Ivory trade means death for nation's elephants

LUANDA - The Cafe del Mar looks like any other expensive restaurant on Ilha de Cabo, the fashionable beach playground for foreigners and rich Angolans in Luanda.

But it has a special attraction: a small but well-stocked curio kiosk with neat rows of ivory carvings, a popular but now illegal souvenir for tourists in much of Africa.

"Yes, we're very popular," said the shop's owner. "Here is our Angolan ivory," she said, waving toward a cluster of white statues.

Despite its shrinking population of elephants, Angola is emerging as a regional hub in the illegal ivory trade.

Its share of the trade in ivory tusks has doubled in the past year, according to a report by wildlife organisations Traffic - which monitors trade in wildlife - and WWF International, which surveyed the amount of elephant ivory available in Luanda's curio markets.

The oil-rich southwestern African nation, devastated by nearly 30 years of war before a peace deal in 2002, was reported to be the country of origin in 53 major seizures of ivory in 12 countries between 1990 and 2003.

"There is a real danger that our elephants will become extinct," said Vladimir Russo, head of a local environmental group and one of the country's foremost wildlife experts.

"The civilian market has grown for ivory since the end of the war. For example, there are more Chinese workers. They have money, so they buy the ivory curios."

Of the 37 countries that have wild populations of African elephants, Angola is the only one that has not signed the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, the main mechanism for regulating trade in endangered and threatened wildlife.

In 1981, Angola had about 12,400 elephants, but during the former Portuguese colony's civil war, Unita rebels were accused of engaging in elephant poaching and ivory smuggling, using South Africa as a conduit to international markets.

The millions of dollars generated are believed to have been used to buy weapons and supplies.

Now, Angola has no more than 246 elephants, says the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

About 12,000 elephants are killed annually in Africa for their ivory, mainly to meet demand in the US, Europe and China, Traffic said.

In China, ivory is a luxury item for a new middle class that covets it as an ancient symbol of wealth and status.

The trade has prospered in part because of wars and civil unrest in Africa, despite a global ban on trade in ivory imposed in 1989 to stem the slaughter of elephants.

"When you have a country full of poor people traumatised by decades of civil war, protecting elephants comes low down on the list of priorities," said Traffic spokesman Tom Milliken.

"Illegal ivory markets expand when business is booming and government authorities look the other way."

In Angola, raw ivory prices range from US$35 ($53.82) to US$100 ($153.79) a kilogram, but the final market price is usually several times higher. Those engaged in the illicit trade say the police do not pay them any attention.

Angola's elephant population may be declining but elsewhere the number of elephants is rising, partly because of the ban on ivory trade.

The World Conservation Union says elephant numbers in east and south Africa are rising. It says surveys showed elephant populations in the two regions rose to 355,000 from 283,000 in the five years to 2002, a growth rate of 4.5 per cent a year.

- REUTERS