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20-year ban on trade in ivory

African states have called for a 20-year ban on trade in ivory to protect the continent's elephants from poachers and possible extinction in the wild.

Kenya and Mali, which spearheaded the moratorium along with Togo and Ghana, are seeking to have the measure adopted at the June meeting of the 169-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), their representatives said at a meeting in Paris on Tuesday.

A delegation representing some 20 African nations, including the Democratic Republic of Congo and Niger, will tour Europe this week to secure backing from the European Union for the ban, they said.

"The elephants are dramatically becoming depleted," said Patrick Omondi, head of species conservation and management at the Kenya Wildlife Service. "A 20-year moratorium is necessary to allow the population to recover, and to refine the mechanisms of law enforcement."

The African representatives lashed out at partial bans and quotas that have been implemented in the past.

"Every time CITES authorizes the sale of limited quantities of ivory, we witness an increase in poaching and illegal trade," said Bourama Niagate, head of the delegation and of nature conservation in Mali.

"We are confronted with men who are very organized and better armed than our standing armies, and at the same time we are in charge of protecting hundreds of thousands of hectares (acres) of parks and preserves without even basic communication tools," he said.

According to a report submitted by the African nations to CITES, the continent's elephant population has plummeted approximately ten-fold from up to five million in the 1940s to 400,000 to 600,000 today.

Some 20,000 elephants are killed by poachers every year, according to the document.

 

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