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FONDATION FRANZ WEBER

Elephants: Is EU giving green light for new massacres?

Montreux (ots)

Despite overwhelming opposition from the European
Parliament against the resumption of elephant ivory trade, the 
European Commission now looks increasingly likely to support 
overturning the 1989 global ban at the 15th Conference of the Parties
to  the  Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of 
Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), 13th - 25th March in Doha. On 10th  
February, the Parliament adopted a strongly-worded Resolution ( http://www.presseportal.ch/go2/franzweber1 ) calling
on the EU, negotiating as a bloc at CITES, not to support ivory trade
resumption and to respect the nine-year ivory moratorium agreement, 
reached at the 14th CITES meeting in The Hague in 2007.
The Commission and EU member states are now highly likely to 
ignore Parliament and support moves by Tanzania and Zambia to resume 
ivory trade. "This is really the last call for elephants in Africa.  
The devastating poaching of the 1980s which was first controlled 
through CITES is now so prevalent again that the African elephant is 
all but extinct in some countries where once they roamed," says  
Bourama Niagaté, Director of Parks and Natural Reserves in Mali, 
co-chair of the 23-government African Elephant Coalition.
"The EU should demonstrate again the leadership it showed when, 
under the German EU Presidency in 2007, it brokered an eleventh-hour 
deal on a nine-year ivory moratorium at the last CITES negotiations. 
It is incomprehensible the EU is even considering resuming ivory 
trade. One must wonder just how much international pressure has been 
brought to bear," said Vera Weber, Director of the Fondation Franz 
Weber. "We would urge the Commission to change its position before it
is too late for the African elephant," she added.

Contact:

Vera Weber
FONDATION FRANZ WEBER
1820 Montreux
Switzerland
Tel.: +41/21/964'24'24
E-Mail: veraweber@ffw.ch
Internet: www.ffw.ch

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