From: Nitro (Original Message) Sent: 7/29/2002 10:45 PM
The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has released a new regional proposal for the CITES (Convention on International on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) convention to be held in November in Santiago, Chile.

The proposal is to allow the sale of ivory stockpiles and also increase the trade in live animals.

Botswana in particular proposes to sell 87 tons of ivory to countries which have controls in place for legitimate trade in ivory, such as Japan, and also proposes to re-locate live animals to countries meeting acceptable requirements.

http://allafrica.com/stories/200207260420.html

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My opinion is that it is a criminal waste not to utilise the ivory stocks provided that the ivory is harvested as part of responsible game management programmes. As only by giving value to wildlife to the country and the local community will true long term conservation efforts be successful. Otherwise the locals will only view the wildlife as "pests" and not "assets" adding to their lives and wealth.

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From: Nitro Sent: 7/29/2002 10:53 PM
Other stockpiles proposed for sale:
Botswana 20 tonnes, and an annual quota of four tonnes;
Namibia - 10 tonnes and 2 tonnes annually;
South Africa - 30 tonnes and two tonnes on quota per annum;
Zambia - 17 tonnes; %
Zimbabwe - 10 tonnes and 5 tonnes annually.

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From: Bigfive Sent: 7/30/2002 4:42 PM
It is difficult to do anything controlled with these bloody bastards here in Africa.Sorry for the stong language but that's the way it is.As soon as you try to controll something they'll do all in their power to contradict it.If you say "don't shoot all the elephants" that is excactly what they're gonna do.I think it is good to utilize the stockpiles from all these southern african countries.Some of it is ivory that was gathered up 20+years.Personally I think if you overflo the ivory marked then the poaching would end or calm down at least.Why pay $250/kg of poahed,smuggled ivory if you can pay $50 for legal ivory?
I'm also in big support of this proposal.Use the profits on anti-poaching units or establishing new infrastructures to help these countries to build better tourist attractions or similar things..

Bigfive