MCLC: China and the killing of elephants and rhinos

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China and the killing of elephants and rhinos
From: Magnus Fiskesjo <nf42 at cornell.edu>
Breaking news of the last few days! on the China connection to the Africa ivory & rhino horn smuggling:
In the midst of news that 2014 has been the most awful massacre ever on Africa’s elephants and rhinos, David Attenborough and a series of other British figures have sent a dramatic letter pleading directly with Chinese president Xi Jinping to halt the ivory trade:
http://actionforelephantsuk.org/a-letter-to-the-chinese-president/
http://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1720379/conservationists-lawmakers-lobby-xi-jinping-over-ending-ivory-trade
http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/feb/20/david-attenborough-calls-on-chinese-president-end-ivory-trade
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/david-attenborough-calls-on-chinese-president-to-end-ivory-trade-and-halt-extinction-of-the-african-elephant-10062229.html?origin=internalSearch
And then, just yesterday, China announced a one-year moratorium on ivory imports. http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-31648475
It is all very curious: For one thing ivory trade is generally forbidden since the 1989 CITES treaty. The trade is already illegal. Yet Yao Ming, the former star basketball player who has been campaigning personally against the trade in his home country, has been arguing for an explicit total ban in China. I think that would mean shutting down all the many domestic carving factories and “legitimate” outlets where, time and again, foreign journalists have been able to go undercover and show they are all selling freshly killed African ivory. Yao Ming is getting traction from fellow celebs like Jackie Chan, and the movie star Li Bingbing who recently gathered a crowd of 100 Chinese celebs and company people to pledge an “ivory free year” for 2015. http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2014-12/05/content_19034021.htm
The ban, if it really is a credible one, seems to be closely related to the fact that a British Prince (William) (who has strong conservationist interests and recently appearing TOGETHER with Yao Ming — and David Beckham — in anti-poaching publicity!) is due to visit China this Spring, — therefore there’s some danger that this is just a temporary respite, or not even that. It may well be that the current rate of killing and stockpiling-smuggling will be continuing (every ten hour a rhino is shot, every 15 minutes or so, an elephant), in anticipation of 2016.
Of great interest is the fact that not just Chinese movie stars, but Chinese people more widely, and also Chinese businesspeople in Africa have started to react to being painted as complicit, even though many of them are of course innocent. Here is one interesting piece which mentions these trends: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/cndy/2013-11/07/content_17086665.htm
I am sometimes asked –including by MCLC list members — what to do, if one wants to help: if there is anything one can do. One obvious choice is to discuss this issue and spread awareness, please cite Attenborough’s assessment that the current situation is catastrophic.
I have tried to do my part this by teaching on the issue, and also writing on it, most recently an opinion piece that will appear in one of the big Stockholm dailies in the next few days (in Swedish that is). One could do more, and one can also give money. I myself give regularly to the International Rhino Foundation, rhinofoundation.org; and for elephants, one obvious choice is WildAid, http://wildaid.org/tags/elephants, which is the organization that has teamed up with the admirable Yao Ming himself, and, which also works for rhinos. Other organizations include Elephant Aid International, African Wildlife Foundation, Save the Elephants, and the WWF which is also represented in China.
–Sincerely, –Magnus.
by denton.2 at osu.edu on February 27, 2015
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