Copied and pasted from Ofir Drori. He wrote: My new pissed-off-rule is that I have a responsibility to comment in length on articles that piss me off. so join me, here is the latest - newswatch.nationalgeographic/2013/09/19/opinion-how-china-could-decide-the-future-of-africas-elephants/#comment-290482 Strongly disagree. The author claims – “It’s not beyond human ingenuity to devise a workable, reliable legal ivory sales system.” But as an enforcement expert fighting in the front line of combating the ivory traffickers I can say that the level of corruption we fight, complicity of government officials and failure of all “control systems” in the face of organized crime, makes your statement, at best, very naive. The “legal” trade is linked to the illegal trade. Criminal syndicates are waiting for signs from politicians whether they will get a lifeline for their businesses and whether to expect a prize for their persistent slaughter so their organizations can grow further, and reinvest illicit revenue in stimulating more demand and increasing more supply of ivory. “legal” or not – is of minor importance where big money is concerned. The last kingpin our work netted – Emile N’bouke – a Togo based big international ivory trafficker, described, in a hidden recording before his arrest, the amazing magnitude of his 38 years’ long business, concealment methods, transnational spread etc. He explained CITES in details, better than most government delegates, and said we should not worry, cause ivory is not entirely illegal and more legal sales are expected. So here is food for thought, from the front line for what CITES decisions and mere talks about relaxing the ivory ban mean to the criminals. Think about us, and them, when you write your next article…
Posted on: Tue, 24 Sep 2013 21:07:33 +0000
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