Google – AFP, 9 November 2012
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US
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, pictured in October (AFP/File)
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WASHINGTON
— US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called Thursday for a stepped up fight
against poaching, warning against criminal gangs seeking to satisfy growing
demand for ivory and rhino horn.
"Over
the past few years wildlife trafficking has become more organized, more
lucrative, more widespread, and more dangerous than ever before," the top
US diplomat told a meeting at the State Department.
Despite
progress over the past three to four decades to clamp down on poaching, growing
wealth meant demand was on the rise again.
"As
the middle class grows, which we all welcome and support, in many nations items
like ivory or rhinoceros horn become symbols of wealth and social status,"
Clinton said, urging all governments to join the Coalition Against Wildlife
Trafficking.
"And
so the demand for these goods rises. By some estimates, the black market in
wildlife is rivaled in size only by trade in illegal arms and drugs.
"Today,
ivory sells for nearly $1,000 per pound. Rhino horns are literally worth their
weight in gold, $30,000 per pound."
The rise in
trafficking in endangered animal species was also hitting domestic economies
where local populations depend on wildlife for tourism, as well as spreading
disease and helping to fund rebel militias.
"We
all, unfortunately, contribute to the continued demand for illegal animal
goods. Wildlife might be targeted and killed across Asia and Africa, but their
furs, tusks, bones, and horns are sold all over the world," Clinton
stressed.
The United
States was now the second largest destination for smuggled animal goods, she
said, adding "that is something we are going to address."
But Clinton
insisted it was "a global challenge that spans continents and crosses
oceans, and we need to address it with partnerships that are as robust and
far-reaching as the criminal networks we seek to dismantle."
It was one
of the messages that she would be taking with President Barack Obama to the
East Asia summit in Cambodia later this month, she said.
Clinton
urged the establishment of a global system of regional wildlife enforcement
networks, which she was hoping would get off the ground with $100,000 being put
up by the United States.
Clinton
said she was also asking for an intelligence assessment of the impact of
large-scale wildlife trafficking on security, saying she had been alarmed by
reports from leaders in Africa.
"It is
one thing to be worried about the traditional poachers who come in and kill and
take a few animals, a few tusks, a few horns, or other animal parts," she
said. "It's something else when you've got helicopters, night vision
goggles, automatic weapons, which pose a threat to human life as well as
wildlife."
Related Articles:
"Do Animals Reincarnate?" - NOV 22, 2010 (Kuthumi channelled by Lynette Leckie-Clark)
Cross-species friendships are springing up all over. Of them, Matthew said in 2010:
“The innocence of animals, who act from instinct, never from malice, automatically qualifies all except a few species to ascend with Earth. Along the way those who now are wild will become tame, predators will become vegetarians, and all will live peaceably with each other and humankind. Already there is evidence of cross-species friendship, even mothers of one species nurturing infants of another, and instances of bonding between wild animals and humans.” (Matthew message - Channelled by Suzanne Ward, Aug 13, 2010)
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