TNAG-2131-FCO40-3046-Hong-Kong-and-the-ivory-trade-1990 — Page 129

Miss Marsiden He Holroyd

PS/Mr Waldegrave

។

22/2

RESTRICTED

From: E J Hughes MAED

Date: 21 February 1990

CC: PS

PS/Mrs Chalker

PS/Mr Maude

PS/Lord Brabazon

PS/PUS

Mr Lidington

Mr Fraser

Mr Bayne

Mr Slater o/r

Mr Carrick

Mr McLaren

Mr Paul HKD

Mr Edis EAD

Mr Davis EAED ODA

News Dept

HONG KONG IVORY

A

1.

Dr Richard Leakey, Head of Kenya's Wildlife Department, gave an interview on the BBC's 'Today' programme this morning in which he claimed that the entering by the UK on behalf of Hong Kong of the six-month Reservation against the CITES Appendix I listing of the African elephant has led directly to a resurgence of poaching in Kenya and Tanzania. According to Leakey, Kenya alone has lost 25 elephants in the past month and Kenya and Tanzania have intercepted shipments of new ivory totalling some 15 tons which were destined

for Hong Kong.

2. We have to acknowledge that Leakey is in the UK for

to raise funds and may well be over-stating the poaching problem. Nevertheless his allegations strike at the very heart of our defence of the entering of the six months' Reservation. Conservation NGOs, including the respected World Wide Fund for Nature, and members of the public (in 197 MPs letters and 1123 direct letters) have alleged that the Reservation would simply encourage the resurgence of world

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