http://www.news24.com/Africa/N...nt-summit-20150310-3



Botswana to hosts elephant summit
2015-03-10 15:39


Gaborone - Botswana will this month host two international meetings on elephant poaching and the illegal wildlife trade in Africa, Environment and Tourism Minister Tshekedi Khama said on Tuesday.

Khama said the first meeting, the African Elephant Summit, would review progress in implementing 14 urgent measures adopted at an earlier meeting in Botswana in December 2013.

The summit, in the tourist town of Kasane on 23 March, was expected to attract representatives and heads of state from over 30 countries.

Measures to be proposed included strengthening law enforcement and wildlife protection agencies, and making wildlife trafficking a serious crime.

Political will and education

"The heads of state will sign the action plan and see how far we have come since our last meeting," Khama said.

"As Botswana, we are doing a lot of anti-poaching. However, this exercise is not about the amount of money spent, it's also about the political will and education."

Countries present at the last meeting, and which signed a list of 14 urgent measures, included Botswana, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Germany, the United States, and the United Kingdom.

The meeting, to be attended by NGOs, conservation agencies, and the international press, would be briefed by African elephant specialist groups on the status of the African elephant, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), and the elephant trade information system.

"Countries will also develop an action plan to address key emerging areas of concern."

Future generations

Khama said over the years the number of elephants on the continent had been declining. The first African elephant summit, in 2013, was prompted by the estimated 100 000 elephants that had been poached in the three years prior to the conference.

It was estimated that Africa had over 500 000 elephants. Botswana alone had over 200 000, making it the biggest home to elephants in Southern Africa.

"We need to protect our elephants for future generations," said Khama.

Another key wildlife conference would take place on 25 March, following a similar one in London in February last year. Topics of discussion would include the illegal wildlife trade, poaching and trafficking.

Delegates, including some heads of state of African countries, would consider ways to eliminate demand for illegal wildlife products, destroy seized wildlife products, and enforce Cites provisions.

- SAPA

That's gonna be interesting.
I wonder what will all the empty heads say. Huh?

quote:

Originally posted by boarkiller:
That's gonna be interesting.
I wonder what will all the empty heads say. Huh?

And anyone would like to hazard a guess that the main point to solve this problem will somehow get forgotten, and sidelined by someone with an ax to grind??

Ironic, Huh?

http://news.yahoo.com/botswana...ching-215822115.html


Botswana warns over elephant deaths ahead of anti-poaching summit

AFP
15 hours ago


Gaborone (Botswana) (AFP) - Botswana warned Tuesday that elephants were being killed at an "unsustainably high" rate as it prepared to host conferences on poaching of the animals later this month.

"Although the statistics from 2013 and 2014 show a levelling off of poached animals, the numbers are still unsustainably high and if maintained could result in elephants becoming extinct in much of their range," said environment, wildlife and tourism minister Tshekedi Khama.

Ivory poaching has been driven by demand in Asian markets, particularly China.

"The number of elephants killed exceeds the ability of the animals to reproduce, leading to concerns that populations are in decline," Khama said.

Botswana is hosting two major wildlife conferences: the African Elephant Meeting on March 23 and the Kasane Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade two days later.

According to the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), over 100,000 of the pachyderms were killed across the continent by poachers between 2010 and 2013.

The southern African country itself is home to about 200,000 elephants.

Over 30 heads of state are expected for the talks, where they will review their progress since the first African Elephant Summit in December 2013.

Last month, Beijing imposed a one-year ban on ivory imports, a move wildlife campaigners have criticised as merely symbolic.