NYtimes piece on Elephants poaching and Ivory demands in Asia# Animals - 动物园
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Elephants Dying in Epic Frenzy as Ivory Fuels Wars and Profits
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/world/africa/africas-elephant
Yao ming was just visiting, hope he can change some minds.
"The vast majority of the illegal ivory — experts say as much as 70 percent
— is flowing to China, and though the Chinese have coveted ivory for
centuries, never before have so many of them been able to afford it. China’
s economic boom has created a vast middle class, pushing the price of ivory
to a stratospheric $1,000 per pound on the streets of Beijing.
High-ranking officers in the People’s Liberation Army have a fondness for
ivory trinkets as gifts. Chinese online forums offer a thriving, and
essentially unregulated, market for ivory chopsticks, bookmarks, rings, cups
and combs, along with helpful tips on how to smuggle them (wrap the ivory
in tinfoil, says one Web site, to throw off X-ray machines).
Last year, more than 150 Chinese citizens were arrested across Africa, from
Kenya to Nigeria, for smuggling ivory. And there is growing evidence that
poaching increases in elephant-rich areas where Chinese construction workers
are building roads.
“China is the epicenter of demand,” said Robert Hormats, a senior State
Department official. “Without the demand from China, this would all but dry
up.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/04/world/africa/africas-elephant
Yao ming was just visiting, hope he can change some minds.
"The vast majority of the illegal ivory — experts say as much as 70 percent
— is flowing to China, and though the Chinese have coveted ivory for
centuries, never before have so many of them been able to afford it. China’
s economic boom has created a vast middle class, pushing the price of ivory
to a stratospheric $1,000 per pound on the streets of Beijing.
High-ranking officers in the People’s Liberation Army have a fondness for
ivory trinkets as gifts. Chinese online forums offer a thriving, and
essentially unregulated, market for ivory chopsticks, bookmarks, rings, cups
and combs, along with helpful tips on how to smuggle them (wrap the ivory
in tinfoil, says one Web site, to throw off X-ray machines).
Last year, more than 150 Chinese citizens were arrested across Africa, from
Kenya to Nigeria, for smuggling ivory. And there is growing evidence that
poaching increases in elephant-rich areas where Chinese construction workers
are building roads.
“China is the epicenter of demand,” said Robert Hormats, a senior State
Department official. “Without the demand from China, this would all but dry
up.”
