{"id":11893,"date":"2012-06-28T00:00:02","date_gmt":"2012-06-27T22:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/06\/update-1-gabon-torches-ivory-stock-in-anti-poaching-strike\/"},"modified":"2012-06-28T00:00:02","modified_gmt":"2012-06-27T22:00:02","slug":"update-1-gabon-torches-ivory-stock-in-anti-poaching-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/update-1-gabon-torches-ivory-stock-in-anti-poaching-strike\/","title":{"rendered":"UPDATE 1-Gabon torches ivory stock in anti-poaching strike"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Gabon burns 5 tonnes of poached ivory<span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* Poaching on the rise due to Asia demand<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>* President vows to fight poachers, smugglers<\/p>\n<p> (Recasts, change dateline, adds quotes)<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>By Phal Mezui Ndong Gualbert<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>LIBREVILLE, June 27 (Reuters) &#8211; Gabon on Wednesday burned<br \/>\nits stockpile of ivory seized from poachers, a highly symbolic<br \/>\nmove against a surge in killings of elephants and rhinos across<br \/>\nAfrica to meet Asian market demand.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>It became the first central African state &#8211; described by its<br \/>\nnational parks chief as the last elephant sanctuary on the<br \/>\ncontinent &#8211; to publicly destroy its ivory, following a path<br \/>\nblazed over two decades ago by the east African nation of Kenya.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;This gesture shows the government&#8217;s commitment to work<br \/>\ntirelessly in the fight against international ivory<br \/>\ntrafficking,&#8221; Gabonese President Ali Bongo said after the<br \/>\ngovernment&#8217;s stack of ivory was torched.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;It is also a strong signal, a warning to poachers, so that<br \/>\nthey should be aware that this illegal trade will no longer<br \/>\nflourish in Gabon. From henceforth, there will be a zero<br \/>\ntolerance for poaching,&#8221; he said at a ceremony in the capital.<\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n<p>Over half the ivory stock, worth some 5 billion CFA francs<br \/>\n($9.5 million), had been seized from poachers and traffickers<br \/>\nsince 2010, with the rest in the three prior years. Wildlife<br \/>\ngroups said the ivory represented some 850 slain elephants.<br \/>\n\u00a0 <span class=\"label\"><strong>Continued&#8230;<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>* Gabon burns 5 tonnes of poached ivory * Poaching on the rise due to Asia demand * President vows to fight poachers, smugglers (Recasts, change dateline, adds quotes) By Phal Mezui Ndong Gualbert LIBREVILLE, June 27 (Reuters) &#8211; Gabon on Wednesday burned its stockpile of ivory seized from poachers, a highly symbolic move against [&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-11893","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\/11893","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=11893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11893\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}