CITES Notification No. 2013/044

CONCERNING: UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Destruction of ivory stockpile

1. On 8 October 2013, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service plans to crush and destroy approximately 5.4 tonnes of elephant ivory that was seized for violations of national wildlife laws, including CITES implementing legislation. The material will include raw and carved whole tusks, smaller carvings, and other elephant ivory items abandoned or forfeited to the Fish and Wildlife Service as a result of its criminal investigations as well as its anti-smuggling efforts at ports of entry over the past 25 years.

2. The destruction of this ivory stockpile is part of a series of actions that are planned by the United States to draw attention to the increased level of poaching and illegal trade that is threatening wild populations of elephants, rhinoceroses and other species, and to strengthen efforts to crack down on these criminal activities. These actions are part of a coordinated effort by the United States Government to implement President Barack Obama’s Executive Order on Combating Wildlife Trafficking, which, among other things, creates a Presidential Task Force charged with developing and implementing a National Strategy for Combating Wildlife Trafficking. For more information on the Executive
Order, see: www.fws.gov/international/advi...wildlife-trafficking.

3. The United States has requested the Secretariat to inform CITES Parties that they are invited to support their action on 8 October by destroying their own stockpiles of confiscated ivory or other illegally traded CITES specimens to demonstrate that all CITES Parties stand together in the global effort to combat poaching and illegal wildlife trade.

http://www.cites.org/eng/notif...E-Notif-2013-044.pdf

This is going to bring back all those elephants how? Rather than sale the ivory to raise funds to combat poaching, it's going to be destroyed. Real smart, not!

Yeah, government sale with proceeds to conservation/anti-poaching efforts seems to be the sensible disposition of the stockpile. But then who would imagine or expect that the Obama administration can make sensible decisions regarding anything!

Destroying all that Ivory is a serious Crime IMHO.

It should all be sold here in the US, with the procedes going to anti poaching projects.

Sell it....worldwide, flood the market with cheap ivory and lessen the value of the living elephants to the poacher, and I agree use every dime to kill the poachers!

quote:

It should all be sold here in the US, with the procedes going to anti poaching projects.

This makes perfectly good sense to me, but then I'm not some ignorant azz bureaucrat!
They don't care about conservation, they just want CONTROL!
Now I'll go take my blood-pressure medicine.

quote:

Originally posted by The Artistry of Wildlife:
Sell it....worldwide, flood the market with cheap ivory and lessen the value of the living elephants to the poacher, and I agree use every dime to kill the poachers!

unfortunately 5 tons would not make a dent in the worldwide demand. the overall world consumption amounts to well over 25 tons a year according to the book Ivory's Ghosts....i just finished reading this book and it is an eye opening experience. what really needs to happen is that the USFWS gets their heads out of their asses. several years ago Kenya publicly burned many tons of ivory- has it helped preserve Kenya's dwindling elephant population???

Selling the ivory and making the proceeds fight poaching is the right thing to do.

But, destroying it with fanfare will get lots of positive media and stupid Joe public response.

I can see the other side-

If we start allowing governments to sell the ivory, we have just justified governmental slaughter of elephants for hard currency. Do you think that the Zim government would turn over the cash from a ivory sale to a non crony anti poaching group?

While I don't think burning it serves any positive action, selling it would generate a potential negative action. As mentioned, 5 tons (the stockpile from many years of collection) is insignificant compared to the world desire for ivory.

If all the governments involved were corruption free, selling would make sense. Given reality, I don't think so.

Another example of government being more about show than action. What a waste.

The USFWS knows what is best. Not just for the US, no they know what is best for every other country on earth. No one else has the knowledge necessary to manage their own wildlife in an ethical and sustainable fashion, not without the stamp of approval from the USFWS.

It is hard to put into words how much I despise this bureaucracy. In their own way, they are no better than PETA.

quote:

Originally posted by Skyline:
The USFWS knows what is best. Not just for the US, no they know what is best for every other country on earth. No one else has the knowledge necessary to manage their own wildlife in an ethical and sustainable fashion, not without the stamp of approval from the USFWS.

It is hard to put into words how much I despise this bureaucracy. In their own way, they are no better than PETA.

Y'all might take the FWS (sic) out of that commentary and come to the same conclusion ...

quote:

Sell it....worldwide, flood the market with cheap ivory and lessen the value of the living elephants to the poacher, and I agree use every dime to kill the poachers!

Just my opinion, but the above is the winner. Anyone remember when Leakey had all that ivory burned back in the late 80's or early 90's?

Destroying the ivory will prove nothing and the poachers will not even hear about and if they did would care less. $1000,000 would go a long way to sorting out a unit to stop the Chinese from poisoning our elephants in Hwange...over 80 now and all off to China..bless their hearts!

stupidity in action - SOP for government

Maybe it'll set a precedent: Every year or so, the government can make a big pile of everything confiscated by law enforcement (stolen cars, jewelry, money from banks, etc.), and set it ablaze!

quote:

Originally posted by Saeed:
Selling the ivory and making the proceeds fight poaching is the right thing to do.

But, destroying it with fanfare will get lots of positive media and stupid Joe public response.

While I agree in principle, I'm afraid Joe Public's response would be to demand ALL the killing of elephants to stop. I don't think the emotional response would allow them to differentiate between regulated and sustainable sport hunting, and poaching.

its like confiscating gold bars from drug lords and then throwing them away !

http://allafrica.com/stories/201311121428.html


United States Department of State (Washington, DC)



Africa: U.S. to Destroy Six Tons of Illegal Elephant Ivory
12 November 2013



document


The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will destroy six tons of elephant ivory seized over the years in connection with violations of U.S. wildlife laws and treaties. "We're standing with nations that have already destroyed their illegal ivory and showing our commitment to working with partners around the world to stop this trafficking and save elephants," the agency says.

On November 14, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) will destroy six tons of elephant ivory seized over the years by its special agents and wildlife inspectors in connection with violations of U.S. wildlife laws and treaties.

"The United States believes that it is important to destroy ivory seized as a result of law enforcement investigations and at international ports of entry because elephant poaching in Africa is at its worst in decades and we are committed to protecting elephants from extinction," USFWS said on its website.

More than 30,000 elephants are killed each year for the illegal ivory trade, USFWS said. Elephant poaching is at its highest level in decades and it continues to rise. These animals are being slaughtered across Africa to meet "an insatiable global demand for ivory," USFWS said. Scores of the park rangers who work to protect them have also been killed, the agency added.

"We're sending a message to ivory traffickers and their customers that the United States will not tolerate this illegal trade," USFWS said. "We're standing with nations that have already destroyed their illegal ivory and showing our commitment to working with partners around the world to stop this trafficking and save elephants."

If all countries with confiscated ivory would just flood the market with it and make poaching less appealing and use the funds for the good of their people every one would benefit.

quote:

"We're sending a message to ivory traffickers and their customers that the United States will not tolerate this illegal trade," USFWS said. "We're standing with nations that have already destroyed their illegal ivory and showing our commitment to working with partners around the world to stop this trafficking and save elephants."

Bloody hell!

Can one expect anything more stupid than this statement?

quote:

posted document.write('<nobr>'+ myTimeZone('Wed, 13 Nov 2013 06:13:24 GMT-0800', '13 November 2013 18:13')+'</nobr>');13 November 2013 18:1313 November 2013 18:13Hide Postquote:"We're sending a message to ivory traffickers and their customers that the United States will not tolerate this illegal trade," USFWS said. "We're standing with nations that have already destroyed their illegal ivory and showing our commitment to working with partners around the world to stop this trafficking and save elephants." Bloody hell!Can one expect anything more stupid than this statement?

quote:

Bloody hell!Can one expect anything more stupid than this statement?

Yep! Every time Jay Carney holds a press conference to explain what obummer knows or doesn't know about anything.

Yep.

Whatever.

JEFF

quote:

"We're standing with nations that have already destroyed their illegal ivory and showing our commitment to working with partners around the world to stop this trafficking and save elephants."

Which nations are they referring to other than Kenya, and its scientific moron who led the charge into a bottomless pit?
Fat lot of good it did to its now ever dwindling population of Elephants!

http://allafrica.com/stories/2...51091.html?viewall=1


United States Department of State (Washington, DC)



Africa: Ivory Crush Highlights Wildlife Anti-Trafficking Campaign
By Charlene Porter, 14 November 2013



document


Washington — U.S. officials will consider whether the current legal U.S. trade in ivory should be outlawed as a way to curtail illegal trafficking in wildlife products. The officials are considering that possibility just as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service destroys a 6-ton cache of illegal elephant ivory, confiscated by U.S. law enforcement agencies in different operations over several years.

President Obama impaneled the Task Force on Combating Wildlife Trafficking in mid-2013, directing officials from the Fish and Wildlife Service and the departments of Justice and State to co-chair the panel. Officials outlined their efforts to fulfill the presidential assignment in a press briefing November 5.

Criminal wildlife traffickers use the United States as a transit point and a market for illegal ivory. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe said the U.S. trade in legally harvested ivory may serve as a "smoke screen," providing a mask of quasi-legitimacy for illegal ivory taken from elephants senselessly slaughtered in game reserves.

"As part of the task force, we need to have and we will have discussion about the U.S. trade in ivory," Ashe said. A 1990 treaty bans international trade in ivory, with some exceptions for registered stores of material. The United States allows narrow exceptions for the sale of ivory harvested in subsistence hunting by native peoples.

Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs Kerri-Ann Jones said the illegal hunting and destruction of elephants and rhinos has increased greatly in recent years. The danger to conservation efforts and preservation of these species are two consequences, but Jones said illegal wildlife trafficking is also "a security problem, it's a health problem and it's an economic problem, especially for the areas where the wildlife is being taken."

Illegal takings of valued species are increasing because trade in these goods is now recognized as "highly lucrative," said Robert Dreher, acting assistant attorney general for environment at the Department of Justice. Trade in wildlife products is estimated at between $7 billion and $10 billion annually, he said.

"This is trafficking that seems to be very sophisticated, highly organized, syndicated trafficking," Dreher said, associated with crime networks and international terrorist groups.

Representatives from 14 government agencies are part of the presidential task force, which is developing a new national strategy to combat trafficking. That will be completed soon for presidential review, Dreher said, and probably released next year.

On the international front, Jones said, the strategy includes U.S. assistance programs to support governments in strengthening their conservation and protection measures. U.S. aid campaigns also focus on building greater economic opportunities so poor people don't resort to wildlife poaching as a means of subsistence.

Helping source countries create stronger law enforcement and judicial systems to limit the corruption that enables this trade is another component of U.S. international assistance.

"There's an awful lot of people [in source countries] who are really trying to make a difference who are outgunned, and they don't have the training that they need, and they don't have the support that they need," Jones said.

The United States is building partnerships with other governments to overcome these obstacles, she said. U.S.-backed law enforcement training sites have been established in other nations as a result of these partnerships.

While the United States is engaged with African and Asian nations on this issue, officials say they fully recognize that much of the world traffic in wildlife products is bound for or goes through the United States.

"We have to deal with our own issues," Jones said. "We have very good laws, but we still are a market."

The destruction of 6 tons of illegal ivory seized by law enforcement sends a message about U.S. commitment to stopping trafficking.

"We send a very clear signal," Dreher said, "that these illegally traded products should not be perceived as items of value."

Ashe said the massive ivory crushing demonstration November 14 should also send a message to other nations that they should take action to deal with stockpiles of these contraband materials. The Fish and Wildlife Service director said his agency is working with cultural institutions to develop a plan for use of the crushed material in monuments of some kind.

These memorials to the slaughtered animals "will then move to zoos and cities around the country and be used to help educate and build awareness about the plight that these animals are facing," Ashe said.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSZB_Omx9XE


Video of ivory destruction.

Again...Whatever.

Jeff

For those that hadn't seen this article on the FWS's decision, it is a good opinion piece: http://www.theguardian.com/env...to-elephant-poachers

Keep the date, no doubt in a year or so there will be another stockpile of the another 6 tons to burn. How many people really know what 6 tons of ivory look like? Yet if you can't keep showing a big pile burning you won't get the Michael Savage's of the world up in arms about the "endangered African elephant". Can you imagine how many 100 lber's are poached each year to make up all these caring countries stockpiles they show every year? Either that or they're poaching more than 50,000 forty lber's. Where is all this ivory coming from?

quote:

Originally posted by Minkman:
Keep the date, no doubt in a year or so there will be another stockpile of the another 6 tons to burn. How many people really know what 6 tons of ivory look like? Yet if you can't keep showing a big pile burning you won't get the Michael Savage's of the world up in arms about the "endangered African elephant". Can you imagine how many 100 lber's are poached each year to make up all these caring countries stockpiles they show every year? Either that or they're poaching more than 50,000 forty lber's. Where is all this ivory coming from?

Read the OP again--this is 25 yrs worth of seized ivory-and who knows how much of it was seized in the early years of CITES over paperwork problems.

http://news.yahoo.com/photos/6...destroyed-slideshow/


35 photos of ivory destruction.

quote:

Originally posted by Kathi:
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/6...destroyed-slideshow/


35 photos of ivory destruction.

A shameful waste of some priceless items which if auctioned off properly would have raised a serious amount of money which could have been utilized in an intelligent manner - what the idiots did in destroying this stockpile has done disservice to the dead elephants whose ivory contributed to this cache.

It should also be remembered that NOT ALL ivory is illegal and that a part of what is being destroyed could well have been a percentage of once legal ivory.

Press Release
Global Design Challenge: Call for Creative Ideas for Use of Crushed Elephant Ivory from U.S. Ivory Crush
September 15, 2014

Contacts:
Christina Meister
703-358-2284
christina_meister@fws.gov


The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in partnership with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), today launched a global design challenge seeking creative ideas on how best to use the crushed ivory from the U.S. Ivory Crush to raise public awareness of wildlife trafficking and help reduce demand for elephant ivory and other illegal wildlife products. In November 2013, the Service destroyed some six tons of elephant ivory – all seized as a result of law enforcement investigations and at U.S. ports of entry – to send a clear message that the United States will not tolerate ivory trafficking and the devastating impact it is having on elephant populations, particularly in Africa.

“Crushing the Service’s stock of confiscated elephant ivory was a signal to the world that the senseless and brutal killing of elephants must stop,” said Service Director Dan Ashe. “Now, the design challenge invites the public to use their creativity and ingenuity to reinforce that message. At the same time, the initiative underscores the important role the public can play in reducing consumer demand for elephant ivory and other illegal wildlife parts and products.”

"The Association of Zoos and Aquariums and its members are proud to partner with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on the crushed ivory pro-bono design challenge, and will be actively encouraging and engaging the public to participate in this historic USFWS crowdsourcing effort,” said Jim Maddy, President and CEO of the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA). “Together, AZA-accredited zoos and aquariums reach more than 180 million visitors, and are committed to a sustained effort to stop the demand for ivory. The crushed material resulted from the tragic and unnecessary death of so many elephants, but we hope we can use the material in a powerful way to educate the public, while also including them in our efforts to protect this endangered species. We look forward to hearing the ideas the public comes up with over the next month.”

"The U.S. ivory crush in November sparked ivory destruction events by nations across the globe,” said Cristian Samper, President and CEO of the Wildlife Conservation Society. “This design challenge shows the continuing leadership of the USFWS and AZA in efforts to address the elephant crisis."

The design challenge invites interested members of the public from the United States and other countries, including students, aspiring artists, conservationists, advertising agencies and design professionals, to submit design ideas for the use of the crushed ivory as a public awareness and educational tool. A panel of conservation, design and marketing experts will review all entries that meet the competition requirements, and select a winner. The winning design will both incorporate the crushed ivory and create a compelling, thought-provoking and informative tool to raise awareness and educate the public about the illegal elephant ivory trade. The winning entry will be produced and replicated for use in public spaces such as zoos, aquariums, airports, schools and other public facilities, as appropriate, across the United States. The final design will also be available for replication by other countries that have crushed their ivory stockpiles and want to send a similar message or stand as an example for countries wishing to hold their own design challenge.

For complete instructions and design requirements for this design challenge, go to www.fws.gov/ivorychallenge. For all questions regarding the crowd-sourcing initiative go to ivory_crush@fws.gov.

Elephant poaching for ivory has escalated into an international crisis, with tens of thousands of elephants now being slaughtered each year. With revenues totaling many billions of dollars, wildlife trafficking is estimated to be the fourth largest transnational crime in the world. The United States ranks among the top transit points for illegal wildlife products and must play an active role in addressing this issue of global importance.

For more information on the Service’s efforts to combat wildlife trafficking, go to www.fws.gov/international/wildlife-trafficking.

The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is working with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. We are both a leader and trusted partner in fish and wildlife conservation, known for our scientific excellence, stewardship of lands and natural resources, dedicated professionals, and commitment to public service. For more information on our work and the people who make it happen, visit www.fws.gov.

For more information on our work and the people who make it happen, visit http://www.fws.gov/. Connect with our Facebook page, follow our tweets, watch our YouTube Channel and download photos from our Flickr page.

Let's see, sell the poacher's ivory and deflate the price of ivory, decreasing demand OR destroy illegally confiscated ivory increasing both the price and demand.

Count on our government to make the wrong choice when the only choice is obvious.

Originally posted by jdollar:

..... unfortunately 5 tons would not make a dent in the worldwide demand.

And majority is from "wrong paperwork"

quote:

Originally posted by fujotupu:
Originally posted by jdollar:

..... unfortunately 5 tons would not make a dent in the worldwide demand.

That is not the point.

Instead of selling it at the highest price, and using the money to actually do something useful for elephants like fighting poaching.

They are bowing to the stupid PR brigade and destroying it!

What good will that do?

quote:

They are bowing to the stupid PR brigade and destroying it!What good will that do?

They will make the PR brigade happy & could care less about doing good.

When countries destroy ivory stockpiles it only inflates the price of poached ivory and as stated, funds raised buy a sale could help fight poaching.

I don't understand it at all... but then, I'm no politician!