Battle for the Elephants

1

THERE WAS A TIME WHEN THE

AFRICAN ELEPHAN NUMBERED IN THE MILLIONS.

SEASONS WERE MEASURED BY

THEIR COMINGS AND GOINGS.

AND THEY HAD NO ENEMY.

BUT THEY POSSESSED ONE

FATAL FLAW:

THEIR IVORY TUSKS-REPRESENTING

PERFECTION, PURITY...

AND, IN TIME, MONEY.

AND SO THE ELEPHANT BECAME

VICTIM OF ITS OWN MAGNIFICENCE.

TODAY ITS NUMBERS

HAVE PLUMMETED,

AND ITS VERY:

SURVIVAL IS IN DOUBT.

David (anti poaching):

That was Venus,

she was a lovely

elephant; she was poached.

WHY DID OUR LOVE OF

IVORY TURN SO LETHAL?

David (game scout): Tusks

were in there and there;

there's nothing left.

Aidan:
We're facing a situation

where elephant could become

extinct in the wild.

NOW TWO INVESTIGATORS GO

UNDERCOVER AND INSIDE THE

ILLEGAL IVORY TRADE AND REVEAL

IT FROM BOTH SIDES...

SUPPLY IN AFRICA...

Aidan:
So my friend,

could you get 1,000 kilos?

Seller:
Yes!

AND DEMAND IN ASIA.

Woman:
You see the tusk

moving, it curves like this.

Bryan:
You can feel the tusk.

Woman:
Yes.

Bryan:
You're seeing $20,000,

$100,000, $200,000 and more.

TODAY A LINE HAS BEEN

DRAWN-BETWEEN THOSE WHO WISH FOR

POSSESSIONS AND THOSE WHO

WISH FOR SOMETHING, MUCH,

MUCH LARGER...

IN WHAT MAY BE THE FINAL

"BATTLE FOR THE ELEPHANTS."

DUSK.

AFRICA.

AN ELEPHANT HERD FOLLOWS

A TRAIL INTO THE FOREST,

TRAVELING PATHWAYS THEY HAVE

USED SINCE LONG BEFORE RECORDED

TIME.

BUT BECAUSE OF MAN'S DESIRE

FOR THEIR IVORY TUSKS,

THEIR JOURNEY IS NOW MORE

PERILOUS THAN EVER BEFORE.

A BAN ON THE IVORY TRADE PU IN PLACE DECADES AGO

SHOULD BE PROTECTING THEM....

BUT THE BAN IS NOT WORKING.

5,000 MILES AWAY , CHINA AWAKES.

WITH ITS 1.3 BILLION PEOPLE, I EMBRACES A NEW IDENTITY AS THE

FASTEST GROWING MAJOR

ECONOMY IN THE WORLD .

BUT THIS IS A NATION IN

CONFLICT WITH ITSELF.

A LONG TRADITION OF DEEPLY HELD

SPIRITUAL BELIEFS-BUDDHISM...

TAOISM...CONFUCIANISM

-MUST NOW RECKON WITH SOMETHING

NEW-

MATERIALISM.

CHINA'S BOOMING MIDDLE CLASS

FUELS CONSUMER DEMAND...AND HIGH

ON THEIR WISH LIST IS IVORY.

CHINA IS ONE OF THE FEW

COUNTRIES WHERE RECENTLY

ACQUIRED IVORY CAN BE SOLD

LEGALLY:

AND IT IS EXTREMELY POPULAR.

A NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC STUDY

REVEALED THAT 84% OF THE CHINESE

MIDDLE CLASS OWN ONE OR MORE

PIECES OF IVORY:

AND FURTHER:

SOME 83% SAY THEY INTEND TO

BUY IVORY IN THE FUTURE .

THAT'S A PROBLEM FOR

INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALIS BRYAN CHRISTY.

HE THINKS THE LEGAL

SUPPLY OF IVORY:

COMES NOWHERE:

NEAR MEETING DEMAND.

FOR 3 YEARS , HE HAS BEEN

RESEARCHING THE SCALE OF ASIAN

DEMAND FOR IVORY, ACUTELY AWARE

OF ITS CONSEQUENCES IN AFRICA.

BC:
by every measure, China

is the world's villain when it

comes to the

illegal ivory trade.

Its culture does not have a

history of valuing the elephant

as a live animal,

but rather as ivory.

And you look at the scale

of its current development,

its purchasing power

is skyrocketing,

at the same time the elephant's

population is plummeting.

Those two things are

not disconnected.

NOW BRYAN, A ONE-TIME POWER

LIFTER TURNED LAWYER TURNED

JOURNALIST , IS INVESTIGATING

THE POWERFUL FORCES DRIVING THE

TRADE IN CHINA.

BC:
When I was a boy, my

father said to me once,

you have a white knight complex.

It's a personal

weakness, really,

when I am exposed

to an unfair fight,

where there are organizations

involved, governments involved,

I have not

been able to turn away.

IN AFRICA, INVESTIGATIVE

JOURNALIST, AIDAN HARTLEY,

IS ALSO TAKING UP THE FIGHT.

HE HAS WITNESSED CHINA'S

PRESENCE IN AFRICA EXPLODE.

IN THE LAST TEN YEARS, TRADE

BETWEEN CHINA AND AFRICA JUMPED

FROM 6 BILLION TO OVER 100

BILLION DOLLARS PER YEAR .

AH:
The Chinese are here

to trade and in many,

many ways they are key to the

economic revolution taking place

in Africa today, which is

exciting after decades of

poverty.

Because Africa wants

to do business,

they don't want to be an

aid basket-case forever.

So the Chinese are broadly

a positive influence here,

if only they would stop

eating the continent's natural

resources and wildlife products

at the same time it would all be

a good story.

TODAY THE CHINESE ARE HELPI NG

MODERNIZE AFRICAN INFRASTRUCTURE

BUILDING ROADS,

RAILROADS AND PORTS,

TO STREAMLINE THE

FLOW OF RESOURCES.

AH:
But it's not only the copper

and the oil they can use to

build their economy; it's

also wildlife products.

Everything from turtles to shark

fins to rhino horn and elephant

ivory.

ACCORDING TO THE CONVENTION

ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN

ENDANGERED SPECIES,

KNOWN AS CITES,

SOME 70 ELEPHANTS ARE

POACHED EACH DAY .

AIDAN WILL GO UNDERCOVER TO FIND

OUT HOW THE TUSKS GET TO MARKET,

WHO'S SELLING AND WHO'S BUYING.

AH:
My sources have told me that

there are ivory traders here who

are willing to sell

quantities of ivory,

so I wanted to test those

reports and find out

if it was true.

FOR HIM, IT'S A DEEPLY

PERSONAL ASSIGNMENT.

AH:
I was born and

brought up in East Africa,

and all my life

I've seen elephant,

and I think they're majestic

beautiful creatures.

I think they're a symbol of

Africa's wealth and heritage,

and I think we're facing a

situation where elephants could

become extinct in the wild.

That is a scenario that I

find too grim to tolerate.

IT MAY BE GRIM, BUT HE KNOWS

HOW EASILY IT COULD HAPPEN.

AH:
After the elephant has been

killed the tusks are carried

either on motorbikes or in

canoes or even on the backs of

bicycles to villages.

From there they're

put into trucks,

and they come up one of the

main roads to the capital city,

where traders are consolidating

thousands of kilograms of

poached ivory.

AH:
The economies in East

Africa are starting to boom,

and a lot of the trade has

to go through Mombasa port.

Agricultural produce, timber,

and, hidden amongst those items,

smugglers can hide their ivory.

THE IVORY ROAD TO MARKET HERE

BECOMES A SHIPPING CHANNEL,

AS IVORY TRAVELS CONCEALED

IN CARGO CONTAINERS ACROSS

5, 000 MILES OF INDIAN OCEAN.

IN THE CONTAINER

PORT OF HONG KONG,

BRYAN CHRISTY PICKS

UP THE IVORY ROAD.

HERE 60,000 CONTAINERS

ARRIVE EACH DAY.

CUSTOMS AGENTS INSPEC FEWER THAN 1% .

IT'S A SMUGGLER'S DREAM.

Bryan:
You can almost feel the

scale of elephant poaching here

as you look out on these

containers, massive containers.

Somewhere in here there's

a container with ivory,

you can almost feel it,

you can almost grab a tusk!

OFFICIALS SOMETIMES DO

GRAB A TUSK:

TONS OF THEM.

ONE RECENT BUST NETTED 8

THOUSAND POUNDS OF IVORY .

THAT WOULD REPRESENT ROUGHLY 600

ELEPHANTS --LESS THAN 3% OF THE

25,000 ELEPHANTS THAT CITES

ESTIMATED WERE KILLED LAST YEAR.

BRYAN SUSPECTS THAT MUCH ILLEGAL

IVORY ENTERING CHINA FINDS ITS

WAY TO STORES.

TO FIND OUT HOW IT'S SOLD,

HE POSES AS A TV PRESENTER

EXPLORING CHINESE LUXURY GOODS.

BC:
So we're on the 4th floor

of the Beijing arts and crafts

building.

This is a building dedicated

to traditional arts,

and now we're on the,

in the ivory shop.

Bryan talks with shop girls.

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