Science Story

02 December 2008 23:30 BST

Anti-ivory trade talks held

Delegates from 17 African elephant range states are to meet for two days in an attempt to create pro-elephant conservation initiatives.

They will also look at ways of preventing the ivory trade at the meetings in Bamako, Mali.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), which is facilitating the meeting, is hopeful there is potential for the formation of a coalition of like-minded states that will work towards strengthening elephant conservation.

Delegates attending are from Mali, Niger, Senegal, Burkina Faso, Sierra Leone, Guinea Bissau, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Togo, Nigeria, Ghana, Liberia, Central African Republic, Rwanda, Southern Sudan, Ethiopia and Kenya.

"IFAW is proud to stand shoulder to shoulder with fellow conservationists from Africa and Asia," said Kevin Shields, IFAW wildlife and habitat programme director.

"The illegal trade in ivory and illegal killing of elephants has continued unabated in many elephant range states since Cites (Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species) decisions in 1997 to allow some South African states to undertake ivory stockpile sales.

"The time has come to formally unify ourselves in the plight for the conservation of elephants, in order to stop the killing."

Decisions made at the Cites conference last June are expected to play a major role in the two-day meeting.

Delegates at the conference approved a nine-year 'resting period' with the condition that stockpile sales were allowed from South Africa, Botswana and Namibia.

"This tonnage of ivory is sure to stimulate market demand and encourage poachers to kill elephants," said Michael Wamithi, programme manager for IFAW's global elephants programme.

Africa's elephants are estimated to have fallen from 1.3 million in the early 1970s to an estimated 450,000 remaining today.