Informant38

South Africa said on Thursday its failure to reveal incidents of elephant poaching in one of its national parks did not affect a UN decision to allow it to sell ivory stockpiles.

But conservationists said information that five elephants were killed by poachers this year in Kruger National Park could have swayed the voting at the UN meeting in Chile.

The vote on Tuesday gave the green light to allow South Africa, Botswana and Namibia to stage one-time sales of ivory from their stockpiles in 2004 - provided it did not lead to an upsurge in poaching by criminals hoping to launder fresh tusks among the legitimate sales.

Conservationists and several countries led by Kenya staunchly opposed the move, arguing it would renew a bloodbath that saw Africa's elephant population halve to about 600 000 in around a decade before the ivory trade was outlawed in 1989.
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"No matter how far you have gone on the wrong road, turn back."
-- Turkish Proverb

Jason Bell, the International Fund for Animal Welfare's regional director for Southern Africa said that the agreement is �a death warrant for thousands of elephants across Africa and Asia, which will now be targeted by well organized poaching gangs to feed the increased demand that will be created for illegal ivory.�

Environmental organizations, animal welfare groups, and people around the world are shocked at this ill conceived decision. But we must remember that the CITES treaty was never meant to preserve wildlife.