Word: burundi
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...without depleting them. Ivory from this culling brings in foreign exchange to Zimbabwe, which guards its elephants against poachers. But the delegates in Lausanne feared that any legal trade would be used as a cover by smugglers, as in the past. Angered by that stance, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Mozambique and Burundi say they may defy...
...purchase ivory that had been confiscated or whose origins in Africa were lost in the myriad transactions between that continent and Japan. Under "country of origin," some of the export permits say only "unknown" or are blank. Kitagawa bought 13 tons in Singapore last year and twelve tons from Burundi...
...trail has flourished under the less than watchful eye of the CITES secretariat. In 1985 when the organization announced its plan to register all tusks as part of an ivory-control system, conservationists hoped the illegal trade would be curbed. But the deals that CITES officials struck with Singapore, Burundi and other nations, under which undocumented ivory could be registered, moved a mountain of ill-gotten ivory into the marketplace...
...Burundi alone, 90 tons was registered. "The sheer volume was mind blowing," recalls Ian Parker, an ivory expert who helped handle the registration for Burundi. "There were rooms -- bathrooms, kitchens, garages, you name it -- stacked with ivory to the roof." But Burundi did not keep its promise to get out of the business; instead it accumulated another 90 tons. Says Joe Yovino, former head of the CITES ivory unit: "No question, we got snookered." Yet four months ago, the CITES secretariat agreed to arrange for the sale of about 28 tons that had been seized by Burundi authorities. Jacques Berney...
...support from governments left the group little choice but to turn to the trade for money. CITES, he says, has no enforcement authority and should not be held accountable for policing. That, he says, is the responsibility of the individual nations. As for the amnesty granted the Singapore and Burundi ivory, the secretariat says a 1985 vote by its member nations empowered it to register all stocks...