10/10/2012, 00.00
LAOS - JAPAN
Send to a friend

Laotians and environmentalists against government loaning eight elephants to Japan

The pachyderms are bound for zoos and a safari park under a three-year agreement between the two governments; one site is not far from the Fukushima evacuation zone. Once dubbed the 'Land of a million elephants', Laos now has only 900 animals. Illegal ivory trafficking is one major reason.

Vientiane (AsiaNews/Agencies) - Ordinary Laotians and environmental groups are protesting the Laotian government's decision to loan eight elephants to Japanese zoos, including one near the Fukushima nuclear exclusion zone. Once known as the 'Land of a million elephants', Laos now has less than a thousand pachyderms (900 according to official figures). The presence and preservation of the species, which is threatened by environmental degradation and poaching, is an urgent imperative to avoid extinction.

The eight elephants, which will be shipped under a three-year agreement between the Japanese and Laotian governments, are to be taken from the forests in northern Xayaburi province to several zoos, including a safari park just outside the Fukushima evacuation zone established after the March 2011 nuclear incident.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Laos said villagers who care for the elephants were unhappy with the move, likening it to giving away "national treasures," already threatened by trade with China.

In Vientiane, government officials have refused to comment on the issue, but scientists and environmentalists have criticised Japan for taking elephants out of Laos.

"Thailand, Sri Lanka and India, all signatories of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Fauna), have thousands more elephants than Laos; surely it makes sense to source zoo elephants from their shores," an Australian expert wrote. Conversely, Laos simply cannot afford to lose eight more young elephants.

"The Vietnam War, forest degradation and poaching have seen Asian elephant populations crash almost to the point of no return," she added.

A recent study noted that Laos has become a hub for the illegal international elephant ivory trade, with large shipments of products made from the tusks.

Some 2,493 pieces of ivory, including jewellery and raw tusks, were found in a number of stores in the Laotian capital catering to foreign tourists, many times more than 100 ivory items on sale in 2002.

 

TAGs
Send to a friend
Printable version
CLOSE X
See also
Vientiane, the fastest growing ivory market
30/09/2017 10:06
China seizes a record 2,748 elephant tusks
17/04/2019 18:02
China, the domestic market for ivory endangers the survival of elephants
18/06/2013
Animal rights activists on war footing against ivory market in China
17/07/2008
Fr Rupak Lokhande, from Mumbai to the Ivory Coast mission
02/08/2019 16:57


Newsletter

Subscribe to Asia News updates or change your preferences

Subscribe now
“L’Asia: ecco il nostro comune compito per il terzo millennio!” - Giovanni Paolo II, da “Alzatevi, andiamo”