Ben j'ai vu çà là
http://wildlifenews.co.uk/2015/04/chinese-delegate-to-elephant-conference-asks-about-buying-trunk-and-penis/Je serais très contente si ce n'était pas vrai...
"Chinese delegate to elephant conference asks about buying trunk and penis
Posted on April 27, 2015 by Kevin Heath
As we start to build up profiles of organisations and people involved in the Tanzania ivory storage project that is being funded by the UK taxpayer I came across an interesting story about a happening at the Kisane Elephant Summit in Botswana last month concerning the Chinese delegation.
One of the trustees of Stop Ivory, a UK charity behind the Elephant Protection Initiative, is Dr Ali Kaka, as well as being a trustee of the Stop Ivory charity he is also Regional Director for Eastern and Southern Africa at the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature).
Apart from his trustee status and position at the IUCN Dr Kaka is also a member of hunting organisation CIC International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation, he’s also an editor of their newsletter and an important lobbyist for hunting. The IUCN and CIC works closely together in partnerships to promote the role of hunting as part of conservation and sustainability.
In his role as a member and lobbyist for the CIC he was instrumental in reversing the hunting ban that was introduced by Zambia as an emergency measure to protect its wildlife.
There is still lots to do in forming the network of contacts and we wait for supplier and contractor details on the ivory stockpile project.
Meanwhile onto the story that grabbed my attention.
Dr Kara attended the Kinsane conference as the official representative of CIC. The CIC was the only hunting organisation invited to attend the elephant conference probably because of its close ties with the IUCN. Dr Kara wrote up an article about the meeting for the African Indaba newsletter.
Towards the end of the article Kara notes an interesting situation where one of the senior Chinese delegates asked the elephant range nations about whether they wanted to sell other body parts apart from tusks such as trunks and reproductive organs, in particular, penis’s to the Chinese market as there was a demand for it.
Clearly something must have got lost in translation if the Chinese delegation thought that the African Elephant Summit was a trade show or opportunity to develop markets. But it does show that there is still a long way to go to protect elephants and unless radical action is taken to deal with the ivory trade things do not look promising.
The task ahead is not to put ivory beyond economic use – which is what the establishment of the Tanzanian state-of-the-art ivory store will do – it is to put ivory beyond economic value which is what destruction does.
Putting ivory beyond economic use by keeping it in safe storage means it is always there ready to be bought to market when conditions change – beyond economic use is a temporary measure while beyond economic value through destruction is a permanent measure.
Those who believe that it makes economic sense to commit to expensive long-term secure storage of ivory and tusks must believe that a time will come when condition are right for an ivory market to be established.
It is unlikely that the mass public would stomach that happening again however if politicians and pro-traders think it is possible to can only happen in 1 of 2 situations;
African elephant populations recover enough to allow for a sustainable trade in ivory and there is no sign of this happening
African elephants become extinct in the wild and therefore there is no reason to maintain a ban on ivory trading. Extinction in the wild over the next couple of decades or so is a real possibility and is one reason why ivory prices are now being driven by investment speculators – especially in Hong Kong – because they see the last days of the elephant ahead and ivory being a good investment."
Source : Wildlife News
