Before the noon local time (29. 4. 2015) burned statesmen smaller part of the Ivory stacked in front of the Parliament building, where the conference was held. The presence of Chadian president was meant to symbolize its commitment to support the fight against the destruction of wild nature at every level and in every region, and follows after he sparked a year ago, 1.1 tons of ivory Chad Zakouma National Park.
This time burned before the eyes of politicians, environmentalists, media and the public far greater pile of raw and worked ivory - it was a total of 4.6 t, vast majority of which consisted of whole or cut the tusks of elephants forest who live in the Congo.
"The origin of this ivory has been largely seizure poachers or traffickers local customs, police or gendarmerie or so. Ecoguardy in one of the national parks - especially severokožských Nouabalé-Ndoki or Odzala-Kokoua or coastal park Conkouatti-Doli," says conservationist Czech organization Save the Elephants-Arthur F. Sniegon, who is actively involved in the fight against poachers in Congo.
A year ago published study showed a dramatic 65% reduction in their forest elephants in Central Africa's Congo Basin. Most of this decrease is directly due to poaching for ivory, which was illegally exported mainly to the Far East market in China, Thailand, Vietnam and elsewhere. Trade facilitated the influx of workers from Asia to Africa - the construction of roads, bridges, buildings, and is accelerated logging in forest areas, due to which the previously impenetrable jungle can simply get poachers.
Value burned tusks has reached hundreds of millions of crowns
The price per kilogram of ivory for the end customer market in Asia is approaching 3000 USD, which means that in Brazzaville was burned material in the theoretical value to 344 million. Due to international conventions CITES, where elephants fall into category 1, tusks can not be sold in any legal manner and redeemed.
"On the contrary, during their storage spend a lot of corruption and a controlled environment of the Republic of Congo becomes the seized ivory once again escapes and disappears back into the black market. Drastic solutions, the burning, and is thus only logical step to prevent misuse, "noted Arthur F. Sniegon way of Save-Elephants.
Apart from this practical perspective, the Ivory destroyed as a symbolic rejection of any tolerance towards traffickers and expressing opposition to the commercialization killing of elephants. In these reasons to take this step since the first Kenyan burning in 1989, wanted to also Gabon, Chad, Ethiopia, again, Kenya, Tanzania, USA, France, Belgium, the Philippines and partly in China - by far the largest buyer of ivory. Czech Republic has little ivory stocks, but last year destroyed for the same reason in Dvur Kralove endangered rhinoceros horn.
In Congo burned vast majority of state reserves, with the exception of samples that will be retained for educational purposes and as an aid in the training of customs officers, police and gendarmerie and special dog unit led by local organizations Palfi, where thanks to the support by the Czech NGO Save-a Elephants Coalition CCBC serves also the first Czech male animal protection in Africa, female Cama. The dogs are trained to search for ivory, weapons, ammunition, bushmeatu (meat from wild animals), apes pangolins or scaly.
Beginning government supported the fight against smugglers?
Coordinator of NGOs Palfi, Naftali Honig, who has been in Congo for seven years overseeing the rule of law and combating illicit trade in ivory and other animals (and a member of the delegation at CITES), argues that burning d'Ivoire is a positive gesture, the local government has confirmed its commitment stop the mass killing of elephants. Believes that this act will be followed by a truly important steps in the field and that it will soon uncover and stop the really big ivory syndicates, which recently dispatched only from the Congo to Vietnam and Thailand several tons of ivory that was confiscated by their authorities.
In Africa dying under fire from one elephant poachers every fifteen minutes and threatened that if the situation does not improve, the elephants can be had for ten years at the very brink of extinction in the wild. It concerns as forest elephants and savanna elephants.
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O-Save Elephants
Save-Elephants, IB is a nonprofit and nongovernmental organization founded by volunteers from the Czech Republic, who tries to rescue elephants in Central Africa. Seeks support for field projects active in the fight against ivory traffickers, trying to target end customers from Asian countries and spread awareness. The current rate of killing elephants can exterminate in the next ten years. How can I help? Dogs and handlers seeking ivory, shot detecting GPS collars, material security patrols protipytláckých campaign against ivory trade in Asia, bees and peppers protecting box and elephants, digging wells for elephants, unmanned aircraft to detect poachers, mountain bikes for park rangers.
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Source: tz, editorially modified