Animals

“On the Trail” n°3

Quarterly information and analyses bulletin on animal poaching and smuggling (pdf 80 p. 4.5 Mo) with a special item on the scheduled French illegal ivory crushing tomorrow.

Rhinoceroses and elephants, pages 48 to 69

“On the Trail” n°3
(pdf 80 p. 4.5 Mo)
Birds, pages 22 to 29

Robin des Bois is pleased to present to you the third edition of “On the Trail”, a quarterly information and analyses bulletin on animal poaching and smuggling  with a special item on the scheduled French illegal ivory crushing tomorrow.

“On the Trail” n°3
(pdf 80 p. 4.5 Mo)

Robin des Bois is pleased to present to you the third edition of “On the Trail”, a quarterly information and analyses bulletin on animal poaching and smuggling  with a special item on the scheduled French illegal ivory crushing tomorrow.

Today, China destroyed some of the stockpiles of illegal elephant ivory seized along and within its borders.

In accordance with CITES* Decisions, the traders accredited by the Chinese government bought, at auctions, 60 tonnes of ivory in 2008 from 4 countries in southern Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, and South Africa. The average price was 157 US$/kg, ten times less expensive than black market rates at the time. Following this 172 workshops and retail stores were supplied elephant tusks benefiting from a specific license.

During their stay in Qatar, the PSG (Paris Saint-Germain) French soccer team took part in several events organized by the local tourist agency. That is how Zlatan Ibrahimovic ended up in the audience watching a high flight falconry demonstration and posed for a photo next to a wild falcon. Falconry is a one of Qatar’s pride specialties. This activity is cause of disappearing of several falcon species and other birds of prey.

N°1

The Russian tuna seiner Marginella has been immobilized at Cherbourg since July 2007. After leaving Kaliningrad (Russia), she was heading towards South Africa via Ghana to fish bluefin and tropical tuna, under dubious conditions in regard with the conformity to the regulations of ICCAT (International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas). She suffered outbreaks of fire in the machinery space in the North Sea and the English Channel, resulting in a total propulsion failure. She had to be towed to port by Abeille Liberté.

Robin des Bois has been officially requesting for over 6 months that the French Government proceed to the destruction of illegal ivory accumulated over several decades and for an inventory of stockpiles to be made public.

After some hesitation, France has finally decided to go through with this destruction. An inventory of storage places and quantities held is in the making. It will include Court registries, Natural History Museums and border police storage facilities. Total amounts could reach several tens of tons. Only a few pieces of ivory are to be kept for scientific and pedagogical reasons.

Today, the United States destroyed 5.4 tons of ivory that has been seized over the last 25 years by authorities enforcing national and international regulations. An official notification has been sent to the secretariat of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora). The United States hopes that other states will also destroy their illegal ivory stockpiles.

They cannot count on France to do so. In a recent letter to Robin des Bois, the Minister of Ecology expressed his belief that countries undertaking the willful destruction of ivory seizures are emphasizing symbolic and high-profile action at the expense of actual substantive measures. In addition, the Ministry of Ecology refuses, “for security reasons”, to publicize an inventory of the stock of illegal ivory held by the French State and the museums of Natural History.

Take a trip of beauty and cruelty in the following 80 pages (pdf. 4Mo), swing through the trees with the supreme pleated gibbon, still at liberty in the wild despite being endangered, get to the bottom of cyanide and of poisoned pineapples, survive the etorphine laced arrows, scheme with furniture dealers looking for ivory, discover the cunning tiger trappers, hunt down blackbucks with Bollywood stars, cruise towards China with 2,000 saiga antelope horns worth 22 million dollars, look into the eyes of a baby chimpanzee in a pathetic plastic bag at a Cameroon market, entrench yourselves in the fate of thousands of birds and animals unwilling migrants forcefully removed from their habitats, float down a river with a mutilated elephant carcass and find out about France’s stance on the future of illegal ivory stockpiles, eat Ganges river dolphin meat, pay homage to rangers and forest guards murdered in the wild by poachers …
Whales and marine mammals, pages 5 and 6

Take a trip of beauty and cruelty in the following 80 pages (pdf. 4Mo), swing through the trees with the supreme pleated gibbon, still at liberty in the wild despite being endangered, get to the bottom of cyanide and of poisoned pineapples, survive the etorphine laced arrows, scheme with furniture dealers looking for ivory, discover the cunning tiger trappers, hunt down blackbucks with Bollywood stars, cruise towards China with 2,000 saiga antelope horns worth 22 million dollars, look into the eyes of a baby chimpanzee in a pathetic plastic bag at a Cameroon market, entrench yourselves in the fate of thousands of birds and animals unwilling migrants forcefully removed from their habitats, float down a river with a mutilated elephant carcass and find out about France’s stance on the future of illegal ivory stockpiles, eat Ganges river dolphin meat, pay homage to rangers and forest guards murdered in the wild by poachers …
Seahorses, queen conches and sharks, pages 4 and 5