Africa's worst elephant poaching crisis in 20 years

Thailand finally pledges to end its ivory trade as skyrocketing demand fuel. 

Thailand has vowed for the first time to take steps towards putting an end to the country's ivory trade, as wildlife groups warned the slaughter of elephants will continue until a ban is imposed.

The country's domestic ivory trade is currently legal, but activists say smuggled African tusks are mixed in with native stocks, and that skyrocketing demand in Thailand is helping to fuel the worst poaching crisis in sub-Saharan Africa in 20 years.

 

Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra has pledged to tighten controls on the country's local tusk trade and to 'work towards' putting an end to the trade altogether, but failed to give a timeline for implementing a ban.

Ms Yingluck made the pledge during the opening meeting of the 178-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Bangkok this week.

She said her government would tighten controls on Thailand's local tusk trade by systematically registering domestic elephants and ivory products. Then, 'as a next step, we will work towards amending the national legislation with the goal of putting an end to (the) ivory trade and to be in line with international norms', she said.

 

But there was no timeline and Theerapat Prayurasiddhi, deputy director of Thailand's department of parks and wildlife, said there were no immediate plans for a domestic ban.

He said that could happen 'step by step in the future - maybe', but called it 'the long-term goal'. For now, the government will focus on boosting measures to tighten domestic trade controls and slow the flow of African ivory from entering Thai markets.

Thai traders currently have the right to buy or sell ivory obtained legally from domesticated stocks, and Mr Theerapat said taking those rights away could be tantamount to the struggle to ban assault weapons in the United States.

'You cannot change everything overnight,' he said. 'It's going to take time.'

 

Asked how Thailand's legislation might be amended, he said there was a push to add African elephants to Thailand's own lists of protected species, a move that would allow authorities to impose higher fines and harsher jail terms on smugglers.




Carlos Drews, head of the World Wildlife Fund's delegation to Cites, welcomed Ms Yingluck's pledge but said 'the fight to stop wildlife crime and shut down Thailand's ivory markets is not over'.
'The fight to stop wildlife crime and shut down Thailand's ivory markets is not over'