Tanzania to get lion's share of UK's 10m pounds to audit ivory stockpiles.
By Gerald Kitabu 3rd March 2015

Minister for Natural Resource and Tourism Lazaro Nyalandu.

The government of Tanzania and the British High Commissioner on behalf of the UK NGO ‘Stop Ivory’ yesterday signed a Memorandum of understanding (MoU) to audit ivory stockpiles.

The signing was done by British High Commissioner Dianna Melrose and the Permanent Secretary in the ministry of Natural Resource and Tourism Dr Adelhelm James Meru and witnessed by the Minister for Natural Resource and Tourism Lazaro Nyalandu.

According to the MoU, a total of Uk’S GBP 10million ($15.5m) will be given to African countries to support the Elephant Protection Initiative in which Tanzania as a lead country will get a lion share.

Speaking after signing, Melrose said that a year ago, President Jakaya Kikwete took the lead in launching the Elephant Protection Initiative (EPI) at the London conference to end illegal wildlife trade which he intended with Nyalandu.

“We are providing funding for the independent audit of Tanzania’s Ivory stockpiles-due to begin two weeks from today. I congratulate the Tanzanian government in showing leadership on the elephant protection initiative, “said Melrose.

She said that the UK government is pleased to be working in partnership with the Tanzanian government, Stop Ivory and UNDP on this initiative to end the illegal wildlife trade.

“This stockpiles inventory is the first necessary step to put ivory beyond economic use. This is critical to the long term survival of Tanzania’s elephants, to safeguard tourism revenue and the livelihood of those who depend on the tourism industry,” she said.

She said that after the inventory, Stop Ivory looks forward to supporting Nyalandu’s team in drawing up Tanzania’s National
Elephant Action Plan-the next step in the EPI.

“It needs collective efforts to end the Ivory trade. A welcome development was China’s announcement of a one year ban on all imports of Ivory. We hope Tanzania will encourage other countries to follow its example and join the EPI,” she added.

For their part, Nyalandu and Meru thanked the UK and its partners for their commitment and determination to end the EPI.

Nothing will surprise me any more.

This false, pointless, PR disaster called "feel good" seems to be the rage lately!

Logic and common sense have disappeared!

Here's an idea....
Why don't they embed a bunch of hidden micro chips in a bunch of Ivory and track it all the way from "point A" to "point Z" (which is obviously Vietnam, China, etc)
You would have every distributor and distribution point logged, tracked, and nailed in no time..!!??
With all the technology and intelligence resources of today this could be easily done...you could get satellite pictures of their assets and people...send drones and observe ( or preferably blow the Hell out of) if you really wanted.
If the tree hugging, animal rights groups really cared, why not invest resources there vs a bunch of lawyers pockets to lobby, litigate, and pervert the system?

Doesn't destroying Ivory increase the demand? Am I missing something? Couldn't you use the current stockpile to entrap the Chinese perpetrators and put them in African prisons?

quote:

Originally posted by lavaca:
Doesn't destroying Ivory increase the demand? Am I missing something? Couldn't you use the current stockpile to entrap the Chinese perpetrators and put them in African prisons?

Nah! Not going to happen, the Chinese own the prisons.