More than 1,000 elephant tusks seized in Tanzania
Date: 18-Jan-02
Country: TANZANIA
Police said two Tanzanians had been arrested late last week following the seizure of 1,255 tusks in two suburban homes, but it was not clear where the tusks had originated.
Despite a decade-long international ban on its trade, poaching to obtain ivory for jewellery and ornaments continues.
"As long as a market for ivory exists, it will sustain poaching and illegal trade," the International Fund for Animal Welfare's (IFAW) southern Africa director, Jason Bell, said in a statement. "Despite trade in ivory being illegal since 1990, the world continues to see the seizure of illegal hauls. The black market demand for ivory is insatiable," said the IFAW statement, issued in Cape Town, South Africa.
Decimation of African elephant herds by poachers prompted the international community to ban the ivory trade in 1989 under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
Though the African elephant is not considered an endangered species, populations have fallen from two million in 1970 to an estimated 450,000-600,000 today.
CITES is due to vote in November on whether to relax the ivory trade ban.
