... at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties of CITES (CoP15), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

You will have seen the news last week: both the Tanzanian and Zambian proposals were defeated both in Committee and, on Thursday, in the closing Plenary sessions when the two bids for one-off sales of ivory were floored again and then finally really floored with votes even further from the needed 2/3 majority. In Kenya, we followed the exciting step-by-step account at the ElephantVoices Facebook CoP15 link and with sms messages from colleagues who were in the room. There are now many news summaries: see Hans' list below. You may also be intested in the Economist Online take, Fishy business: How the elephants’ success hurt the bluefin tuna. The disgusting Japanese reception serving bluefin sashimi flown in from Japan must have contributed to the increased support for elephants at the end of the day.

The delegates from the African Elephant Coalition worked tirelessly during the grueling two weeks. The head of Kenya's delegation, Patrick Omondi of KWS, had prefaced Doha by personally lobbying congressmen in the USA. Pat Awori, who chairs the Kenya Elephant Forum, is our heroine and must have been totally persuasive on the floor and in the corridors. Joyce Poole added strength to the science voices of Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Sam Wasser and others. What a team! Our heartfelt thanks to them all!

The Avaaz petition against the ivory trade gained over 485,000 signatures. Many thanks to those of you who signed. It showed the delegates at CITES the strength of public opinion in favour of elephants.

It was open season at CITES! Governments rejected proposed bans on hunting bluefin tunas and polar bears. See the Times OnLine article. Things weren't looking good for elephants, either (and from some of the moronic comments to the article, you can see why). It seems the EU was looking like it would not support the African Elephant Coalition proposal to reject the one-off sales of ivory by Tanzania and Zambia and increase the moratorium on the ivory trade. The debate happened on Monday, 22 March.

In addition to the various links here and below, IISD's Environmental Negotiations Bulletin summary should be here. Our colleagues at ElephantVoices put up a good page with useful CoP15 links. You can get to the CITES -- ho-hum -- links there. Still other colleagues at WildlifeDirect have provided more links, including the so-called Panel of Expert reports on the situations in Tanzania and Zambia: real fence-sitting and obfuscating stuff, that, not science-based at all. If you want the scientists' take, have a look at the recent article in Science entitled "Elephants, Ivory and Trade" by Wasser and Novak and 24 more of us (you can download it by clicking on the top document link below). And if you want to read an undercover view of Tanzania and Zambia's alleged inability to manage a trade in ivory, see what the Environmental Investigation Agency has to say.

The wages of the
ivory trade

CITES is an international treaty ratified by 175 countries. Its aim is to ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival. Every three years the the signatory countries gather to consider progress and problems and to make proposals to amend the treaty as may be required.

Ironically, these meetings engender huge threats to elephants' survival.

Trade in elephant products is always high on the agenda, and this year, in Doha, from 13 to 25 March, there will be the perennial debate between countries for and against the international trade in ivory.

ATE is against the trade. We have been working with like-minded NGOs and individuals under the aegis of the Kenya Elephant Forum (KEF) to provide strategic information to a body of sympathetic African elephant range states called the African Elephant Coalition (AEC).

ATE directors and staff, working with members of our Scientific Advisory Committee, have been instrumental in drafting five Fact Sheets to be used as lobbying tools to strengthen the no-trade case in the forthcoming debate.

We reproduce them herein along with pdf versions that can be downloaded and promulgated as you wish. They are:

1. The African Elephant Coalition
   Proposals to relax the African elephant’s protected status and to promote one-off sales of stockpiled ivory spell doom to the elephants within our lifetimes. Twenty-four African countries have come together to resist the proposals and harness information to shape policy to ensure the elephants’ future.
2. Elephant Poaching and the Ivory Trade
   This fact sheet aims to brief policy-makers on the link between elephant poaching and the ivory trade. Proposals to relax the African elephant’s internationally protected status and to increase one-off sales of stockpiled ivory spell doom to Africa’s elephants within our lifetimes.
3. CITES and the Ivory Trade
   This fact sheet summarizes the major milestones in governments’ attempts to secure the future of the African elephant, which today is under serious threat from poaching and the ivory trade.
4. Proposals on the African Elephant for CITES CoP15
   This fact sheet presents the proposed amendments relating to the African Elephant that have been presented for consideration to the 15th meeting of the Conference of Parties to CITES. 13-25 March 2010, Doha, Qatar. It provides views from the African Elephant Coalition on reasons for accepting or rejecting the proposals.
5. Elephants and Ecosystems
   Elephants are important. They are large, long-lived, highly intelligent and complex animals. They are under threat from ivory poaching and habitat loss. They are an essential component of African savannah and forest ecosystems. Local extinctions could lead to catastrophic ecological changes. Losing them would be detrimental to Africa, Asia and the world.

Help us spread the word.