Faced with this growing wildlife crime, Océan and Codelt, two civil society organizations, are stepping up to the plate and launching the « never again » campaign. A campaign organized with the support of USAID and WWF. During a conference-debate organized on Friday, 20 September 2019 at the headquarters of the Economic and Social Council, they called for everyone’s involvement to denounce this practice.

According to CITES surveys, Ivory trade kills 30,000 elephants each year. And according to experts, an elephant is killed every fifteen minutes. And according to the inventories carried out by the Okapi Wildlife Reserve, the current population is estimated at between 5,000 and 10,000, while in 1980 the DRC was home to 100,000 elephants, or 90% are decimated.

At the root of this situation is the very juicy market of Ivory and Pangolin scales.
Indeed, the demand from Ivory at the international level and in Asia in particular is pushing elephants to the brink of extinction. These ivories are used to make decorative objects, jewellery and trinkets.

DRC, at the forefront of the Ivory trade

The Democratic Republic of Congo has once again distinguished itself in large-scale trafficking. CITES reports having recorded several seizures in Vietnam. As of March 20, 2019, 9,124 kg of Ivory were seized in Vietnam. A few weeks later, 3,446 kg of Ivory and 3,977 kg of Pangolin scales.

As of July 18, 1,217 kg of Pangolin flakes seized at Istanbul airport; on July 21 at the port of Singapore, 11,912 kg of Pangolin flakes and 8797 kg of Ivory.

What to do in the face of a juicy market in the DRC?
Civil society recommends the prosecution of persons and services involved in trafficking; the repatriation of all such seized goods; the establishment of a specialized court for environmental crimes and a police unit specialized in environmental crime; and the involvement of air, sea, river and road transporters, through a written commitment not to ship wildlife species and trophies from or to the DRC.

Civil society thus thinks it is contributing to the preservation of these species, which are on the verge of extinction.

Nadine FULA