Posted on 19 June 2009
- The report also raises concerns that legal
provisions governing trade in domesticated
elephants are providing cover for illegal
trade in wild-caught, highly-endangered
Asian elephants from both Thailand and neighbouring
Myanmar.
TRAFFIC’s survey documented
over 26,000 worked ivory products for sale
in local markets, with many more retail
outlets dealing in ivory products than were
observed during market surveys carried out
in 2001.
Market surveys found
50 more retail outlets offering ivory items
in Bangkok and Chiang Mai in 2008 than the
previous year. However, overall there was
less worked ivory openly on sale than in
2001.
“Thailand has consistently
been identified as one of the world’s top
five countries most heavily implicated in
the illicit ivory trade, but shows little
sign of addressing outstanding issues,”
said Tom Milliken, of TRAFFIC, which oversees
a global monitoring programme, the Elephant
Trade Information System (ETIS), for the
Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
“Thailand needs to reassess
its policy for controlling its local ivory
markets as currently it is not implementing
international requirements to the ongoing
detriment of both African and Asian Elephant
populations,” said Milliken.
“Since 2004, the Thai
government has only reported two ivory seizure
cases totaling 1.2 tonnes of raw ivory.”
Thailand’s capital,
Bangkok, a major tourist destination, has
emerged as the main hub for illegal ivory
activities, accounting for over 70 percent
of the retail outlets in Thailand offering
ivory items for sale.
The report includes
new information on ivory workshops—eight
in Uthai Thani, one each in Chai Nat and
Payuha Kiri, and three in Bangkok—between
them employing dozens of carvers in the
production of ivory jewelry, belt buckles
and knife-handles. Much of the ivory being
worked is illegally imported from Africa.
Some workshop owners
boasted close ties with European knife makers,
while others reported sending ivory, steel
and silver items to the US for sale in gun
shops.
“The Thai Government
needs to crack down on this serious illegal
activity and stop allowing people to abuse
the law,” said Dr Colman O’Criodain, WWF
International’s analyst on wildlife trade
issues.
“A good first step would
be to put in place a comprehensive registration
system for all ivory in trade and for live
elephants”.
The study also uncovered
reports of traders buying wild-caught elephant
calves for use in Bangkok as “beggars” on
the streets in major tourist centres, or
selling them to elephant camps and entertainment
parks.
Hundreds of live elephants
are known to have been illegally imported
from Myanmar in recent years, to be sold
to elephant trekking companies catering
to adventure tourism in Thailand. The capture
of wild elephants has been banned in Thailand
since the 1970s, but such trade usually
goes undetected because domesticated elephants
do not have to be registered legally until
they are eight years of age.
The study also found
that over a quarter of all live elephant
exports from Thailand between 1980 and 2005
could have been illegal due to incomplete
and inaccurate declarations made on the
documentation required under CITES.
“There must be greater
scrutiny of the live elephant trade if enforcement
efforts are to have any impact at all,”
said Chris R. Shepherd, TRAFFIC Southeast
Asia’s Acting Director.
“Thailand and Myanmar
should work together, and with urgency,
to address cross-border trade problems,”
he added.
+ More
EU delays climate talks
progress
Posted on 19 June 2009
- Brussels, Belgium – The European Union
is delaying the ongoing climate negotiations,
WWF said after the bloc’s Council once again
failed to declare how much it planned to
contribute to the global fight against devastating
climate change.
The European Council
has discussed climate change during its
latest meeting but it has only come up with
vague statements and did not put any figure
it was prepared to commit to, or detail
the mechanisms for raising funds for climate
change.
“European leaders were
right to state that the time has now come
for the international community to speed
up the pace of negotiations and take the
commitments needed to limit global warming
to under 2°C. The question inevitably
arises, therefore, why they didn’t make
a decision that actually supports such goals?”
said Jason Anderson, Head of European Climate
and Energy Policy at WWF.
“The EU is playing a
delaying tactic which cannot help ensure
an ambitious deal by the UN Copenhagen summit.
Europe needs to make progress on the key
issues, and not look elsewhere for leadership.”
After the timid performance
of the Czech Presidency of the EU, WWF urges
the upcoming Swedish presidency to guide
Europe towards Copenhagen.
Establishing a clear
roadmap that does not leave all critical
decisions to the final Council before Copenhagen
should be one of the crucial first steps,
WWF says.
In light of the 2-degree
goal, Europe’s 20% commitment of emissions
reductions by 2020 is not ambitious enough,
nor would a 30% target if this is to be
diluted by buying offset credits from developing
countries.
Europe’s minimum commitment
should be to 30% achieved at home, and an
additional 15% supported through financing
in developing countries.
Europe and other developed
countries will need to be fully decarbonised
by 2050.
