{"id":11891,"date":"2012-06-27T11:59:48","date_gmt":"2012-06-27T09:59:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/06\/gabon-to-burn-ivory-stocks-as-elephant-poaching-surges\/"},"modified":"2012-06-27T11:59:48","modified_gmt":"2012-06-27T09:59:48","slug":"gabon-to-burn-ivory-stocks-as-elephant-poaching-surges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/gabon-to-burn-ivory-stocks-as-elephant-poaching-surges\/","title":{"rendered":"Gabon to burn ivory stocks as elephant poaching surges"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Ed Stoddard<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span class=\"articleLocation\">JOHANNESBURG, June 27<\/span> (Reuters) &#8211; The central African nation<br \/>\nof Gabon will burn its government stockpiles of ivory on<br \/>\nWednesday against the backdrop of a surge in the killing of<br \/>\nelephants and rhinos across the continent to meet surging Asian<br \/>\ndemand.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Conservation group WWF and TRAFFIC, which monitors the<br \/>\nglobal wildlife trade, said in a statement the tusks and<br \/>\ncarvings would be set alight by Gabon&#8217;s President Ali Bongo<br \/>\nafter they had been subjected to an independent audit to ensure<br \/>\nnone had been pilfered for illegal sale.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Gabon will be the first country in its neighbourhood to<br \/>\npublicly destroy its ivory, following a path blazed over two<br \/>\ndecades ago by the east African nation of Kenya.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The independent audit of its stockpiles is significant after<br \/>\nwildlife groups reported that Zambia lost 3 tonnes of ivory from<br \/>\ngovernment storage last week while Mozambique had 1.1 million<br \/>\ntonnes stolen in February.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;If not managed properly, ivory stockpiles in the hands of<br \/>\ngovernment suddenly &#8216;get legs&#8217; and move into illegal trade.<br \/>\nGabon&#8217;s actions effectively keep the ivory out of the way of<br \/>\ntemptation,&#8221; said Tom Milliken, TRAFFIC&#8217;s ivory trade expert.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The audited ivory Gabon will put to the torch weighs in at<br \/>\n4,825 kgs (10,600 pounds), including tusks and almost 18,000<br \/>\nworked or carved items.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>The illegal slaughter of elephants and rhinos is on the<br \/>\nrise, an unsavory aspect of Asia&#8217;s scramble for African<br \/>\nresources, driven by the growing purchasing power of the<br \/>\nregion&#8217;s newly affluent classes.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>In South Africa, over 250 rhinos have been killed so far<br \/>\nthis year alone to meet demand for the animal&#8217;s horn, which is<br \/>\nworth more than its weight in gold. More are being killed each<br \/>\nweek now than were being taken on an annual basis a decade ago.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Ed Stoddard JOHANNESBURG, June 27 (Reuters) &#8211; The central African nation of Gabon will burn its government stockpiles of ivory on Wednesday against the backdrop of a surge in the killing of elephants and rhinos across the continent to meet surging Asian demand. Conservation group WWF and TRAFFIC, which monitors the global wildlife trade, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[830,2370,183],"class_list":{"0":"post-11891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-news","8":"tag-reuters","9":"tag-south-africa-2","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11891\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}