Dear Friends of Amboseli

All seems to be relatively quiet on the Amboseli front (although I hear dark rumours that there may be another push by the government to proceed with the degazetting in the not too distant future. However, I am not going to speculate at this stage).

However, there is some news which may have a direct bearing on the elephants in Amboseli. Tanzania has proposed to the next CITES meeting (Convention in International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna & Flora) to be held in The Hague, 2nd – 15th June, that it should be allowed to sell its stockpile of ivory (up to 100 tons), trade in live specimens for non-commercial purposes and continue its trade in hunting trophies. Getting accurate information out of Tanzania has always been notoriously hard but worryingly there have been some major ivory seizures emanating from Tanzania (over 5,000 kg in total) in the last year and I fear that the proposal will make matters even worse.

This proposal is extremely dangerous. It is likely to increase the vulnerability not only of elephants in Tanzania but right across much Africa. In particular, the elephants of Amboseli regularly travel across the border onto the slopes of Kilimanjaro and the plains to the north-west of the mountain. I, myself, saw a poached elephant there a few years ago and I understand that there is a continuing level of ivory poaching. This could increase if the proposal is approved.

I shall be at CITES with a team from Born Free and other experts from the Species Survival Network arguing on behalf of the elephants that such a move would be disastrous. Anyway, I thought you should know this latest news and, of course, any readers of this email who have information about ivory being sold in their country or (if they are Africa-based) poaching incidents that you feel that we may not be aware of, do let me know.

Finally, on a more positive note (hopefully!) I and a small Born Free team are taking part in the 10 to 4 Mount Kenya Bike Challenge on Mount Kenya (17th February) to raise funds for conservation and communities around the mountain, a world-heritage site. If you or you know anyone who would like to sponsor us in this 70 km bone-crushing endeavour (I have not been on a bike for months!) do please go to my Just Giving site at http://www.justgiving.com/wtravers.

Thank you so much for your help and support.

More news when I have it.

Best wishes

Will Travers

got this email today
- Edited by pippa on 06.02.2007, 00:18 -