Battle for the Elephants Page #5

sale that was done to Japan and

particularly to China has caused

high demand, and with the high

demand we haveeen now an

increase in poaching.

Ming:
As you know, the ivory art

or ivory processing technology

have stayed in China almost 2000

years, more than 2000 years.

But I don't believe just

that China has a problem.

CITES DELEGATES FACE A CRUCIAL

DECISION:
WHETHER OR NOT TO

ALLOW MORE CONTROLLED

SALES OF STOCKPILED IVORY .

MR:
The answer is really, I

guess, if you have no trade,

no trade anywhere,

domestic oinatl,

then there can be no confusion.

Rowan:
Well, that's rubbish.

Having died, an elephant

is a very valuable animal.

You don't throw it away.

MR:
This meeting at CITES is

marking the beginning of another

tipping point, if you like.

We've been here before,

it's Groundhog Day.

We have all the

alarm bells ringing,

and we have to do something.

AH:
How long will you be?

How long...? He's got the

most annoying ringtone,

it's the most...

hello?

AIDAN IS MANEUVERING

FOR A BIGGER PURCHASE,

TO GAUGE HOW MUCH

IVORY IS AVAILABLE.

SUDDENLY, THE GAME CHANGES.

AH:
Take us, take us

to the two places.

[Seller:
Yes] You're saying

there are two places,

is that right?

Seller:
Yeah.

You know what, the problem

is I'm very small for this

business, so why I'm here?

This business is very dangerous.

So I don't want later me to get

in problem, to get in trouble.

AH:
What have you

got to show us,

how many kilos have

you got to show us now?

Seller:
More than 100.

Like 2...

or 150.

AH:
That's quite disappointing,

because you promised 300.

Seller:
You know, that quantity

you cannot get for one time.

Just today 50, tomorrow 50, or

tomorrow 100, after tomorrow...

AH:
You know what, all you've

done is give me excuses.

Seller:
No, I'm serious!

AH:
You make promises to me that

you're going to gather a big

quantity, and then you

just show me a few teeth.

AIDAN IS BAFFLED.

JUST TWO DAYS AGO THESE

SELLERS WERE KEEN TO DEAL.

NOW THEY APPEAR TO BE

CLEANED OUT OF MERCHANDISE.

AH:
Okay, what's been happening

is we've been in these

negotiations with this ivory

trader who said that last week

the Chinese bought just about

everything that was available in

the city.

Even the stuff we were looking

at a few days ago has allegedly

already been sold

to the Chinese.

AIDAN CAN'T PROVE THAT THE IVORY

HAS BEEN SOLD TO CHINESE BUYERS.

ONLY THAT THE IVORY HE'D SEEN

THREE DAYS BEFORE IS GONE.

THOSE WHO CARVE IVORY

PRACTICE A GENTLE ART,

FAR FROM THE:

CRIMINAL UNDERWORLD.

THE CHINESE PASSION FOR IVORY

COMES TO LIFE IN THE WORK OF

MASTER LEUNG LEE CHEONG .

BC:
Mr. Leung, this

is extraordinary work.

How long have you

been carving ivory?

Mr. Leung:
58 years.

BC:
So you started as a boy.

MASTER LEUNG SPENT 2

YEARS CARVING THIS PIECE.

IT IS VALUED AT OVER

A MILLION DOLLARS.

BC:
When I see an older

master carver at work,

I can understand this is an art

form that is unique to China,

that they've developed

over thousands of years.

And the Chinese

Government is saying,

when you look at

a master carver,

this is what we

want to preserve.

But then we move to a factory.

BC:
You walk through any of

the major Chinese factories,

and you see row upon row

of young people at work.

And you see in the largest

factory empty seats.

These aren't empty seats

because people have been fired.

These are empty seats because

people have not yet been hired.

The Chinese Government intends

to expand its ivory market.

It's for this world to

choose:
is this craft,

or is this species

more valuable?

BC:
The only realistic solution

is if the Chinese Government

says "no" to ivory.

AFTER SEVERAL DAYS

IN DAR ES SALAAM,

AIDAN HAS TERMINATED

HIS EFFORT TO BUY IVORY.

HE FEARS THAT CONTINUING

HIS APPROACH MIGHT PUT MORE

ELEPHANTS AT RISK .

WITH HARD EVIDENCE IN HAND, HE

RETURNS TO MINISTER KAGASHEKI.

AH:
The other day we talked

about whether or not there is

ivory flooding the market

here in Dar Es Salaam.

Would you be shocked if you

heard that we ourselves have

already been offered ivory?

Can I show you a film?

(shows minister clip)

Minister:
Well, honestly,

I must say I'm shocked.

It's a question of

our enforcement,

enforcement people...maybe

they are not doing enough.

But this is shocking,

quite frankly,

and I'm really surprised.

AH:
It took us only a few hours

for a trader to approach us,

and it was no problem for them

to fill a consignment of up to

2000 kilograms of ivory, and

they would be able to find ways

of exporting it to the far east.

Minister:
Then that underlines

the fact that of course there is

a big, big element

of corruption there,

because this is not something

that would just be done by the

traders and the Chinese alone.

AH:
We have been told that

Tanzania has 90 metric tons of

ivory in its ivory room, and

that's what we're hoping to see.

AH:
Why doesn't

Tanzania burn its ivory?

Why put a value on it, and

why do you want to sell it?

Minister:
But why

should we burn it?

I think the money, for example,

that could be obtained from an

exercise of selling, genuinely,

we could do conservation,

and we could do of course the

preservation of these wild

animals.

LATER IN A GESTURE

OF TRANSPARENCY,

MINISTER KAGASHEKIGRANTS AIDAN

ACCESS TO THE IVORY ROOM.

NOW, AIDAN WILL GET A RARE

GLIMPSE OF LIKELY THE LARGES KNOWN CACHE OF RAW

IVORY IN THE WORLD .

TANZANIA WANTS TO SELL THE

CONTENTS OF THIS WAREHOUSE AND

HAS ASKED CITES FOR AN

EXCEPTION TO THE BAN .

AH:
We're now standing

outside the ivory room.

I believe that there have never

been any pictures of this room,

certainly no film of this room,

so this is a historic moment.

AH:
Push it open, it's like

going into some ancient tomb.

Can we go in?

Wow, there are piles

of tusks, on the floor,

stacked in shelves.

ACCUMULATED OVER

THE LAST 23 YEARS,

THIS STOCKPILE IS REPORTEDLY

VALUED AT OVER 50 MILLION

DOLLARS .

AH:
This reminds me of some kind

of genocide memorial or some

solemn place that records what

could be the end of the elephant

in the wild.

AH:
And the absolute shame of

what is going on can be seen in

this comparison.

These are the magnificent

creatures that used to roam

Africa, and the poachers are now

slaughtering animals that have

barely had any time to grow.

I think that tells an

unbelievably sad story.

AH:
As one of the poorest

countries in the world,

Tanzania should try to get

some sort of compensation from

somewhere, if they

have a resource,

in order to be able to police

the parks and national reserves

against the poachers.

But if international donors came

and paid Tanzania money to burn

it, would you support that?

Aide:
Definitely, yes, what I

need is just the money out of

that.

I would support that

idea very strongly.

ONE CONSEQUENCE OF THE IVORY

TRADEIS A GROWING NUMBER OF

ELEPHANT ORPHANS.

HERE AT THE DAVID SHELDRICK

WILDLIFE TRUST IN NAIROBI,

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