... at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties of CITES (CoP15), the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
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It's open season at CITES! Governments have rejected proposed bans on hunting bluefin tunas and polar bears. See the Times OnLine article. Things aren't looking good for elephants, either (and from some of the moronic comments to the article, you can see why). It seems the EU will probably 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 and most likely vote will happen on Monday, 22 March.

CoP15 started over the weekend. We are awaiting first hand reports from colleagues who are on the scene. No formal debate on elephants and the ivory trade yet. The usual blow-by-blow account provided by IISD's Environmental Negotiations Bulletin won't be available this time due to funding constraints, but there will at the end of the week be a good summary here. Our colleagues at ElephantVoices have 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. Stay tuned...

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.