Elephants still in danger from ivory poachers
Anna:
February 26th, 2007
I haven’t achieved much yet today, as the latest National Geograohic magazine flumped onto my doormat this morning. One article stood out especially for me - an account of the “Ivory Wars” raging in Zakouma National Park in southeastern Chad. I think we all assume ivory is a bit passe, one of those hot topics of the 1980’s that we assume is all sorted out now. A bit like wearing fur, being aware about AIDS. Basically, old news. Sadly, that’s far from true and poaching of elephants is rife in hard-to-police central Africa. The main market is the Far East. This is where I get really, really angry - why the hell would you condone the slaughter of a beautiful, intelligent creature for the sake of having a bit of ivory inlaid in your cutlery handles?? And I’m not one for cultural intolerance, but frankly I don’t give a toss if traditional Chinese medicine requires ground-up ivory for pills and potions. I just don’t think it should be tolerated by the world community. Stop the demand, and the poaching will also cease. As with coca production in South America, the “producers” in the developing world get the blame while the fat-cat middlemen live it up in Monte Carlo.
Anyway, rant over. If you need convincing that Zakouma is somewhere incredibly special, you don’t even have to buy National Geographic magazine. Just visit their website to read more and watch a 10 minute video documentary about the last remaining place on earth where you can see herds of up to 1000 elephants.