Tourist lust for ivory wiping out Asian elephants

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http://enn.com/news/wire-stories/2002/02/02262002/reu_46499.asp

 

Tourist lust for ivory wiping out Asian elephants

 

Tuesday, February 26, 2002

By Reuters

 

LONDON — Asia's wild elephants are being wiped out by

the demand for ivory trinkets from wealthy tourists, a

report published Monday said.

 

The coauthor of a report sponsored by the Save the

Elephants charity said Vietnam only had about 85 wild

elephants left and blamed the ivory purchases of

French, Spanish, Italian, German, Japanese, and

Chinese tourists for the disappearance of thousands

across Asia over the last two decades.

 

" What's driving this is an increase in foreign

tourism, " report coauthor Esmond Martin told a London

news conference.

 

The " South and South-East Asian Ivory Markets " report

by Martin and Daniel Stiles said local corruption had

allowed some 80 percent of the wild elephants in

Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam to fall victim to the

ivory trade from 1988 to 2000. Martin blamed trade in

Thailand as the main problem and said it was

attracting ivory from Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, and

even imports from Africa.

 

The number of wild elephants in Cambodia, Laos, and

Vietnam fell to 1,510 from 6,250 during the 12-year

period of the study, with Myanmar's population

estimated at only 4,820, about 1,000 lower than in

1990.

 

Martin said none of the countries surveyed — which

also included Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Singapore — had

enforced legislation banning the trade in ivory and

said officials in some countries even participated.

" In Nepal, nobody fears talking to me because the

government is not going to do anything about it, "

Martin said. " In Cambodia and Burma the army poaches

elephants, and customs and the police can be bribed to

permit exports. "

 

Martin said one encouraging sign was that India had

done much to eliminate its ivory trade, partly by

substituting camel bone for ivory in carvings. " It

shows what a government can do if they want to close

the trade down. It's not a rich place, but they've

done it very successfully. "

 

He said Sri Lanka had also clamped down on production,

as had Nepal, but cheap imports from China were still

supplying the Nepali market.

 

The pair spent five months last year researching the

trade in eight Asian nations for the report.

 

Copyright 2002, Reuters

 

 

 

 

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