A dozen African nations called yesterday for a new international ban on the ivory trade, insisting that the recent easing of tough limits was threatening precarious elephant populations.
Leaders of national wildlife and hunting agencies, wrapping up a two-day meeting in Paris, said they wanted to discourage poachers who have at
times engaged in deadly clashes with game reserve guards as they seek to kill elephants for their tusks.
The pachyderm bones remain a coveted commodity, whether as an alleged aphrodisiac, a base for artistic carvings or just to make buttons.
"There is an absolute demand for the halt to ivory sale," said Bernard Perty, spokesman for the International Fund for Animal Welfare. The US-based group hosted the meeting.
In 1980, there were 1.2 million elephants in the world, but a decade later, that population had been halved.
