Elephants at peril once again

[BrklynLiberal]

Wildlife Conference Agrees to Ivory Sale
Jun 2 06:45 PM US/Eastern
By ARTHUR MAX

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) - The agency that oversees international trade involving rare animals approved on Saturday the sale of 60 tons of ivory to Japan despite fears it could lead to increased poaching of endangered elephants.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, said its officials would closely monitor the sale see whether it affects the black market.
South Africa, Botswana and Namibia are selling the ivory from stocks gathered from elephants that have died naturally. All three countries pledged to deposit the revenue in trust funds for further conservation.

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The sale was adopted by CITES' 18-country standing committee, which meets annually. John Sellar of the CITES secretariat said it was completely separate from the black market.

"There's no way that a poacher can get into the system," he said. yeah, right. famous last words

Still, the exception to the ban on ivory trade—the second since the ban was imposed in 1989—was opposed by several African countries, which feared it would spur poaching. It also revealed a split among nongovernment agencies dedicated to defending the diversity of plants and animals.

The World Wild Fund for Nature, or WWF, said it was satisfied with the controls surrounding the sale, but a broad range of other groups denounced the decision. boo to the WWF!!!

"It's very frustrating that the facts about the scale of the illegal trade were completely ignored," said Peter Pueschel, of the International Fund for Animal Welfare. He said the level of intercepted illegal ivory had reached record levels in the past two years.

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A competing proposal from Kenya and Mali would tighten the ivory ban, eliminating some exceptions and imposing a moratorium for 20 years on exceptional sales.


http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=2007-06-02_D8PGV6KO1&show_article=1&cat=breaking