Dicaprio-Backed Campaign Pressures Yingluck On Ivory Trade

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DiCaprio-backed campaign pressures Yingluck on ivory trade
Janjira Pongrai
The Nation

BANGKOK: -- Acting on reports that Thailand is second only to China as a hub for unregulated ivory trading, wildlife conservationists are aiming to collect one million signatures calling on prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra to suspend the trade in Thailand.
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During campaigning yesterday by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Thailand and TRAFFIC to protect African elephants from a spike in poaching, WWF representative Janpai Ongsiriwittaya said illegal traders had exploited a loophole in Thai law. Thailand's had become the second-largest unregulated ivory market, she said, because although Thai law prohibited trade in African ivory, it allowed trade in domestic elephant ivory, which criminals were exploiting as a loophole.

Janpai said activists aimed to gather one million signatures against the trade by next week, after already securing 400,000 signatures, including that of American actor Leonardo DiCaprio. She said the signatures would be presented to Yingluck ahead of the 16th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora), pressing her to suspend the ivory trade in Thailand and amend the law by placing all elephants, domestic and wild, under the Wildlife Protection Act.

Soraida Salwala, founder of the Friends of the Asian Elephant Foundation, said that although ivory traders had to be registered in Thailand, there was still a lot of ivory being smuggled from Africa into Thailand. Hence, she said, the legal ivory trade should be suspended while loopholes in the law were closed. She also urged Natural Resource and Environment Minister Preecha Rengsomboonsuk to explain to the CITES meeting why Thailand had failed to stop the illegal trade in ivory, and present the country's standpoint and measures on the issue.

Former senator Kraisak Choonhavan said Thailand was a transit point for trade in wildlife products including ivory, shark fin, and pangolin, driven by high demand from China and Japan especially. Hence, said Kraisak, the wildlife conservation campaign should extend to these consumer countries.

-- The Nation 2013-02-22

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Activists want ivory sanctions on Thailand, others

GENEVA, Feb 21, 2013 (AFP) - Thailand, which is set to host a UN summit on endangered species next month, along with several other countries should face sanctions for their role in the swelling illegal ivory trade, wildlife conservationists said Thursday.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC called in a statement on the 177 governments set to attend the Bangkok meeting "to begin a formal procedure that would lead to strict trade restrictions against the worst offenders in the illicit ivory trade."

Africa has seen a sharp rise in the illegal trade in wildlife products like ivory and rhino horn, with up to 30,000 African elephants poached for their ivory last year and a record 668 South African rhinos killed for their horns, the organisations said.

They pointed to Thailand, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo as the worst culprits in the illicit ivory trade, while Vietnam was the main market and Mozambique was the "smuggling hub" for rhino horn.

UN wildlife trade regulator CITES, which is organising the Bangkok meeting, should prepare to impose sanctions if these countries don't do more to rectify the situation, they insisted.

"With the demand for ivory driving a widespread poaching crisis, CITES member countries must demand compliance with international law," said Steven Broad, the executive director of TRAFFIC, in the statement.

The organisations stressed that CITES conference host Thailand is one of the world's largest unregulated ivory markets, since it allows the sale of ivory from domestic elephants and thereby makes it easy for criminals to launder illegal African ivory in the country.

"Thailand can easily fix this situation by banning all ivory sales in the country," Carlos Drews, who heads WWF's Global Species Programme, said in the statement.

He pointed out that WWF was preparing a petition, which had already garnered more than 420,000 signatures, that it planned to hand to Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra at the CITES conference calling for an immediate ban on the ivory trade.

WWF and TRAFFIC also said CITES should consider imposing sanctions on China if it did not by next year rectify "serious issues with enforcement of its legal domestic ivory markets."

The illegal ivory trade is mostly fuelled by demand in Asia and the Middle East, where elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns are used to make ornaments and in traditional medicine.

-- (c) Copyright AFP 2013-02-22

[ChrisY1]

This will be quite difficult for Yingluck to manage.....another direct hit at the Chinese and their errant ways with protected animal parts

[Katipo]

If the Chinese have their way, and they might. I wonder how the world would look in 100 years from now? *shiver*

[Thai at Heart]

Acting on reports that Thailand is second only to China as a hub for unregulated ivory trading,

Hoooooraaaaaaay.

[bigbamboo]

Yingluck doesn't know Jack.

But she'd like to.......!

[noitom]

If it weren't for the demand from China and Japan, Thais would never engage in this illicit ivory trade. It's not Thailand's fault. Rogue Thais are only trying to make a living. It's Japan's and China's fault. Thais are never to blame and they should never be held accountable because of demand from outside sources. Thais should never be asked to take responsibility for their own actions.

[ratcatcher]

Yingluck doesn't know Jack.

But she'd like to.......!

That would be a Mr John Schitt to whom you are possibly referring?

[Pimay1]

Yingluck doesn't know Jack.

But she'd like to.......!

That would be a Mr John Schitt to whom you are possibly referring?

Or possibly Jack Sparrow?

[razer]

Acting on reports that Thailand is second only to China as a hub for unregulated ivory trading,

Hoooooraaaaaaay.

Well .... Thailand wants to be the HUB for everything.

[Thai at Heart]

Does yingluck even know the Leonardo di caprio is chasing her?

[Pimay1]

Does yingluck even know the Leonardo di caprio is chasing her?

When she sees him it probably be the other way around.

[ginjag]

Does yingluck even know the Leonardo di caprio is chasing her?

When she sees him it probably be the other way around.

P.M. said--ooohhhh isn't he a famous painter ????

[bigbamboo]

I hope Leo doesn't misinterpret 'the Rose of the North'.

[Pimay1]

Does yingluck even know the Leonardo di caprio is chasing her?

When she sees him it probably be the other way around.

P.M. said--ooohhhh isn't he a famous painter ????

Edited February 22, 2013 by Pimay1

[khaowong1]

Yingluck doesn't know Jack.

But she'd like to.......!

That would be a Mr John Schitt to whom you are possibly referring?

Or possibly Jack Sparrow?

Or Jack be nimble, Jack be quick?