bwanamich:
I have no experience with CITES regading lions. However, I can paste some articles I have saved from various sites in view to CITES dealings with elephants that will show you how untrustworthy CITES is.
"One thing is sure, and that is that CITES which should have prevented the demise of the elephant by controlling the trade has failed in its mandate. Instead it has evolved into a political lobby bent on trade and the endangered species have become mere pawns in a money game. In fact, in the past CITES agents themselves orchestrated the laundering of illegal ivory into a stockpile in Burundi, accepting bribes as a pay-off for the CITES stamp".
"CITES seems to have lost direction and purpose. It is an organisation where coercion and corruption appear to be condoned and flourish openly. The so called "Experts" have "failed miserably to produce the accurate data that is needed and when it comes to numbers, both living and dead, they are certainly not the oracle. The only people qualified to provide accurate data are those ordinary folk actually working in the field; who know what is going on, on the ground, who have no vested interests other than the protection of the wildlife under their jurisdiction, and who fly extensively during the course of their conservation duties. Governments cannot be trusted to provide accurate data, because many top officials are involved in lucrative illegal ivory dealings. Scientists cannot be trusted either, because many of them have vested interests by way of funding for their livelihood, so it behoves them to be ambiguous and keep a foot in both camps".
There must be provision made by the CITES authorities to listen and accept the word of lay folk such as Wildlife N.G.O.'s and ordinary wildlife field personnel, who should be consulted on a regular basis by the Monitors, and what they have seen and heard recorded and assessed. CITES should not simply rely on what official statistics emerge from Range State Governments or Scientific Experts far removed from the action, because if they continue to do this, the endangered species they are supposed to save will disappear before their very eyes".
"It is a sad fact that CONsumptive utilisation and hunting (recreational pleasure killing) seem to have highjacked the very definition of the word "CONservation", which according to the Dictionary is "preservation", not "utilisation". Hunting ethics and animal welfare do not exist where selfish self interest and greed eclipse human conscience".
"Concerns that Africa's lions were becoming a threatened species were brushed aside by COP14, so that the Southern Africans could continue hunting these Big Cats, no dissenting voices heard about their infamous canned lion breeding centres nor their equally infamous trade in live animals, which continues unabated".
"In the book "For the Love of Wildlife" reviewed in the October issue of BBC Wildlife, game hunting farms in Southern Africa are described as "an affront to morality, spiritualism, and to all religions that regard brutality to living beings as atheist.. By smashing up the wholeness of the natural world, most notably the magnificent predators, and recovering from the wreckage only those life forms which can be used as alternative livestock, hunting farms trivialise the exquisite; depersonalise living creatures, reducing them to mere numbers which are harvested at the convenience of the master species, and they normalise sadism by making cruelty routine".
These are just some of the quotes I have noted, some from Daphne Sheldrick, (admittedly an elephant person) but one who has had more experience dealing with wildlife of all kinds of a period of 60 years. She has raised just about every African species except birds, reptiles and the big cats. She knows animals, she knows the problems involved protecting them, she knows the problems with governments and their lack of concern about their wildlife and environment and she has dealt with CITES before.
Thus I will believe what she, and many others, say about CITES and their lack of honesty in doing what is right for wildlife. Thus I can't and won't trust any numbers CITES puts out until they can prove that they really have wildlife's best interests above all else.
