Déclaration de
Son Excellence Monsieur Ali BONGO ONDIMBA
Président de la République Gabonaise,
Chef de
l’Etat
New York, le 23 Septembre, 2014
§ My Fellow
Presidents,
§ Secretary
Clinton,
§ Ministers,
§
Ambassadors,
§
Distinguished Representatives of NGOs and Civil society,
§ Ladies and
Gentlemen,
Last year, at the invitation of Hilary and Chelsea,
I joined several of my fellow African presidents, as well as NGO leaders, on
stage here at the Clinton Global Initiative. Our aim was to shine the
international spotlight on the ivory poaching crisis in Africa and to make a
commitment to work together to turn the tide.
In London in February of this year, at the
invitation of Her Majesty's Government and their Royal Highnesses Princes
Charles, William and Harry, we convened again to discuss global solutions to
wildlife crime.
It was at that event that Gabon, home to two thirds
of the forest elephants, joined with Botswana, home to two thirds of the
savanna elephants, as well as Chad, Ethiopia and Tanzania, to launch the
Elephant Protection Initiative.
Our intention was three-fold:
Firstly, to create a platform that would stimulate
African Governments to come together and develop African solutions to save our
iconic elephant.
Secondly, to encourage consumer nations to take
action to close all illegal markets for ivory - specifically, calling for at
least a 10-year moratorium on ivory trade, with the intention to maintain the
moratorium until elephant populations have recovered.
And thirdly, to encourage partner governments and
NGOs to mobilize the technical and financial support, in tandem with our own
commitments, that will be necessary to secure a viable future for elephants
throughout their range.
It is very promising that we have been able to bring
EPI and CGI together today, and I take this opportunity to encourage you all to
join with EPI and CGI in calling for a moratorium and to work with us to
undertake concrete actions to save Africa's elephants.
Our collective actions will determine the future of
Africa's savanna and forest elephants.
In the past decade we have seen resurgence in
poaching. Indeed, in many places it has become a massacre and the elephants
have become refugees, forever on the move in their attempt to dodge the
poachers' bullets.
The brutality of the poachers can be shocking -
sometimes firing Kalashnikov rounds into elephants' legs to immobilize them and
then hacking the tusks and trunk off as their victim writhes in agony. If they
were humans this would be classified as war crimes and genocide.
These same poachers do not hesitate to fire upon our
wildlife rangers, leaving literally hundreds of conservation widows and orphans
mourning their husbands and fathers.
The killing has to stop now.
Thank you.
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