The Great (Ivory) Debate: Putting African Elephants at Risk?
By Isabelle Lagarde

The African elephant-and its tusks of "white gold"-is again trumpeting up some international attention.

In July, the Commission on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) allowed a once-off sale of 108 tons of ivory stockpile from South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Zambia to China. Though the sale-the first in 20 years-was legal, China's seemingly insatiable appetite for ivory has been fingered as one of the primary causes of poaching in many African countries.

The 1989 CITES ban on ivory sales helped restore elephant populations that had been decimated by unchecked poaching and civil wars. However, since then, demand has far outpaced supply, and the black market price of ivory has increased by 73 percent-making poaching worth the risk for many impoverished Africans.

A recent Reuters story reported that the DR Congo has lost at least twenty percent of its elephant population in the last year to poachers. Other African countries have also experienced a dramatic drop in the number of elephants in the past several decades. The UK's Daily Mail reported that Senegal, which had 20,000 elephants in the late 1990s, now has only two.

With the increase in international travel, African countries have been able to benefit in another way from their elephant populations. Safaris and eco-tourism have become a great source of government income. In South Africa, tourism has doubled in the last ten years and become the fastest growing sector of its economy. More tourism dollars from national parks means more dollars for conservation efforts and better park regulation.

The debate is now growing on whether or not to lift the moratorium of ivory sales. Some say legalization would flood the market, driving prices down and thus discouraging further poaching. South Africa claims it should be able to benefit from its successful conservation efforts by selling its legal ivory stocks (ie, from rogue elephants or those that died of natural causes).

But countries like Kenya, which rely on their elephant populations for tourism and have struggled with corruption and regulation throughout the state park system, say that lifting the ban will be devastating to this sensitive pachyderm population.
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Rwanda and Burundi Sign Conservation Pact, Promote Tourism
By William Moss Wilson

Rwanda and Burundi, two countries that have suffered concurrent ethnic strife and civil war, signed an agreement last month to establish a transnational conservation area. The newly demarcated area encompasses the largest swath of mountain forest remaining in East Africa.

The agreement covers Rwanda's Nyungwe National Park and Burundi's Kibira National Park, together representing 1,400 square kilometers in the species-rich Albertine Rift eco-region. This area is home to endangered chimpanzees, owl-faced monkeys, and at least eight threatened bird species.

The two parks have come under pressure in recent years because of increased demand for bamboo and timber, in addition to lucrative gold and coltan deposits within park boundaries. Bi-national cooperation will aid the policing of poachers and illegal harvesters and will also improve monitoring of threatened species that frequently cross the border between the two countries.

Tourism is a major sector in East Africa, and Burundi hopes this conservation agreement will help lift the country out of its post-war economy by attracting foreign visitors and foreign dollars.

"This [conservation agreement] is the beginning of a long relationship that will lead to the development of both countries, particularly Burundi, since our tourism sector has been underdeveloped due to war. Since the war is ending, Rwanda will show us the way," said Adelin Ntungumburanye, the director of the Burundi National Institute for Nature and Environmental Conservation (INECN), as reported by AllAfrica.com.

The Rwanda-Burundi agreement is the latest in a growing trend of cross-border protection agreements. In 1988, 59 cross-border agreements were in place. Twenty years later, at least 188 cross-border agreements are in place, covering over 800 protected areas in 112 countries around the world. These cooperation zones represent at least 17 percent of protected areas worldwide.
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Chile Creates Massive Whale Sanctuary In Territorial Waters
By Tania Campbell

Chile's recent decision to make its Pacific Ocean territorial waters a whale sanctuary is another step in the right direction to protect the world's declining populations of marine mammals. In September, the Chilean Congress unanimously passed a bill put forward by President Michelle Bachelet that bans whale hunting for commercial and scientific purposes off Chile's expansive coastline.

The news is encouraging, especially in light of recovering humpback whale populations in the Straits of Magellan, as well as the discovery of the blue whale nursery in the Gulf of Corcovado, which separates Chiloe Island from the Chilean mainland.

Whaling was common in Chile until the 1970s, when there were increasing concerns over the dwindling numbers of whales locally and internationally. This was reinforced by a moratorium placed on commercial whaling by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 1986. In passing the bill, Chile is sending a clear message of its commitment to protect whales in its territory.

Barbara Galletti, president of the Centro de Conservacion Cetacea (CCC), one of the main groups involved with the campaign to make a whale sanctuary in Chile, stated, "We are certain that this is the most important marine conservation legacy achieved for future generations and the foundation to construct new agreements oriented to the protection of the marine biodiversity."

By creating the whale sanctuary, Chile joins other Latin American nations-including Argentina, Brazil, Costa Rica, Mexico and Panama-who have already banned whale hunting. However, there is still a long way to go before whales all over the world can enjoy such protection. In recent years, nations such as Norway and Iceland have resumed commercial whaling while Japan continues to hunt whales under the guise of 'research.'
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