Fodor's Travel Talk Forums - African elephants

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African elephants

To all you travelers who love Africa, please be aware that the CITES convention will be coming up in 2002. The southern African countries and Japan are trying very hard to see that the elephant is taken off the endangered list so ivory can be sold, as well as sell elephant babies and elephant skins for shoes and purses. Dr. Daphne Sheldrick is very much afraid that it will mean the start of rampant poaching again. Please, please, please put pressure on your legislators to see that the elephant remains on the endangered list and protected. I just returned from my second Kenyan safari two weeks ago. I spent five wonderful days at Ol Tukai Lodge in Amboseli getting very close to many trusting elephants. Then spent three days at Voi Lodge and three days at Satao Tented Camp in Tsavo East watching the wonderful elephant families there. Right now the elephant herds are doing well with the exception of a large bull that had been speared in Amboseli. Please make sure these magnificant creatures enjoy a long life without poaching. And please don't buy or sell ivory.

I found this article on a similar issue in 2000 but can find nothing about it in 2002. http://www.bornfree.org.uk/stoptheclock/petition.htm Do you have any websites with more information? Thank you so much Kavey

Lots more info at http://www.save-the-elephants.org/STENewsletters/STE%20Newsletter%20Pages/update%202001%20page%207.htm and htt p://environment.about.com/library/weekly/blcites.htm and http://forests.org/articles/reader.asp?linkid=6775 and http://www.iwmc.org/elephant/980408.htm

Kavey: Two other sources to check are www. sheldrickwildlifetrust.org/html/cites.html and www.kenya-wildlife-service.org/cites01.htm. LET'S SAVE THESE MAGNIFICENT CREATURES so travelers to Africa years from now will still be able to enjoy them. Jan

It took a lot of research, after reading this post, but I knew it would be well worth the effort. I too, have seen the wonderful elephants of Africa, and can't bear the thought of putting them at risk. I found a site where you can protest the renewed trade very easily. The CITES meeting is scheduled for November, so there is still time to make a difference. 5 African countries: South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia are proposing to lift the ivory trade ban. This would be only of stockpiled ivory and is supposed to benefit their countries, people and the wildlife within. However, my research and the feelings of many other conservationists is that by lifting the ban a message is sent to traders and poachers that ivory may be traded. Illegal ivory from other countries, including the even more endangered Asian elephants ivory is often smuggled into these countries in hopes of sale, and it fuels additional new poaching, not to mention renewing the market and increasing the desire for ivory. If you would like to do something about this situation, I suggest that you go to this web site (http://www.ifaw.org/takeaction/write...ry=176&id=1301) With all my research, this is all I’ve been able to find. I will continue trying to find out how to contact people in the other countries, and if anyone has any ideas, I would be happy to here from them. Here are a few other web addresses I used for my research, and if anyone would like more information, please let me know. The official CITES web site: read the proposals for yourself– the relevant ones are Proposals 6 thru 11. http://www.cites.org/ and the International Fund for Animal Welfare website is http://www.ifaw.org/ This is the organization sponsoring the letter campaign. One other source of information and a great read is the book Wildlife Wars by Richard Leakey.

Darlene Thanks so much for this information, I will read the sites you quote. My thoughts on ivory are the same - there is no obvious way of telling where the ivory is sourced, and once circulation is restarted, this will surely encourage poachers who will hope to pass their ivory off as from the stockpiles. Kavey

Darlene: Thanks so much for following up on my initial note. The poaching has already started. A number of elephants were poached in Tsavo East National Park about four months ago. One of the poachers was shot and killed and KWS was on the trail of the rest of them. Several elephants were also poached in Samburu. The experts all feel that because the poachers feel confident that elephants will be downlisted, they hope to have ivory on hand for the first sale. If you read Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton's website (www.save-the-elephants.org) he also tells of ivory being shipped from Burundi even though they no longer have any elephants! This means that ivory from poaching in other countries is being smuggled into Burundi and then out to Egypt, Asia and other countries. Each and every one of us that have had the the privilege of watching elephants in Africa or even enjoyed stories on Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, National Geographic need to get involved and put a stop to this. There in no reason on earth that anyone needs ivory trinkets, elephant leg umbrella stands or elephant skin shoes and purses. Let's all he heard! I'm hoping to return to Kenya in January and only hope and pray the elephants will be doing as well as when I saw them seven months ago. Many thanks, Jan Goss

Darlene: I suggested to Kenya Wildlife Service in February that they ought to put something about CITES on their website. I just rechecked the website today and they now have upgraded their CITES info. Check their site and you can learn about CITES as well as the Tsavo East poaching that occurred earlier in the Spring. Jan

Jan and Kavey So glad that you're still in on this thread and thanks for the tip. I did check the Kenya Wildlife site, and it's good to see that it has been updated. I am a docent at our local zoo, and am making sure that all the other volunteers and keepers are aware of the situation. I think too many people think that this poaching problem has been solved, but as we know it is an ongoing situation that we need to stay on top of. darlene

Darlene: Just wanted to keep you up to date. The poaching has started with anticipation that the elephant will be taken off the endangered list. I just checked Cynthia Moss's website "elephanttrust.org" and she tells of two elephants, one was a 22 year old bull well known to her who was poached and his ivory and all four legs chopped off (apparently some like to use elephant legs for umbrella stands). Another website has arisen where you can protest CITES taking the elephant off the endangered list. I voted on it last week (bornfree.org). I have been in touch with one of the elephant researchers and if I hear any more I'll keep you posted. Am currently working on my return trip to Kenya in January. Can't wait to get there. Jan Jan