Posted on 17 March 2010
Doha, Qatar – Urgent
law enforcement action by governments in
Central and West Africa and South-east Asia
is crucial to addressing the illicit ivory
trade, according to a new analysis of elephant
trade data.
Detailed regional summaries
of the data held in the Elephant Trade Information
System (ETIS), the world’s largest database
on ivory seizures, highlight the failure
of law enforcement in key elephant range
States facing an increasing threat from
organised crime and the presence of unregulated
markets.
The re-analysis comes
as 175 governments meet in Qatar for the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species in Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES),
where they will consider ivory trade issues.
"It's clearer than
ever that governance shortfalls and weak
enforcement allow illicit ivory trade to
go unchecked in West and Central Africa
and in South-East Asia, where large domestic
ivory markets openly sell ivory illegally,"
said Tom Milliken of TRAFFIC, who undertook
the ETIS analysis.
"What's needed
is urgent action by government enforcement
agencies in these regions and strong collaboration
with counterparts in Asia where many of
the current seizures are being made."
“If there was adequate
political will, a commitment to law enforcement
would shut down the illegal markets and
check corruption. That isn’t happening.”
Milliken said.
ETIS is compiled by
TRAFFIC on behalf of CITES, and comprises
more than 15,400 ivory seizure cases compiled
over the last 21 years.
The re-analysis of the
data was made by region rather than by country,
and was carried out to align the data with
MIKE (Monitoring the Illegal Killing of
Elephants), another of the CITES tools used
to monitor poaching, which also shows that
the Central African region is losing the
most elephants.
"Until this strengthened
law enforcement happens, ivory will continue
to leak out of Africa” said Elisabeth McLellan,
Species Manager, WWF International.
"We're not talking
small-time smugglers here, we're talking
hardened, organized criminal gangs,"
McLellan said.
+ More
International development
finance agendas at risk of clashing
Posted on 16 March 2010
New York – The world’s nations needed to
quickly agree on principles that would avoid
different international development finance
agendas coming into conflict, WWF warned
today.
WWF welcomed a report
released by UN Secretary General Ban Ki
Moon today aimed at achieving lagging Millennium
Development Goals on the original schedule
of 2015, but said there was a risk MDGs
and other current development agendas would
not be achieved unless each had adequate
and quarantined funding.
Also on the international
agenda is securing the funding mechanisms
for climate adaptation for least developed
countries and the low carbon development
support promised under the Copenhagen Accord,
with the UN Secretary General recently announcing
a High Level Advisory Group on climate financing.
“The danger when we
have two parallel processes essentially
related to development funding is that governments
will start to pick and choose priorities
and merge funding streams for less overall
development funding,” said Kim Carstensen,
WWF climate initiative leader.
“The world’s poorest
people are due the commitments made to them
at the opening of the new millennium and
they also are due the world’s assistance
in coping with climate change impacts they
had almost no role in causing and having
a chance to develop without contributing
to climate catastrophe.”
WWF is calling for agreements
and commitments that Copenhagen Accord related
funding be additional to commitments under
overseas development aid commitments, including
meeting the MDG objectives.
“The MDGs are behind
schedule largely because developed countries
made funding commitments they did not keep,”
said Carstensen. “There are lessons there,
both for an accelerated effort to achieve
the MDGs on the original schedule and to
achieve the funding commitments made under
the Copenhagen Accord.”
“Where we should be
finding the synergies between the two development
agendas is not in mixing up and depleting
the funding streams but in emphasising the
common objectives.”
“Successful climate
adaptation works towards several MDG goals
in protecting productive landscapes and
marine environments, reducing health risks,
achieving food security and empowering women
in their communities.”
Keeping the Promise,
the new UN outline for achieving the MDGs,
breaks new ground by identifying climate
change as an issue that will hold back their
achievement.
The report also notes
that “achieving the MDGs should also contribute
to the capacities needed to tackle climate
change.”
“We couldn’t agree more,”
Carstensen said.
About WWF
WWF is one of the world's largest and most
respected independent conservation organizations,
with almost 5 million supporters and a global
network active in over 100 countries. WWF's
mission is to stop the degradation of the
earth's natural environment and to build
a future in which humans live in harmony
with nature, by conserving the world's biological
diversity, ensuring that the use of renewable
natural resources is sustainable, and promoting
the reduction of pollution and wasteful
consumption.
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