 2013, has been the administration’s best year by a long shot, and we are giving out our best grade yet: B+. There are some gems in here, with the administration bucking powerful industries and siding with animal protection sensibilities in a few instances. There are still some adverse actions, such as national de-listing of wolves, a free pass for wind energy companies to kill protected eagles, and massive subsidies for the pork industry. But the list below is impressive and it’s something that administration officials should be proud of, and animal advocates should be pleased to see, as a collective set of actions.

The 13 most notable agency actions in 2013 that significantly affected animals were:

Chimpanzees – The National Institutes of Health (NIH) declared that it will retire the vast majority of the approximately 400 government-owned chimpanzees currently in laboratories to sanctuary. The NIH supported removing a spending barrier imposed by the CHIMP Act in order to sustain funding for the retirement of chimpanzees from laboratories to sanctuary, a fix signed into law by President Obama just before Thanksgiving. In addition, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) proposed listing all chimpanzees as endangered, regardless of whether they are in the wild or in captivity.

Puppy Mills – In a long-awaited action that animal welfare advocates have been pushing for a decade, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) finalized a rule that closed a loophole in Animal Welfare Act regulations, now requiring that dealers who sell puppies and other warm-blooded animals as pets sight unseen, including over the Internet, be regulated. More....

Auburn and Missouri Students Team Up with ‘Tigers for Tigers’

12/5/2013

Source: Wireeagle.auburn.edu

By Candis Birchfield

Although rivals on the athletic field, students from Auburn University and the University of Missouri are working together to help save tigers in the wild through a conservation program called the National Tigers for Tigers Coalition. The coalition joins together academic institutions with tiger mascots to help spread awareness of the survival challenges tigers face, including habitat destruction, poaching and the pet trade.

“Tigers are such beautiful animals, and with it being our university’s mascot, and with Aubie being consistently ranked one of the best in the nation, it makes sense that Auburn students would work to help Aubie’s wild cousin, which is on the brink of extinction in its natural habitat,” said Ashley Newell, a senior in zoology/pre-veterinary medicine and a campus representative for Auburn’s Tigers for Tigers program.

The national coalition coordinator for Tigers for Tigers, Sean Carnell, said several states in the U.S., including Alabama, do not have regulations on the private ownership of big cats. He cites an estimated 5,000 big cats, such as tigers, are in private hands in Texas alone, and an estimated 13,000 are under private ownership nationwide. As a result, Tigers for Tigers supports the proposed Big Cats and Public Safety Protection Act, according to Carnell.

Last summer, the National Wildlife Refuge Association sponsored a team of students from participating universities to travel to Washington, D.C., to work with the International Fund for Animal Welfare to lobby in support of the act. The Big Cats and Public Safety Protection Act would ban most instances of private ownership of big cats throughout the country, with exceptions made for facilities such as zoos, wildlife sanctuaries and circuses that meet certain standards.

“People get tigers for pets, particularly in the state of Texas where it’s legal to do so, and they do not know how to take care of them, so when they get loose, they often get killed,” said Newell. “When you hear about people being attacked by tigers, the tiger is usually blamed, but the people are the ones who are really at fault, because tigers are not supposed to be in cages in someone’s backyard. They are not supposed to be pets. Tigers are wild animals and have instincts.”

The National Wildlife Refuge Association is the primary partner of Tigers for Tigers, and while the students were in Washington, D.C., they joined the association and met with senators from Louisiana and South Carolina. More....

 Scott Urges Synergy in Wildlife Care 

12/3/2013

Source: Times.co.ZM

By Charity Moonga

Vice-President Guy Scott has said harmonising conservation efforts in the Southern African region through such initiatives as the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation area will help protect wildlife.

Dr Scott has since called for increased collaboration in combating illegal wildlife trade.
He said President Michael Sata and the Zambian Government attached great importance to wildlife.

He was speaking in Gaborone, Botswana, where he attended the African Elephant Summit on Monday.

Dr Scott thanked the Government of Botswana and the International Union for Conservation of Nature for organising the summit.

He further commended Botswana President Ian Khama for hosting the summit and urged participating countries to take the measures agreed upon seriously.

The meeting was organised to address the rising cases of poaching of the African elephant and the illegal ivory trade.

“To this effect, the Government has since put in place a moratorium on elephant hunting as a measure to allow the Zambian Government to establish and monitor its elephant population,” he said in a statement released by his senior private secretary, Robert Kamalata.

Dr Scott said the elephant population in Zambia had increased and commended United States President Barack Obama for issuing the executive order aimed at combating global wildlife trafficking.

“My Government would like the US Government to engage with African governments in dialogue as they seek to map out the strategy,” he said.

Dr Scott said harmonisation of conservation efforts within the region through such initiatives as the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation area was important.

How to Stop the Illegal Wildlife Trade from Funding Terrorist Groups

12/1/2013

Source: Scientificamerican.com

By The Editors

The U.S. must do more to stop the poaching of elephants, rhinos and other imperiled species.

Every day the forest elephants convened at Dzanga Bai to drink the mineral-rich waters. Their gathering in this clearing—located in a UNESCO World Heritage site in the Central African Republic—was so reliable that researchers and tourists flocked there for guaranteed sightings of these elusive cousins of the larger savanna elephants. Then, on May 6, poachers from Sudan arrived. They gunned down at least 26 of the animals, hacked off their valuable tusks and left the bodies to rot.

Such events, often carried out by heavily armed militias equipped with helicopters and night-vision goggles, are becoming increasingly common across sub-Saharan Africa. Transnational criminal syndicates run these operations. Profits are high: a kilogram of elephant ivory can fetch $2,000 on the black market; the same amount of rhinoceros horn can command $65,000—more than cocaine or platinum. All told, illegal wildlife trafficking is an estimated $19-billion-a-year industry, which makes it the fourth most lucrative illicit activity in the world after the drug trade, counterfeiting and human trafficking.

That money is bankrolling extremists, terrorists and other criminal groups around the globe. The Somali militant Islamist group and al Qaeda affiliate al Shabaab—which claimed responsibility for the September terrorist attack at the Westgate Mall in Nairobi—generates up to 40 percent of its funding from illegal ivory, according to a 2012 report from the Elephant Action League, an advocacy group based in Los Angeles. Other al Qaeda affiliates, as well as rebel groups such as the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda, are also said to run on profits from illegal wildlife trafficking. As a result, elephant and rhino poaching has surged to record levels.

The U.S. is taking notice. In July it established a presidential task force on wildlife crime and pledged $10 million in training and technical assistance to combat poaching in Africa. Yet some U.S. policies continue to contribute to the trade. They must end.

The U.S. is the second-largest market for ivory, among other illegal wildlife products, thanks in part to legal loopholes that allow the trade of ivory depending on how old it is and what kind of elephant it comes from. Because it is practically impossible to distinguish old ivory from new and African ivory from Asian, however, criminals can exploit the legal market to launder illegal ivory. The U.S. should ban the trade of all ivory.

It should also stop issuing import permits for hunting trophies of imperiled species. More....

Every 15 Minutes An Elephant Is Killed For Its Ivory: This Is What The U.S. Did To Stop It

12/1/2013

Source: Collective-evolution.com

By Jeff Roberts

Recently the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service made a powerful statement after pulverizing an enormous stockpile of ivory, 6 tons of it to be exact, in efforts to bring awareness to the seriousness of the declining African elephant population. The event was held at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge outside Denver, Colorado in mid-November. Elephant poaching is a global crisis, supported mainly by organized crime syndicates.

“We’re doing this to send a signal to the world that we need to crush the illegal trade in ivory and wildlife products in general,” U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe stated. “These magnificent animals are in great jeopardy because of the commercial trade for their parts.” The ivory was pulverized into powder and small nuggets using a rock crusher that was about the size of two dump trucks.

The U.S. is prepared to pay up to $1 million for information leading to the dismantling of the Laos-based Xaysavang Network, considered one of the world’s most prolific organized crime groups trafficking wildlife said John Kerry, U.S. Secretary of State.

Black market workings of the Xaysayang Network pull in an estimated $10 billion annually, contributing to arms, narcotics, and human trafficking in countries such as South Africa, Mozambique, Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam and China.

Elephant slaughter numbers are difficult to stomach, with an estimated 30 000 deaths in 2012 correlated with the illegal ivory trade. There are only 500 000 elephants expected to be alive in Africa today. “Within 10 years, at the current rate of poaching, central African elephants will likely be extinct,” said Crawford Allan, the WWF illegal wildlife trade expert and a senior director at TRAFFIC, a wildlife traffic monitoring network. “We will see a very bleak future for elephants unless we can turn this tide right now.”

The destruction of ivory stockpiles can make waves that change the world. When Kenya burnt its ivory in 1989 it precipitated the ban on international trade in ivory that served Africa’s elephants well for twenty years. In the past 5 years we’ve seen a new surge of underground ivory trade, likened to the growing trend of social status emblems made from ivory, particularly in Asian countries.

The extent of the ivory trade isn’t just affecting elephants and the environment anymore either, with terrorist groups like the al-Shabaab (the suspected affiliates behind the Kenya mall shooting in September) supposedly being funded by the underground money from the ivory black market. Ivory is considered the “white gold” in the African value system. More....

The Time to See -- and Save -- Africa's Elephants is Now

11/26/2013

Source: Huffingtonpost.com

By Wendy Worrall Redal

For safari travelers, few experiences are more moving than to be in the presence of elephants. One of Africa's most iconic species, they are highly intelligent and social. To watch a herd interact, especially with its youngsters, offers wonder and delight. And not many wildlife encounters can compare with a close-up view of an old elephant bull, whose giant tusks may grow to 10 feet long and weigh up to 100 pounds each.

Yet such opportunities are under severe threat as Africa's elephants face an unprecedented poaching siege. It's a crisis of global significance that the U.S. government is taking action against -- and one in which safari ecotourism plays an important role, undergirding the value for local communities of keeping elephants alive.

If Africa's elephants continue to be poached at today's rates, they could be wiped out in 10 years. That was the grim news delivered at last week's U.S. ivory crush at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge in Denver, Colo. On Nov. 14, federal officials placed a six-ton stockpile of confiscated illegal ivory into a massive rock crusher, pulverizing it to drive home the message that trade in illegal ivory will not be tolerated.

The tusks and trinkets, many carved in intricate designs worth millions on the black market, represent the deaths of approximately 2,000 African elephants, according to U.S. Fish & Wildlife officials. That is but a fraction of the elephants killed in the past year alone: some 35,000 have been slaughtered by poachers, at a rate of nearly 100 per day.

"This is a crucial moment in time. What we are seeing today with the decimation of these great wildlife populations is perhaps a harbinger of a world to come," said Daniel Ashe, director of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, at a reception preceding the ivory crush event.

But an alternate future is possible, Ashe said, if we choose to "take care to protect these animals and what they represent for our planet." More....

Tracking the Traffickers: A More Comprehensive Anti-Poaching Approach

11/22/2013

Source: CFR.org

By Emily Mellgard

In the fight to save Africa’s wildlife and stem the tide of senseless slaughter for profit, awareness campaigns across the globe are as crucial as more boots on the ground in the game reserves and parks.

Many consumers of ivory, rhino horn, and other wildlife products –such as tiger parts– do not know deadly supply chain through which ivory comes to be in shops around the world, or don’t care. One Chinese government worker interviewed for a New York Times article in March this year commented that: “As long as the quality of the ivory is good, who cares what happened to the elephant.” But this is not just an African or an Asian issue. The United States after all, remains the third largest market for trafficked wildlife.

There is a great need, not only for enhanced and tightened anti-poaching efforts, but for much greater popular awareness of the monstrous fate of the wildlife being “harvested.” If demand falls, so too will profit, and therefore motivation for poaching.

Organized crime, insurgents, terror groups, and independent “entrepreneurs” are targeting the elephants and other African wildlife because it is profitable. If profits die out, they will move on. This wildlife crisis is market driven, rather than ideological.

The Philippines in June this year, became the first non-African nation to destroy their ivory stockpile. The United States has also begun to embrace a comprehensive approach in its recent anti-poaching and trafficking policies. In a highly public display in Colorado on November 14, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service destroyed its six ton stockpile of confiscated ivory. They also invited other countries to follow their example.

President Obama issued an Executive Order on July 1, 2013 that establishes enhanced legal and judicial steps against poaching. It also provides for U.S. “technical and financial assistance… where appropriate.” He also established a Presidential Task Force on Wildlife Trafficking and tasked it with developing and implementing a National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking. More....

An Elegy – and a Hope – for Elephants

11/21/2013

Source: Goodnature.nathab.com

By Wendy Worrall Redal

Two years ago when I was on safari in Botswana, I saw my first herd of wild elephants. We heard them first, a low, rumbling thunder in the distance. Then, out of the forest they emerged, the great gray pack crashing through a pool of standing water, so close they sent spray into our open-sided safari truck. The herd, at least 50 strong, trundled on through the wooded marsh, and we grinned as we watched a youngster struggle to keep up, running at full clip and trumpeting shrilly as if to say, “Wait for me! Wait for me!”

Later we would spend a half-hour watching a lone male bull eating—tearing branches off the mopane trees with his enormous trunk, curling it to hold them, stripping leaves and chomping noisily, just feet away.

I had never seen such a magnificent beast. He was enormous. His skin was deeply furrowed and crazed with creases. His tusks were grand. If there was ever an emblem of the African wild, this massive elephant was it. Yet I was equally enchanted by the week-old infant we later saw along the banks of the Chobe River, so tiny it could take shelter in the shade beneath its mother’s belly.
Being in the presence of wild elephants held a special magic for me. And so it was with anguish that I watched the ivory remains of some 2,000 elephants destroyed by the U.S. government last week, an event I was privileged to witness alongside senior government officials and representatives from WWF and other conservation organizations.

WITNESSING THE DESTRUCTION OF THE U.S. IVORY STOCKPILE

The crush consigned some six tons of confiscated illegal ivory – the full U.S. stockpile – to a massive rock crusher erected at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge outside Denver. The event, designed for symbolic impact, was meant as an unequivocal statement to the world that the United States will not support ivory trafficking in any form.

The pile of ivory before us, as we stood on the plains beneath a sky too bright and too blue for such a somber event, was sobering. There were giant tusks weathered brown with age, white tusks polished smooth, tusks carved with intricate scenes and images. On an adjacent table were ivory figurines – many were Buddhas, crafted for the largely Asian buyers’ market. And nearby was a rectangular glass bin filled five feet high with ivory jewelry and trinkets: bracelets, earrings, talismans – a full ton contained herein alone.

The first tusks were placed, silently, reverently, into the steel bucket of a front-end loader by representatives of the conservation groups on hand. More....

Gabon Troops Kill Poacher, Arrest 34 Others near Elephant Park

11/19/2013

Source: News.yahoo.com

Gabonese soldiers killed a poacher and arrested 34 other illegal hunters near a national park which is home to endangered forest elephants, the government said on Tuesday.

The troops pursued the men close to the northern border with Cameroon on November 10 and 11 and shot dead one of them in a gun battle, according to the presidency statement.

The soldiers found the carcass of an elephant and a panther at the camp used by the poachers, who had also been mining for gold, it added.

The heavily wooded central African country is battling to save its forest elephants thought to account for around half of the world's remaining population of 100,000.

An estimated 11,000 of the elephants - prized by ivory dealers for their hard, straight tusks - have been killed in the Minkebe park since 2004, the government said in February.

Other countries are also stepping up efforts to curb the multi-billion-dollar trade in illegal wildlife, much of which originates in Africa and is partly fuelled by growing demand from Asia.

In July, U.S. President Barack Obama signed an executive order to fight trafficking. Kenya and the Philippines have also destroyed stockpiles of contraband ivory.

Why the U.S. Destroyed Its Ivory Stockpile

11/19/2013

Source: Blogs.scientificamerican.com

By Kate Wong

On a clear day outside Denver, dust filled the air surrounding an industrial rock crusher as it pulverized nearly six tons of confiscated elephant ivory. Loader trucks dumped batch after batch of whole tusks, elaborately carved figurines, bracelets and other baubles into the giant blue crusher, which spit them out as a stream of fragments that resembled remnants of seashells pounded by heavy surf. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) destroyed the 25 years’ worth of ivory seizures—a quantity that could command perhaps $12 million on the black market–to signal to the world that the U.S. will not tolerate elephant poaching or wildlife crime in general. For many attendees, the crush was also a funeral of sorts for the more than 2,000 elephants that were slaughtered for the ivory that ended up here in Colorado.

The U.S. is not the first country to destroy its seized ivory. In 1989, Kenya responded to rampant elephant poaching by burning its stockpile. More recently, with poaching surging to record levels of 30,000 elephants or more a year, Gabon and the Philippines have destroyed their ivory, too. The U.S. ivory crush on November 14 followed President Obama’s July 1 executive order calling on government agencies to step up efforts to combat the illegal wildlife trade.

Concerns over the trade have been escalating not only because of the dramatic spike in elephant deaths but because of who is doing the killing. In contrast to the elephant poaching crisis of the 1980s, which resulted mainly from opportunistic hunting carried out by individuals, the current crisis is the work of transnational criminal syndicates that traffic in wildlife just as they traffic in humans, drugs and arms. Profits from the illegal sale of ivory, rhinoceros horn and other wildlife products–a $19-billion-a-year industry–are now known to fund terrorist and other extremist groups.

Yet whether the destruction of ivory stockpiles will actually help stamp out the trade is a matter of some debate. Critics contend that it may actually have the opposite effect. By reducing the ivory supply, such events will drive the price up and thus stimulate the poaching of even more elephants, so the argument goes.

Experts from government and nongovernment organizations who spoke at the U.S. ivory crush event defended the decision to destroy the stockpile. Peter Knights of WildAid, a non-governmental organization (NGO) based in San Francisco, observed that people who argue against the destruction of ivory stockpiles think that having a legal supply is the answer to the poaching problem. But attempts to flood the market with ivory in the past have had disastrous results, actually increasing poaching rather than curbing it. “I think we have to look at history and we have to learn this lesson,” he said. “People need to understand this is just as heinous a crime as consumption of heroin or something like that. We don’t put heroin back on the market when we seize it.” More....

The Militarized Ivory War: Making Wildlife a Security Issue

11/18/2013

Source: Eturbonews.com

By Daniel Stiles

Elephant and rhino poaching in Africa have been rising; the Western black rhino has just been declared extinct. Demand in Asia, particularly China, for these animals' tusks and horns has been identified as the main cause of the rise in poaching. Many organisations are moving towards a militarised anti-poacher approach, but there is scant evidence this approach is working.

The media, guided by certain non-governmental organisations, have reported claims that terrorist groups such as Al-Shabaab and the Janjaweed are funded by elephant poaching. The shocking Westgate Mall incident in Nairobi in September was perpetrated by Al-Shabaab. One writer ventured that the attack could have been financed with only five elephant tusks.

Increasingly, elephant poaching is being linked to organised crime and terrorism, elevating the issue to one of national security. Protecting national security inevitably leads to calls for “sophisticated counter-guerilla warfare”.

The call for militarized anti-poaching measures

Are we to see the emergence of anti-poaching Blackwaters to take on the criminals that are massacring precious elephants? Anti-poaching consultant Nir Kalron - who has a military background - says “If ranger units are not sufficient to stop the poaching gangs … military sweeps may be necessary… [A\n aggressive ‘shock’ campaign is in order; to achieve such results, the use of large infantry and Special Forces units is needed.”

He continues, writing that hi-tech surveillance should be used: drones, night-vision goggles, GPS trackers, etc. and that “the creation of focused task forces with ‘carte blanche’ – supported financially and professionally by NGOs and security professionals – will offer a possible recipe for success.”

The highest levels in the US and the UN, supported by conservation and animal welfare NGOs, seem to be buying this message. For example, the recently launched Clinton Global Initiative has pledged a US$80 million effort to fight the illegal ivory trade, with a further US$70 million to be raised specifically for anti-poaching.

Making wildlife a security issue

In 2012, Hillary Clinton (US Secretary of State at the time) publicly called an unprecedented amount of attention to the illegal wildlife trade. More....

A Steelier Message From the US on Elephant Poaching

11/15/2013

Source: America.aljazeera.com

By Adam Welz

Waves of acrid white dust drifted into a throng of photographers and reporters as U.S. officials used a massive rock-crushing machine to pulverize about six tons of raw tusks, carvings and trinkets, the country's stockpile of seized illegal elephant ivory.

Designed as a grand gesture against rampant elephant poaching in Africa and a message for consumers around the world, the crush was also an opportunity for United States officials to tell the world that the U.S. is prepared to address its shortcomings in dealing with the illegal ivory trade and to take a leading role in halting it.

“We’re here, in the shadows of past failures, to say ‘enough’,” said Dan Ashe, director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Wildlife conservationists estimate that more than 30,000 elephants are illegally killed each year to satisfy the rising demand for ivory in Asia, particularly in China. But on Thursday, U.S. officials pointed to their own country's role in the poaching crisis as a leading market for wildlife goods, including ivory.

It's the latest step in a turnaround that began in July, when President Obama signed an executive order mandating the formation of a high-level Task Force on Wildlife Trafficking, which includes senior representatives of the Departments of State, Justice and Defense.

Members of the task force were present Thursday at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge, where the crush took place, to emphasize that organized crime networks and terror groups like Al Shabab are profiting from elephant poaching.

Environmental concerns — it's feared that some countries could lose their entire elephant populations within a decade — are now counter-balanced with worries over terrorism.

The problem is “no longer in a green ghetto,” said Allan Crawford, a crime expert at the World Wildlife Fund. “This is a national security issue.” More....

US State Department Links Poaching to Terrorism

11/15/2013

Source: Worldaffairsjournal.org

By Aggrey Mutambo

The US government has linked increased terrorist activities with rise in poaching and urged for joint efforts to combat these global crimes.

In a teleconference with reporters on Thursday, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in charge of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Brooke Darby, told reporters there is an increasing association between falling numbers of wildlife and rising cases militant attacks. (READ: Wildlife group says poaching funds Somalia's Al-shabaab)

“We have some links between militant organisations and poaching. And one of the reasons for that is that the value of wildlife products right now is so high that it can be used to generate money that can be used to finance all kinds of activities,” she said from Washington.

“The money can be used to purchase arms; it can be used to do all manner of criminal activities and that is why it is an ongoing concern of us to stem this problem and understanding that it can feed militant groups, terrorist groups and other criminal activity.”

Ms Darby who was announcing a new reward scheme, the Transnational Organised Crime Rewards Program, for combating poaching told journalists that the two vices are also aided by corrupt officials who allow poachers to smuggle out illegal wildlife items and sneak in arms and terrorists. (READ: It will take ‘an Elephant’ to stop poaching and illegal ivory trade)

“All those people who make this illicit trade possible are also likely to engage in facilitating other forms of illicit trade such as trafficking arms, people and drugs. Going after elements that facilitate these crimes is also important,” she said.

PROLIFIC NETWORK

Kenya has been on the receiving end of terror attacks linked to Somali militant group al-Shabaab, and following the September 21 attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, the Kenyan government sacked 14 immigration officials for it charged had been involved in sneaking in terrorists. (READ: Immigration officers sacked in purge) More....

US Offers $1m Reward to Smash Asian Wildlife Trafficking Ring

11/15/2013

Source: Telegraph.co.uk

By Aislinn Laing

The United States has announced the first ever cash reward for information leading to the smashing of an Asian wildlife trafficking gang alleged to be one of the main drivers behind poaching in Africa.

The Laos-based Xaysavang Network is said by the US government to have been linked to the slaughter of animals including rhinos and elephants in South Africa and Mozambique, and the trading of their horns and tusks in China, Thailand and Vietnam.

John Kerry, the US Secretary of State, said billions of dollars made in wildlife trafficking each year were being pumped into other illegal activities such as drug, arms and human trafficking.

"The involvement of sophisticated transnational criminal organisations in wildlife trafficking perpetuates corruption (and) threatens the rule of law and border security in fragile regions," Mr Kerry said in a statement.

On Thursday, the US crushed its entire stockpile of ivory built up over 25 years. The six-ton cache, worth around £9 million, was destroyed in the presence of conservation groups, federal law enforcement agencies and officials from the US Fish and Wildlife Service at a warehouse in Colorado.

The operation was a first for the United States but stockpile destructions have also occurred in the Philippines, Kenya and Gabon.

Brooke Darby, the Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, said the mass destruction was designed to show there was "no legitimate use" for elephant or rhino products. "It has no place in our cultures and we wanted to make sure that we got that message out and we wanted to also encourage other countries to take similar action to destroy their stockpiles of ivory," she said. More....

U.S. Destroys Confiscated Ivory, Sends Message that Elephant Poaching, Wildlife Trafficking Must be Crushed

11/15/2013

Source: Ecowatch.com

The U.S. yesterday destroyed its six-ton stock of confiscated elephant ivory, sending a clear message that the nation will not tolerate wildlife crime that threatens to wipe out the African elephant and a host of other species around the globe.

The destruction of this ivory, which took place at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Wildlife Property Repository on Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge near Denver, CO, was witnessed by representatives of African nations and other countries, dozens of leading conservationists and international media representatives. It is the latest in a series of actions by the Obama Administration designed to crack down on international poaching and illegal wildlife trafficking.

“Rising demand for ivory is fueling a renewed and horrific slaughter of elephants in Africa, threatening remaining populations across the continent,” said Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell. “We will continue to work aggressively with the Department of Justice and law enforcement agencies around the world to investigate, arrest and prosecute criminals who traffic in ivory.”

“We encourage other nations to join us in destroying confiscated ivory stockpiles and taking other actions to combat wildlife crime,” she concluded.

Some six tons of ivory were pulverized by an industrial rock crusher in front of some of the world’s most influential conservationists. Speakers included U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe; Ginette Hemley, senior vice president of World Wildlife Fund (WWF); Azzedine Downes, CEO of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW); and Paula Kahumbu, executive director of WildlifeDirect.

Remarks were also provided by Robert Dreher, acting assistant attorney general for the Environment and Natural Resources Division of the U.S. Department of Justice and Judy Garber, principal deputy assistant secretary, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, U.S. Department of State.

“By crushing its contraband ivory tusks and trinkets, the U.S. government sends a signal that it will not tolerate the senseless killing of elephants,” said Carter Roberts, president and CEO of WWF. More....

African Conservation Leaders Deliver Strong Message to U.S. Government

11/15/2013

Source: News.yahoo.com

Press Release

Last week, Safari Club International Foundation held its 12th annual African Wildlife Consultative Forum (AWCF) in Livingstone, Zambia. Conservation leaders attending included wildlife management authorities from the nine African counties of Botswana, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe, as well as representatives from the safari industry, NGO and wildlife science sectors.

The government representatives attending the AWCF delivered this week a letter to the Co-Chairs of the Presidential Task Force on Wildlife Trafficking, U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and Attorney General Eric Holder. The letter presents their recommendations for the implementation of President Barack Obama's Executive Order Combatting Wildlife Trafficking. The letter recommends that the Task Force appoint Safari Club International Foundation to its Advisory Council to act as a liaison for the African governments who are the principle agents for conserving wildlife on their continent.

"It is distressing that Africa's governments were not included or even consulted on the U.S. government's new Task Force to stop poaching. This policy decision of the U.S. government directly affects Africa's communities, wildlife, and economies. To ignore these countries is an obvious misstep that needs to be rectified," SCI Foundation President Joe Hosmer said.

During the forum, presentations on the global importance of hunting and tourism were made to the AWCF attendees. This spurred great interest on the part of both the African governments and the African professional hunters associations to embark on a socio-economic review of consumptive and non-consumptive tourism in Africa. SCI Foundation will assist in funding and managing this economic review.

The Operators and Professional Hunters Associations of Southern Africa have also sent a letter to the Task Force explaining their integral role in Africa's wildlife management, and requesting official participation in implementation of the Executive Order. More....

Taking a Stand to Crush Elephant Poaching

11/14/2013

Source: Huffingtonpost.com

By Carter Roberts, Azzedine Downes

At first glance, Denver, Colorado, might seem like an unlikely place for America to take a stand against a global criminal enterprise that undermines security, funds terrorism, and threatens some of the most iconic species on the planet with extinction in the wild.

But a suburb outside of Denver is home to the National Wildlife Property Repository, where our government safeguards nearly six tons of elephant tusks and ivory products seized by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. On November 14, the entire stock was hauled into the sunlight and ground into gravel by a rock crusher.

The public destruction of our contraband ivory stockpile sends the world a message that the United States has zero tolerance for the illegal wildlife trade.

Why the renewed concern, when elephants have been killed for their ivory for centuries? It's both because elephants are very near to being at the end of their rope and because nowadays, poaching is a far cry from being a poor man's means of feeding his family. Driven by demand in large part from newly wealthy Asian consumers, poaching has metastasized into a mechanized, militarized and multi-billion-dollar industry. The trade now involves a rogue's gallery of criminal syndicates, insurgencies and terrorist groups.

Globally, wildlife crime is worth an estimated $10 billion year--and nearly $20 billion if the illegal trade in timber and marine products is included, which places it as the fourth-largest criminal activity in the world, just behind drugs, counterfeiting and human trafficking.

This is a conservation crisis--and one the likes of which our two organizations have never seen. Almost every day brings chilling news, the latest being from Zimbabwe, where poachers poisoned a watering hole with cyanide earlier this year, and more than 300 elephants who drank there died. Over the past decade, poaching has reduced an already depleted population of African forest elephants by two-thirds. In 2012 alone, at least 30,000 elephants were slaughtered--the worst body count since the international commercial ivory trade was banned in 1989.

It is also a profound human tragedy--one that systematically shreds the already threadbare social fabric of many struggling African states. More....

WWF Praises U.S. Ivory Crush, Calls for U.S. Ivory Moratorium

11/14/2013

Source: Globenewswire.com

Press Release

World Wildlife Fund (WWF) today released the following statement from President and CEO Carter Roberts in response to the U.S. Ivory Crush carried out by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Denver, CO:

"By destroying nearly six tons of seized contraband ivory tusks and trinkets, the U.S. government today delivered a strong signal to the rest of the world that it will not tolerate the senseless slaughter of elephants. A U.S. moratorium on all trade of ivory products must follow.

"We need to end the demand that is fueling ivory trafficking and get serious now about saving elephants. Behind every piece of ivory – every tusk, trinket and souvenir seized right here in the U.S. – is a dead elephant. Any purchases or sales of ivory fuel the current poaching crisis.

"This action is the latest step by the Obama Administration to elevate the seriousness of wildlife crime. President Obama's Executive Order to combat wildlife trafficking announced in July instituted a whole-of-government approach to tackle what has become a global security and wildlife crisis – one that marshals the expertise not just of traditional conservation partners in the Interior and State Departments, but also those of law enforcement and intelligence assets within Departments such as Justice and Treasury.

"WWF is now calling on Congress to act by placing a moratorium on all sales of ivory in the United States, at least until elephant populations recover. And we call on other countries to join the United States, Gabon, Kenya and the Philippines in destroying their illegal ivory and taking a stand against the crime syndicates behind this slaughter."

The World’s Smartest Birds, Set Free

11/13/2013

Source: Slate.com

By Charles Bergman

On President Barack Obama’s trip to Africa this summer, he made history with a major speech on wildlife trafficking. The illegal trade in wildlife is one of the top threats to wildlife worldwide, and it is on the rise globally. The presidential spotlight on the issue is invaluable.

As Obama was making his speech in Tanzania, I was also in Africa, working on a historic project in the fight against wildlife trafficking. With Jane Goodall, I was part of a four-person team from the World Parrot Trust. We were in Uganda to release a group of African Grey parrots that had been confiscated as they were being smuggled into Bulgaria. It was the first time that parrots smuggled out of Africa were returned to the continent and released back into the wild.

“It’s a story of how bad the trade has become,” Goodall said over dinner the night before the release. “And it’s a story of hope.”

African Grey parrots are among the most heavily traded of all animals. Their popularity is fueled by recent research on their astonishing intelligence. In some ways, their cognitive abilities rival those of a 3-year-old child. Alex, the “genius” African Grey parrot studied by Irene Pepperberg, had a vocabulary of more than 100 words and a sassy tongue—a smart Alex.

They may be the smartest birds in the world.

According to Rowan Martin, the energetic ornithologist who managed our release of the parrots, about 2 million African Grey parrots have been captured from the wild for the global pet trade since 1975.

This figure is staggering. Most of the parrots were captured as part of a thriving legal trade in wild-caught parrots. It seems counterintuitive: Obama and many conservationists focus on the illegal trade, with its shadow world of poachers and smugglers, but the real problem may be the legal trade itself.

On July 10, Goodall and Martin pulled on a long rope, and a window slowly jerked open on the makeshift aviary where the confiscated parrots were housed. The parrots didn’t rush to freedom as you might expect. More....

U.S. to Offer $1 Million Reward in Fight Against Wildlife Trafficking

11/13/2013

Source: NYtimes.com

By Thomas Fuller

Taking a page from the battle against international drug cartels, the United States was due to announce on Wednesday a $1 million reward for information to help dismantle one of Asia’s largest wildlife-trafficking syndicates.

In what officials said was the first time such a reward had been offered, the State Department said it was targeting a syndicate based in Laos, the impoverished and authoritarian Southeast Asian country whose government, investigators say, has been uncooperative in stopping a thriving trade of African ivory, rhino horns, tiger bones and endangered animals harvested by the thousands from Asian jungles.

In a draft statement, Secretary of State John Kerry described the syndicate, the Xaysavang Network, as “one of the most prolific wildlife-trafficking syndicates in operation,” with affiliates in China, Malaysia, Mozambique, South Africa, Thailand and Vietnam.

Investigators say the Laotian syndicate is headed by a Laotian businessman, Vixay Keosavang, who was the subject of an report in The New York Times in March.

Reached on his cellphone on Wednesday, Mr. Vixay said he was being framed. “There are people slandering me,” he said. “If you want to know the truth, you should ask Lao officials.”

Asked specifically about rhino horns sent from South Africa and addressed to him personally — evidence that was presented in a trial that concluded last year in South Africa — Mr. Vixay acknowledged that he had received them.

“I admit that I accepted them in good faith,” he said, adding that Laotian officials were aware of the shipments. But, he said, “I never ordered them.”

Bouaxam Inthalangsi, an official at the Laotian Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, said by telephone on Wednesday that American officials gave him documents last week related to Mr. Vixay and the Xaysavang Network. But he said it was not enough evidence to arrest Mr. Vixay, who is based in Bolikhamxai Province outside the capital, Vientiane. More....

The Survival of Elephants Depends on Our Collective Stand Against the Ivory Trade

11/13/2013

Sourc: IFAW.org

By Grace Ge Gabriel

At the invitation of the US Fish and Wildlife Service, I am flying into Denver, Colorado today to witness the destruction of the elephant ivory seized in the United States.

Nearly six tons of elephant ivory confiscated from illegal trade will be destroyed by crushing at the Rocky Mountain Arsenal Wildlife Refuge. The symbolic ivory crush signifies the US commitment to combat wildlife trafficking as outlined in President Obama’s new Executive Order in July.

The organization I work for, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) strongly supports governments to destroy their stockpiles of confiscated ivory for two reasons: both as a symbolic gesture to highlight the plight of tens of thousands of elephants that are being killed each year to supply the ivory trade, but also as a way to ensure that seized ivory does not re-enter the market.

IFAW believes the destruction of confiscated ivory will send a strong signal to consumers everywhere that buying ivory is immoral and wrong, and send a tough message to poachers and traffickers that their actions will not be tolerated.

The snow-capped mountains and the crisp dry air of the mile high city bring back memories of another symbolic destruction of wildlife parts from another species, on another continent.

A decade ago, at the Kekexili Nature Reserve in China’s western plateau, elevation 3-miles high (16,400 ft), I twice joined Chinese government officials in setting fire to thousands of confiscated Tibetan antelope pelts.

Tibetan antelope or chiru ((Pantholops hodgsonii), a highly endangered species endemic to the Qinghai Tibet plateau, were heavily poached in China for their wool, which is smuggled into India to be woven into a shawl highly-prized for its lightness, softness and warmth that it is called “shahtoosh” (“King of Wool”).

The sharp demand for Shahtoosh shawls in the luxury markets in Europe and America stimulated poaching, which saw tens of thousands of chiru killed a year. More....

The Ivory War: Militarised Tactics Won't Work

11/9/2013

Source: Sbs.com.au

By Daniel Stiles

Elephant and rhino poaching in Africa have been rising; the Western black rhino has just been declared extinct. Demand in Asia, particularly China, for these animals' tusks and horns has been identified as the main cause of the rise in poaching. Many organisations are moving towards a militarised anti-poacher approach, but there is scant evidence this approach is working.

The media, guided by certain non-governmental organisations, have reported claims that terrorist groups such as Al-Shabaab and the Janjaweed are funded by elephant poaching.

The shocking Westgate Mall incident in Nairobi in September was perpetrated by Al-Shabaab. One writer ventured that the attack could have been financed with only five elephant tusks.

Increasingly, elephant poaching is being linked to organised crime and terrorism, elevating the issue to one of national security. Protecting national security inevitably leads to calls for “sophisticated counter-guerilla warfare”.

The call for militarised anti-poaching measures
Are we to see the emergence of anti-poaching Blackwaters to take on the criminals that are massacring precious elephants?

Anti-poaching consultant Nir Kalron - who has a military background - says “If ranger units are not sufficient to stop the poaching gangs … military sweeps may be necessary… [A\n aggressive ‘shock’ campaign is in order; to achieve such results, the use of large infantry and Special Forces units is needed.”

He continues, writing that hi-tech surveillance should be used: drones, night-vision goggles, GPS trackers, etc. and that “the creation of focused task forces with ‘carte blanche’ – supported financially and professionally by NGOs and security professionals – will offer a possible recipe for success.”

The highest levels in the US and the UN, supported by conservation and animal welfare NGOs, seem to be buying this message. More....

Crush the Ivory Trade

11/7/2013

Source: Huffingtonpost.com

By Will Travers

Next week, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service will preside over the destruction of 5.4 tons of seized elephant ivory -- confiscated from nefarious smugglers and other participants in the bloody ivory trade. I applaud the United States government for taking this bold and very public step to show the world that only elephants should wear ivory. And while Kenya and other nations have set piles of ivory ablaze previously, I hope that America's action will spur similar efforts to permanently remove elephant ivory from circulation from other nations worldwide.

Born Free has been on the front lines working to protect elephants from the ivory trade for a quarter century now. I was there in Lausanne, Switzerland in 1989 when the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) put all African elephants on Appendix I, thus prohibiting trade in ivory that is primarily commercial.

But I was also in Harare, Zimbabwe in 1997 when this ivory ban was weakened for Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe. The key message I have found through my experience is also a simple one: A uniform and universal prohibition on international trade in elephant ivory is the best way to stop elephant poaching. Ivory becomes taboo in the marketplace. Prices drop. Markets dry up. Poaching diminishes. Populations stabilize. Send a signal that ivory is profitable, and the reverse happens in every regard.

And, after trying to get individuals at the highest levels of government to take notice of the plight elephants continue to face, I am so thrilled that attention has been paid -- from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to President Barack Obama.

Hillary Clinton and her daughter, Chelsea, both representing the Clinton Global Initiative, have spearheaded efforts to bolster on-the-ground protection for African elephants across their range. Born Free, with elephant conservation and anti-poaching projects in Kenya, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, and elsewhere, knows first-hand what it takes to protect elephants in the wild, where they belong. More....

Obama Administration to Destroy Ivory Stockpiles

11/5/2013

Source: Swampland.time.com

By Maya Rhodan

The Obama administration has a message for consumers and vendors of illegal ivory: the United States will not stand for poaching.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is hoping that the message is heard loud and clear when they use a rock-crusher to pulverize six tons of ivory the government has seized over the past 25 years on Nov. 14.

At the national wildlife repository in Denver, hordes of raw and carved tusks, ivory ornaments, and jewelry will be destroyed in the Obama administration’s latest effort of promoting wildlife conservation. The African Conservation Act largely banned imports and exports of the material in 1989 after a surge in poaching wiped out nearly two-thirds of the African Elephant species. Since, the U.S. has been seizing ivory at borders, shipping ports and other points of entry.

“We are taking an important step next week, said Daniel Ashe, the Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, at a press event at the Foreign Press Center on Tuesday. “We’re doing that in the hopes of raising the profile of this issue and also to try to inspire other nations around the world to deal with their stockpiles.”

Though the crush is the first American ivory destruction, other countries have been destroying the material for some time. Over the summer, the Philippines crushed and burned 5 tons of ivory from its stockpile to prevent officials from stealing and selling the material on the black market. In 2011, the Kenyan president also burned their ivory to send a message to poachers, though fire alone doesn’t destroy the material.

Ivory has been estimated as worth more than cocaine and gold on the black market, with annual revenue of about $10 billion. Destroying the stockpiles, officials say, is intended to show poachers and traders that ultimately there is no market for the material. “There shouldn’t be a value on ivory,” Ed Grace, the deputy chief of law enforcement at the Fish and Wildlife Service, told TIME. More....