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Monday, 14 October, 2002, 14:41 GMT 15:41 UK
'Rich world should save elephants'
![]() Going fast: Africa's elephants have dwindled in 20 years
Dr Leakey told BBC News Online it was unfair to leave the job to the poor countries where the elephants live.
He said poachers in central Africa were causing mayhem, while Asia's elephants were critically threatened. Dr Leakey was speaking before a meeting of the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) from 3 to 15 November in Santiago, Chile. Five southern African countries - Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe - want permission from Cites to sell stockpiled ivory. This means moving elephants from Cites' Appendix I to Appendix II. Appendix I includes species threatened with extinction, and trade is allowed only exceptionally. 'Over-run with elephants' Appendix II includes species not necessarily threatened with extinction, but where trade needs controlling to help their survival.
The five countries say they have too many elephants and the money from ivory sales could help conservation. Their opponents say there is no way to distinguish between ivory from legal sources and tusks which have been poached. So any legal trade would inevitably fuel a demand which only the poachers could satisfy.
Dr Leakey told BBC News Online: "All the evidence points to the world's elephants facing a huge threat. "Ivory is flowing out to south-east Asia, where there's a big demand for it, and poaching in central Africa is causing havoc. "For God's sake, let's not open up the ivory trade just now. I don't have a problem with the principle of selling ivory, but if you restart legal sales now, you'll drive the illegal trade too. If the trade restarts, we're heading down the slippery slope. Money to replace words "I know these states say they have too many elephants, and we have exactly the same problem in some Kenyan parks. All I'm saying is that we mustn't put the ivory on the market." Asked if the developed world was doing enough, Dr Leakey said: "I'm absolutely sure more could be done.
Africa's elephant population is thought to have more than halved, to about 600,000 animals, between the late 1970s and 1989. Some experts believe it has continued its precipitous decline, leaving barely 300,000 elephants today. Rapid plunge Asia is thought to have fewer than 50,000 wild elephants: Ifaw puts the total at about 35,000. Dr Leakey said Asia's elephants were facing "a terrible crisis, with India's situation deplorable. And most of it has happened in the last 10 years." From 1 January 2000 to 21 May 2002, 965 African elephants were reported killed by poachers, and 39 Asian elephants. The ivory poachers are not the elephants' only enemy. Recent reports from the Central African Republic describe elephant carcases stripped of their flesh but with the tusks still in place, suggesting the bushmeat trade is worth more than the ivory. Only male Asian elephants have tusks, though both sexes do in Africa. Zoologists now recognise at least two distinct African species, the savannah and the forest elephant, with a possible third species, the western African elephant. Images copyright and courtesy of Ifaw
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11 Oct 02 | Africa
09 Oct 02 | Africa
04 Oct 02 | Asia-Pacific
14 May 02 | Science/Nature
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