In order to boost fundraising this festive season my book is on 50% sale (at £2.50 less than the cost
of a high street cup of coffee).
All proceeds from books sold (after publisher fees)
will be donated to continue my support of Dementia care.
The book is available from Amazon for Kindle, Barnes
and Noble for Nook, on Kobo and for all other formats from www.theendlessbookcase.co.uk.
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| The magnificent elephant |
Prince William’s speech in Washington calling on nations to take action
over the trade in illegal animal parts should not be ignored. Prince William warned “those who look the
other way, or spend the illicit proceeds of these crimes, must be held to
account.” According to the World
Wildlife Fund (WWF), the world is dealing with an unprecedented spike in
illegal wildlife trade. Specifically in
relation to elephants 22,000 African elephants were estimated to have been killed by poachers
for their ivory in 2012. In China the wholesale price of ivory has reportedly risen from $5 (£3)
to $2,100 (£1,346) per kg in the past 25 years. United for Wildlife charity reports that “the illegal wildlife trade is
estimated to be worth between $5bn-$20bn (£3.2bn-£12.8bn) a year and is
considered the fourth most lucrative global crime after drugs, human
trafficking and arms dealing.
I have had the good fortune to enjoy a safari in the Tarangire National
Park, Tanzania, where the preponderance of the Baobab Tree and Elephants make visiting the
Tarangire National Park a unique and wonderful experience. Tarangire is said to be home to more
African elephants per square kilometre than anywhere else in the world with
more than 5,000 elephants. Rhinos have been
extinct in Tarangire National Park since 1980s because of poaching.
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| Boabab - The upside down tree. |
The Tarangire River is a vital source of water for the wildlife
especially during dry season (July – November) when the disbursed elephant
herds return to the river as natural water holes outside the park dry up.
Watching these magnificent animals’ antics when they visit the river and swamps
for water and to cool off was possibly the highlight of my safari experience. The numerous baobab trees, so called upside
down trees, provide food for the parks elephants. Elephants feed off the bark of the trees a
vital food source for them especially during dry season. I was told by an Anti-Poaching Adviser that
poachers have been known to hollow out the trunk of the baobab tree and hide
inside the trunk lying in wait to poach elephants who come to the tree to eat.
Tanzania has been identified as
the leading exporter of illegal ivory in recent years. An estimated 10,000
elephants are being slaughtered in the country annually. Tanzania has one of the world's last great
elephant populations. It is estimated 70,000 to 80,000 elephants roam the national parks amounting to a quarter of all of the elephants in
African. In colonial times, the
Tanzanian island of Zanzibar was known to hold the largest ivory auctions in the world.
As
Joseph Conrad wrote in The Heart of Darkness, over a century ago at a time
when there were no laws against shooting elephants, "The word
'ivory' rang in the air, was whispered, was sighed. You would think they were
praying to it." Today I was told those public auctions have been
replaced by underground networks of smugglers as Tanzania remains a leading
source of ivory. Today's restrictions on
the ivory trade, and the growing seemingly insatiable Asian market for ivory
only drive its increase in value. From
2009 to 2011, Tanzania was the leading exporter of illegal ivory in the
world with 37% of all elephant tusks seized coming from Tanzania, with Kenya a close second.
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| Elephants attracted to Tarangire's Swamp to drink. |
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| Cooling off at a water holes. |
In 2012 Iain Douglas-Hamilton, a
leading authority in the fight to protection Africa’s elephants warned "There's
an enormous slaughter of elephants going on in Tanzania right now. "There's no protection in numbers for
elephants any more than there was for bison in the last century when they were
all wiped out in America. So people shouldn't kid themselves." It is said poachers are responsible for
between 60 to 90 percent of elephant deaths in Tanzania. In May this year the Tanzanian
Elephant Protection Society (TEPS), an independent conservation group, said
"approximately 30 elephants a day are killed... at this rate the population
will be exterminated by 2020." At
the same conference it was reported that tourism in Tanzania, some 90 percent
of which is wildlife based, accounts for 17 percent of Tanzania's gross
domestic product employing over 300,000 people, according to official
statistics.
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| More magnificent elephants. |
Tanzania is losing its elephants to poverty, poor administration and
corruption mirroring a similar situation in other African countries. A pair of
big elephant tusks will earn a year's income to a subsistence farmer turned
poacher and punishment for a convicted poacher can be as little as a $13 fine. Wildlife rangers, although they have
significantly increased in numbers in recent years are poorly paid. The David Sheldrick
Wildlife Trust, a Kenyan conservation charity, says “one elephant is killed every 15 minutes for its tusks and they could
disappear from the wild by 2025.”
It was a wonderful experience to
have been lucky enough to see these magnificent creatures in the wild, in their
natural environment where they belong.
It would be such a shame and so sad if our children or our children’s
children were only able to see elephants in a zoo or wildlife park. Don’t you think?
What in your opinion can be done to stem the illegal
ivory trade? Is there hope?
For ebook reviews see my blog http://kephr.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/scaling-dragons-back-e-book-is-half.html
