SAVE WILDLIFE

China holds the key to saving Africa’s wildlife.

Just 25 years ago, the convention on international Trade in Endangered species banned the worldwide trade in ivory products. This agreement marked the first coordinated international effort to stop the slaughter of endangered elephants and rhinos in Africa. Yet despite a fall in poaching levels in the nineties, they have risen once more fuelled by demand from the Far East for medicinal products.

According to a recent UN reports, nearly 25000 rhino remain in the wild and more than 10000 were killed in South Africa along last year. Prices for horns and tusks have never been higher. Between five and 10 percent of Africa’s remaining 400000 elephants are killed each year. If something is not done, they could be extinct within two decades.

These stark figures form the backdrop to the conference opening today in London, when ministers and wildlife campaigners from 50 countries will gather in an attempt to crack down on this grotesque trade a trade so lucrative that it has wider implications than wildlife preservation. The knock on effects cause political instability in the countries concerned, with  international criminal networks, rebel militias and terrorist groups drawn to the profits that can be made. The human cost in high too with more than 10000 rangers killed in recent years trying to stop the poachers.

What can be done? It is hard to deter poachers by force, given the money that can be made even lengthy jail sentences fail to deter, since few prosecutions are ever mounted. No the really key to ending this despicable trade is to tackle the demand side and it is to countries in eastern Asia notably China, that we must look for urgent action.

Beijing continues to operate a legal market in ivory as a result of a one off exemption granted in 2008. This is stoking demand, and must be closed down if any progress is to be made. The Chinese also need to embark on education programmes to debunk the idea that tusks, horns and tiger bones have any useful medical properties.