B
C
elephant expert and consultant to, amongst others, the EC,
WWF and CITES) for UK support, moral and financial, for his proposed Ivory Trade Information Project.
4. Although we are keen to support measures to combat
illegal trade in ivory there were two points arising from this proposal on which we requested further clarification from Douglas-Hamilton. The first was the question of
overlap with other organisations. Although WWF may have been content with this proposal, there are other organisations which already undertake monitoring of the
ivory trade, such as the Ivory Monitoring Unit of CITES (to which we contribute £5,000 a year) and the World Conservation Monitoring Centre in Cambridge.
There was also
the question of relations with the Customs authorities of
for example Hong Kong, who have their own Task Force to deal
with illegal trade in ivory. The second point was the
suggestion that such a project is essential to counter ivory
trading betweeen African range states such as Zimbabwe and
consumer countries such as South Korea. Zimbabwe is,
through entering a Reservation against the Appendix I
listing of the African elephant, perfectly entitled to
export African elephant ivory provided the CITES rules are
obeyed. And there is nothing to stop South Korea, a
non-CITES party, from importing it. Similarly, (Hong Kong in exporting to China, is also acting perfectly legally.
By
the
live "th time
This aspect of Dr Douglas-Hamilton's project therefore seemed to deviate somewhat from the first of his stated aims t of combatting illegal trade in ivory.
5.
the rexcreation
hows
been withdrum
In his letter of 21 April Dr Douglas-Hamilton answered Ming will have
these two questions to our satisfaction, and there seems
therefore no reason why we should not send a letter of
support, as the US have done. But there is no source of
funds, either with FCO, DOE or ODA which we could tap
make a contribution. Fortunately, Dr Douglas-Hamilton
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.