World Elephant Day sees worldwide call to burn ivory stockpiles

News updates from the Conservation Action Trust

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World Elephant Day sees worldwide call to burn ivory stockpiles

13 August 2016 | Traveller24 | Selene Brophy | FREE TO PUBLISH CREDIT CAT

Hard to image that presently fewer than half a million elephants are left in Africa. This is the reality World Elephant Day, held annually on 12 August, aims to highlight. In Cape Town on Friday afternoon, a small group of individuals joined the Conservation action trust to watch flames engulfed a pile of tusks fashioned … Full Story ?

 

Biodiversity: The ravages of guns, nets and bulldozers – Nature – Sean Maxwell

11 August 2016 | Nature | Sean L. Maxwell, Richard A. Fuller, Thomas M. Brooks& James E. M. Watson |

There is a growing tendency for media reports about threats to biodiversity to focus on climate change. Here we report an analysis of threat information gathered for more than 8,000 species. These data revealed a contrasting picture. We found that by far the biggest drivers of biodiversity decline are overexploitation (the harvesting of species from … Full Story ?


 

SA focuses on poaching and illegal ivory trade to mark World Elephant Day

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Joburg’s controversial Lion Park backtracks on canning cub petting

16th August 2016 | Traveller24 | Selene Brophy |

Lion cub petting is believed to be one of the many pitfalls of South Africa’s notorious canned lion hunting industry – an industry that has come under much scrutiny in the run up to CITES CoP17, set to be held in Johannesburg at the end of September. In June of this year the controversial Lion … Full Story ?


 

If Japan slow to ban ivory trade, online shops even slower

15 August 2016 | The Japan Times | DAISUKE KIKUCHI|

Elephant ivory has long been used worldwide to make a host of items from jewelry, piano keys and billiard balls to art and personal seals. Japan, which used ivory to make hanko (personal seals), was one of the biggest importers in the 1970s and 1980s, bringing in about 950 tons annually in 1983 and 1984. But as … Full Story ?


 

WWF ignores history at all elephants peril

12 August 2016 | Dave Curry | Dave Currey |

Today is World Elephant Day and just a few days ago WWF came out in opposition to a global ivory ban proposed for next month’s important Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting which is supported by 29 African states representing 70% of the African elephant range. This is unsurprising because WWF supported the sale of 108 tonnes … Full Story ?


 

African countries square up for battle over future of ivory trade ban

10 August 2016 | The Conversation | Chris Alden, Ross Harvey |

Three countries in southern Africa have banded together to press for the ban on the international trade in ivory to be lifted. South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe have submitted a joint proposal to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). They are asking for permission to trade in ivory without … Full Story ?


 

Why burn Ivory?

8 August 2016 | Traveller24 | Andreas Wilson-Späth |FREE TO PUBLISH CREDIT CAT

The South African government refuses to destroy its ivory stockpile unlike the 25 other countries that have publically destroyed tonnes of ivory to highlight that ivory should not be traded On the eve of World Elephant Day (12 August) and leading up to the 17th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES (CoP17),  in Johannesburg  … Full Story ?


 

Britain is hastening the extinction of the African elephant

7 August 2016 | The Guardian | Jonathan Baillie |

In 20 years, African elephants will be extinct if the UK doesn’t join the US and China in clamping down on the domestic ivory market. When we think about extinct animals, we look to history books and fairytales. The dodo. The woolly mammoth. The sabre-toothed cat. Yet extinction remains a very real threat today. The … Full Story ?


 

Vietnamese Carvers Move Centre Stage as China Cracks Down On Illegal Ivory Sales

4 August 2016 | The Conversation | Keith Somerville |

Vietnam, already a major source of demand for illegally poached rhino horn, is now fast becoming a major market for illegal ivory. The amount of ivory on sale in Vietnam has increased by more than 600% in the past eight years, according to a new report by leading ivory trade researchers Lucy Vigne and Esmond Martin. Vietnam … Full Story ?


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