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ANNCR: Ivory carvings so prized as status symbols by a growing middle class in Asia
ů are borne of slaughter in Africa. Entire families of elephants are attacked in killing frenzies with machine
guns and even rocket-propelled grenadesů the tusks often hacked out of the adults before
they are dead.
Brian Christy wrote an expose on 'Blood Ivory' for National Geographic Magazine.
Bryan Christy, Investigative Reporter: "You can see where the infants have gone down.
You can see the mothers and they've tried to protect their young. You can see the males,
who are generally far off, have gone down. To look at the dead bodies is to be reminded
of any crime scene on the evening news. It's horrible."
ANNCR: There were more than a million elephants in Africa thirty years ago. Today, there are
less than half that number. Last year alone, poachers killed around 35-thousand elephants
for their tusks. Nearly one hundred elephants are killed every day.
Poachers killed around ninety elephants in one Zimbabwe park by poisoning water holes
with cyanide. Not long ago, the Black Rhino was saved by conservation efforts from near
extinction due to poaching. But last year in South Africa - home to most of the rhinos
- nearly 700 were poachedů for their horns.
In Southeast Asia, they are believed to cure anything from cancer to hangovers and impotence.
By the first half of this year, more than five hundred rhinos were killed, outpacing
last year's toll.
Pelham Jones, Chairman, The South Africa Private Rhino Owners Association:
"There is no way that our natural populations can sustain the level of poaching, if it continues
at the level we are currently suffering, rhino will go into population according to scientific
calculations by about 2025. We will then be left with animals in zoos and very protected
areas. But the concept of rhino ranging through the plains of Africa will now become something
of the past. " ANNCR: This is a raid in Lusaka, by the Zambia
wildlife authority and Ifaw. The Convention On International Trade In Endangered Species
- or "C.I.T.E.S." ["sy-***"] - banned the trade in ivory in 1989 after poaching reached
devasting levels. That initially pushed back the threat to Africa's elephants, but no longer.
Not ivory sells for at least 1-thousand dollars per kilogram.
Rhino horn - whose trade was banned in 1977 -- is worth almost twice its weight in gold
this kind of moneyů makes a lot of people look the other way.
John Scanlon, Secretary General, CITES: "In some states we know that rogue elements
of the military are involved. We know that there's organized crime involved here. So
we've got a very difficult situation to confront."
ANNCR: Most African countries treat wildlife crimes as little more than a misdemeanor.
Last November, a South African court handed down an exceptional forty-year jail sentence
to a Thai man, who had fraudulently obtained hunting permits to kill twenty-six rhinos,
in order to sell the horns.
Fundisile Mketeni, Deputy Director General, Department of Environmental Affairs:
"The Asian bloc must understand that South African citizens are serious about this, because
this is the heritage of the people of South Africa, it's the heritage of the people of
Africa, it's the heritage of people of the world"
ANNCR: Some of Africa's most brutal militias have joined the fray, to finance regional
conflict. Groups like Islamist militants Al Shabab, the Sudan's Janjaweed, and the Lord's
Resistance Army in Central Africa, led by indicted war criminal, Joseph Kony.
The U.S. believes rebel militias are players in the worldwide illegal trade in ivory.
Hillary Clinton, former U.S. Secretary of State:
"Local communities are becoming terrified. Local leaders are telling their national leaders
that they can lose control of large swaths of territory to these criminal gangs. Where
criminal gangs can come and go at their total discretion, we know that begins to provide
safe havens for other sorts of threats to people and governments."
ANNCR: In just this century, Central Africa has lost seventy-six percent of its forest
elephants. It seems hard to believe in Dzanga Bai, a reserve in the Central African Republic.
Elephants come here by the dozens each day for the saline minerals in the ground.
Andrea Turkalo has studied this group for over twenty years. This May, after Seleka
rebels overthrew the government, she had to flee the violence. Turkalo says the elephants
of Dzanga Bai were no secret, and they had no fear of humans.
Andrea Turkalo, Associate Conservation Scientist, World Conservation Society:
"If poachers know about it, it would be an easy place to kill elephants,and that's what
happened, because what happened with the beginning of these problems with the Seleka forces,
is that our guards were unarmed by them, so there was nothing to protect them anymore.
Seventeen heavily armed Seleka showed up and opened fire on these animals."
ANNCR: These images were shot by Voa last year. On May 6, the poachers killed twenty-six
animals in this clearing and hacked out the tusks.
Andrea Turkalo, Associate Conservation Scientist, World Conservation Society:
"Elephants are highly conscious animals, they know exactly where it's safe and not safe,
and they recognize carcasses. When I knew the Seleka were on their way, my only hopeů
I knew there would be elephant mortality, that was a given. But my only hope was that
the rest of the elephants would just leave the area, stay out of the area, and my hope
is that they will do that. Because I have a gut feeling that they do communicate between
themselves in terms of what places are safe and what places are not safe."
ANNCR: Africa needs its wildlife -- alive -- because it's good business for Africans.
Many of the fifty million visitors to Africa each year come to see the continent's unique
animals and landscapes. The UNĺs World Tourism Organization expects double-digit growth for
Africa's tourism sector in this decade. But it is an industry under siege.
Kenya earns Africa's top tourism income, forecast to top one billion dollars this year. This
January, the Kenya Wildlife Service displayed confiscated animal parts, destined for the
Far East. The country had just suffered its worst elephant slaughter in over thirty years.
Rangers In Tsavo East National Park discovered a dead elephant family of eleven.
William Kiprono, Director, Kenya Wildlife Services:
"And when they die, some of them die crying! The rhinos, they die kneeling, and crying,
and facing the East. And do you know the elephants, when they die, what happens? When the mass
is killed -- what happens is they shoot one, and they [the rest] don't run away. They start
crying and surrounding the others, so as they are surrounding, they are also being shot."
ANNCR: That day, Kenyan port officials had made their biggest seizure yet: nearly three-and-a-half
tons of ivory, destined for Asia. An impressive interdiction ů in July, nearly four-and-a-half
tons were seized within one week. But these are battles that Africa is winning while losing
the larger war, because consumer demand for ivory exceeds the supply of elephants.
ANNCR: It is an ancient art of intricate beauty: Chinese ivory carving. These have long been
objects of desire - and status -- in this region of the world. Even Bryan Christy admits:
Bryan Christy, Investigative Reporter: "If you care about elephants, and it gives
you a kind of visceral feeling to look on one in the wild, you get that same feeling
from the quality of the craftsmanship in [the carving of] this ivory. It's amazing that
you can see the two sides of such a bloody battle and find beauty on both sides"
ANNCR: As part of his investigation for National Geographic, Christy visited China's - and
the world's - largest ivory carving factory. Despite the ban on the international sale
of ivory, a new generation of artisans is being trained to carry on this hugely lucrative
trade. The government runs forty carving factories and one hundred and forty-five retailers.
It also sells ivory to privately-owned companies at a large mark-up. Carvings like these can
go for hundreds of thousands of dollars. China says it is working from a sixty-two ton stockpile
of legally bought ivory. But experts say China is also the destination for forty percent
of illegal ivory traffic.
Bryan Christy, Investigative Reporter: "If you look at the price of raw ivory in
China, as compared with any other country, you know the gravitational pull of that market
is pulling it all to China. If you're selling ivory in any country other than China, you're
an idiot. The prices in China are extraordinary. The prices everywhere else don't match it"
ANNCR: The Chinese Government doesn't discuss its ivory business but vigorously denies that
it's not cracking down on the illegal traffic. This July, port authorities in Hong Kong seized
over two thousand kilos of tusks shipped from West Africa. CITES says it is encouraged by
operations like these.
John Scanlon, Secretary General, CITES: "Yes, we're finding states like China extraordinarily
responsive. I'd say China is one of the most responsive states we deal with under our convention.
They've put in place significant enforcement measures, they've coordinated their efforts
domestically and, in fact, the reason we know China is a main destination is in part based
upon the good enforcement effort within China itself"
ANNCR: Last October, they confiscated nearly four tons of ivory, a port record for endangered
species products. In November, at a smaller seizure, Chinese authorities made their point:
Vincent Wong, Ports Control Group Head: "We are proud of our container port. Every
day on average, there are eighty ocean-going vessels, carrying hundreds and thousands of
boxes, coming in and out of Hong Kong. Smugglers might think this is a good chance to smuggle
goods, but we have intelligence exchange, we have determination. Hong Kong customs has
the capability in determining smuggling activities. We will give them a hard road."
ANNCR: According to the World Wildlife Fund, Thailand ranks second to China in receipts
of illegal ivory. It too has a long tradition of ivory carving, such as here in Phayuha
Khiri ["pah-yoo-ha kee-ree"]. This shop owner explains that he's not breaking any lawsů.but
Thailand is criticized as a gateway for illegal ivory to other Asian destinations -- including
China. Thai law allows the sale of domestic ivory. But that, says 'traffic', masks the
trade in illegal, non-Thai ivory.
William Schaedla, Regional Director, TRAFFIC: "Thailand is the big player in this right
now. It's the one place where there is sort of an open door for ivory to come in and be
laundered into trade just because the laws here allow a legal domestic trade and there
are no checks on whether the ivory is African or Asian once it's in the country."
ANNCR: Under international pressure by conservationists, Thailand's Prime Minister promised earlier
this year to amend the law. "Im not opening any champagne yet," said one activist. In
November, the U.S. Government destroyed its six tons of confiscated ivory. Domestic sales
of ivory are legal here and center on carved ivory classified as legal antiques. The market
is half the size of china's but still the second-largest in the world.
William ***, Assistant Director, Law Enforcement: "What we have here is elephant ivory, mainly
elephant ivory, that's been seized by our agents in operations and by inspectors here
in the United States over the last twenty years. As you can see we have quite a bit
of itů and it's come in through pastures. Coming in on airlines that have been seized.
We have it through shipments through one of the mail facilities. And a lot of this raw
ivory has been seized on projects by the U.S. by our federal agents."
ANNCR: The US hopes to send a signal at home and abroadů
William ***, Assistant Director, Law Enforcement: "We want to make a statement, and we want
to bring public awareness that the big stock of jewelry here, these curio type items, the
items across there, and for the smugglers that bring in the raw ivory, the huge ones
like thatů we want to make a statement, that if in-fact you are doing thisů we will catch
you."
Dan Ashe Director, U.S. Fish and Wildlife: "The purpose of this event is to send a signal
to the United States, a signal to the world as a whole, that we need to crush illegal
wildlife trafficking in ivory and other wildlife products like rhino horn and tiger skin and
other commodities related to these threatened wildlife, magnificent animal populations."
Anncr: IFAW ["E YE-faw"] launched a public awareness campaign
to change Chinese hearts and minds about carved ivory. According to polls, most Chinese were
ignorant of the process of getting elephant tusks.
Lisa Hua, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW):
"We have done a survey on people's awareness and we asked survey takers, "Do you know that
behind your consumption of these ivory products there is the death of an elephant?" At that
time, about 70 percent of the respondents did not know. They thought elephant's tusks
fell out naturally, or they would comment that they thought the elephant would stay
alive."
ANNCR: But the market research firm IFOP ["ee-fop"] analyzed Chinese consumers' attitudes toward
ivory as a luxury item: over eighty percent of those polled plan to buy ivory goods, associating
them with status and prestige. Maybe some star power will help. Li Bingbing is one of
China's most popular film actresses, and she's a goodwill ambassador for The U.N. Environment
program. She went to Kenya on a fact-finding mission in May. Li was like any tourist, watching
elephants in their habitat. One of the world's foremost authorities on elephants gave her
a more serious demonstration.
Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton [note spelling!] Founder, Save the Elephants:
"The tusks actually come out of here, so these are the tusk cavities, so the tusk comes out
of this great big hole, and it comes all the way out here, like that. And so, if the tusk
is taken it can only be taken by killing the elephant."
ANNCR: Li was also shown the body of a 44-year-old female elephant that had been poached, her
tusks cut out.
Li Bingbing, UNEP Goodwill Ambassador: "People like you always protect them, but
you still cannot control the world, the situation to stop people poaching them. It's very, very
sad."
ANNCR: Back in China, Li posted a "Say No To Ivory" PSA [public service announcement]
that went viral there.
Dr. Iain Douglas-Hamilton, Save the Elephants: "You know its goddam sad to see these dead
elephants, but Li Bingbing understands, and she feels, and she translates that emotion
to the world and to China, and to the Far East. It is really important to have her here."
ANNCR: in January 2014 the Chinese government sent its own message, by destroying six tons
of illegal ivory, seized from smugglersůthe first such public destruction of the countries
stockpile.
*** Weisheng: "We have to continue to foster international
cooperation. We also urge the related countries to work harder to combat poaching and smuggling
in the international community."
ANNCR: It's only a fraction of its stockpile, wildlife protection groups say the move suggests
a possible change in thinking among Chinese leaders in Beijing. Badly out-gunned and out-manned,
Rangers are far more likely to find the results of poaching than stop it from happening. It
has been compared to the war on drugsů but without the means.
Bryan Christy, Investigative Reporter: "For the most part, wildlife crime, law enforcement
is done by NGOs. We have no other form of transnational crime has non-governmental organizations
taking such a key role in enforcement. You wouldn't have the equivalent of the World
Wildlife Fund being a player in drug trafficking or arms trafficking."
ANNCR: Protecting the animals is difficult and very expensive. Three years ago, South
Africa's national parks began implanting GPS into rhinos' horns. The ability to track their
movements over vast park territory allows the rangers to more effectively deploy their
limited resources.
Rusty Hustler, Head of Security, North West Tourism Parks Board, South Africa:
"Well, it gives us a proactive system instead of coming across the carcasses. Now we can
be proactive in terms of catching the poachers if they are actually in the park."
ANNCR: Kruger National Park covers nearly 20 thousand square kilometers and is bearing
the brunt of the rhino killings. Last year, the government took its fight to the skies.
The 'seeker' reconnaissance aircraft was donated by the defense firm paramount.
David Mabunda, CEO, South Africa National Parks:
"It will gather intelligence, it will also assist us in terms of dealing with all the
other channels of poaching that we might have so it's less noisy, nimble and quite agile"
ANNCR: Even South African defense forces have been deployed in Kruger. And now U.S. combat
experience is being put to use in the war to save the rhinos. This is a "Falcon's" view
of Kruger. The Falcon is a U.A.V., or 'unmanned aerial vehicle', and the first military grade
drone to be deployed in South Africa.
Professor Tom Snitch, University of Maryland: "We were working on modeling IED bombings
in Afghanistan and Iraq. And it came to me in a briefing with a number of generals, I
said to myself, 'I wonder if we can make the logical leap and say rhinos are to American
troops as terrorists are to poachers'."
ANNCR: But there are many who say, 'If you can't beat them ů make it a legitimate business'.
John Hume is the world's biggest rhino farmer. He says it makes more sense to properly remove
the animals' horns and sell them legally to meet the demand, than to have animals slaughtered
for the black market.
John Hume, Rhino Farmer: "The legal horn coming from commercial farmers
will come from live rhino which are not killed, we will cut off the horn and, as you know,
the horn grows again. So every year we will be adding to the stock of legal horn produced.
The government, if it put two and a half tons of rhino horn every year on sale, that would
equate to the current poaching of rhino horn. That has to help."
ANNCR: After banning the ivory trade in 1989, CITES allowed two one-time sales of tusk stockpiles.
That ivory came mostly from elephants that had died of natural causes, or had been culled.
The revenues from these sales were to be invested into elephant conservation and local livelihoods.
So in 2008, China and Japan bought 102 tons of ivory ů at about one-fifth the black market
prices. Critics charge that instead of undercutting illegal trade, the CITES sales provided cover
for it.
Bryan Christy, Investigative Reporter: "If you were a *** dealer in the United
States and you learned that the U.S. was importing, one-time only, fifty tons of ***, would
that induce you to get out of the business or to stay in the business and tell all your
friends, 'Hey, there's a big shipment coming in. We can use this to cover OUR business
forever. We can pretend that what we sell is from that shipment'."
ANNCR: According to the monitoring group 'TRAFFIC', there is no hard evidence that legal sales
lead to increased poaching or illegal trade. The debate is heated over whether legalization
will save animals ů or fuel the black market.
Andrea Turkalo, Associate Conservation Scientist, World Conservation Society:
"And the problem is, in a lot of country stocks -- there's actually ivory in those stocks
that isn't coming from that country, it gets smuggled over borders, there may be Central
African ivory ending up in South Africa, and if South Africa is allowed to sell, some of
that ivory isn't theirs."
ANNCR: This summer, the Philippines became the first ivory consumer country to destroy
a large amount of their stockpile - more than five tons. But the size of their store has
fluctuated, as seizures were made ů and then went 'missing'. So some skeptics are waiting
to see if this scene represents a new direction ů or just a publicity stunt.
The bottom line: most countries are hanging on to their stockpiles of "white gold" ů
hedging their bets. At the 2013 CITES meeting, the member countries signed off on the first
step toward creating a system of legally selling ivory.
John Scanlon, Secretary General, CITES: "So we believe some people are investing or
banking on extinction. We do need all states to work together - the source state, the transit
state and the destination state. This is not saying that one state or another is going
to resolve this - that whole chain has to find a way to work together, and that's underway."
Bryan Christy, Investigative Reporter "The best argument for protecting elephants, unfortunately,
is dead elephants. That's the reality of CITES. So this meeting has been a success mostly
because elephants have been killed so drastically, that no one can argue against it. No one's
willing to stand up - but they will."
ANNCR: This is how people around the world imagine Africa: Mount Kilimanjaro and elephantsů
landscapes of breathtaking beautyů with creatures they have only seen in zoos. The picture is
more complex for Africans. As human populations grow and animal habitat shrinks, people and
elephants are increasingly in conflict. when the huge animals roam out of park boundaries
in search of food, they destroy crops and property.
Lucy King: "Part of our research program is looking at
trying to find methods that farmers can actually adopt to help themselves, protect themselves
against elephant crop raidsůOne of the missions of (Save The Elephants) is to increase tolerance
between man and elephants. And if we can increase tolerance then at least we feel that we're
doing our bit to try and save elephants in Africa, and of course help farmers who are
living side by side with these great beasts.
What we're dealing with is trying to empower farmers, so they feel they have some control
over what's happening to their farm. And by putting beehive fences around their crops,
it's stopping some elephants coming into their farm, and it's also providing them with honey,
better pollinationůAnd understanding how they are communicating about that is very
important. Because if an elephant approaches a farm and there are beehives protecting that
farm, that elephant might actually communicate that there's a threat and keep other elephants
away."
ANNCR: This conflict over resources takes human and animal lives. The people who live
closest to the elephants need to benefit from their conservation. Here in Kenya's Amboseli
National Park, an agreement has been negotiated between IFAW [EYE-faw] and the local Maasai
land owners.
James Isiche, East Africa Director, IFAW: "The reason why IFAW is leasing this land
is because of the realities of today in the world. Populations are rising, land is shrinking.
And it's true here in Amboseli particularly because Amboseli National Park is only 390
square kilometers, yet the bigger ecosystem is over 5000 square kilometers."
ANNCR: It took a year for IFAW to enlist enough landowners around Amboseli on a lease that
extends the elephants' territory by nearly sixteen thousand acres into Maasai ancestral
lands.
Evan Mwavua Mkala, IFAW Field Project Officer: "It was necessary to get the consent of everybody.
And here one thing which we have to understand in Maasai land, particularly around here,
there is a lot of democracy. People have to get consent because you're getting the consent
of the actual landowners. So each one of them had to say 'yes we agree to this, yes we do
agree to this.'"
Pemba Parmeteu, Landowner: "The thing about this partnership with IFAW
is that it has provided a scholarship program for needy students. That means that they will
be educated and will have less need to sell this land. So this land will stay intact for
future generations, because the lease also means that it will not be sold."
ANNCR: This is a win-win solution for one thousand four-hundred of Africa's elephants
and the people around them. it is a small, bright spot, in a high-stakes international
battle over who shall profit from Africa's heritage.