英闻天下——534 Yao Ming Says No to Ivory and Rhino Horn

 　　As an ambassador to the wildlife conservation group WildAid, last year Yao Ming embarked 1 on a 10-day trip to Africa to shoot a documentary aimed at stopping the poaching of elephants and rhinos 3.

 
　　During his journey Yao had close contact with the wild animals such as elephants, rhinos and leopards 4.
 
　　He says he was shocked by the scenes of the carcasses.
 
　　"The pictures you see can't bring you the smell there and tell you my feeling when I saw an animal's carcass. I hope people can understand the problems facing Africa and have a glimpse of the beauty of Africa through this documentary. I also hope people will have an impulse to visit Africa after watching it. But if we don't do what we should do, maybe one day when we arrive there, Africa will no longer be what it should be."
 
　　Philip Muruthi, senior director of conservation science for African Wildlife Foundation says in 2012, more than 660 rhinos were killed in South Africa.
 
　　"Rhinos are not threatened by habitat loss. They are threatened primarily by poaching, our own greed for the rhino 2 horns. These markets in Asia and in countries like Asia, are poaching. I must say, really, we need to stop the killing 5 and buying of rhino horns."
 
　　Poaching for ivory also kills more than 25,000 elephants a year in Africa and has reached levels only seen before the 1989 international ivory trade ban.
 
　　Kenyan researcher David Daballen of the conservation organization "Save the Elephant" says due to the demand for ivory, poaching has erupted all over Africa.
 
　　"For me and my team, it is heart-breaking to lose so many elephants that actually we know individually, and who for many years that we've been studying and have become a part of us. So I appeal to all of you, for your help. With every elephant that dies, we lose part of our culture and the culture of our children."
 
　　Although the international trade in ivory is banned, a one-off sale of stockpiled ivory in 2008 provided a legal market for ivory in China and Japan.
 
　　Peter Knights 6, Executive Director of WildAid says the widespread abuse of the system to launder 7 illegal ivory in China makes it the world's largest market for ivory.
 
　　"For example, people who have a permit will sell an item of ivory, they will keep the permit, and they will sell another item of ivory. And that can go on time and time again. So, the legal ivory trade enables the products of the poaching to be sold on the open market and it sends a very confused message to the public. And indeed our survey showed that 50 percent of people had no idea of how to distinguish illegal or legal ivory."
 
　　A survey conducted in November of 2012 in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou by the Chinese research company HorizonKey shows that 94 percent of the respondents agree the Chinese government should impose a ban on the ivory trade. The survey also shows that 95 percent agree the government should take stricter action to prevent use of rhino horns.
 
　　Peter Knights says he hopes China can take the leading role to help save elephants and rhinos.
 
　　"Since 1993, rhino horn has been banned in China. But there is certainly more that could be done to enforce those laws better. To give you some idea of how positive the action taken in 1993 was: Vietnam, which is a country one-fifteenth of the size of China, is currently a bigger market for rhino horn than China. So clearly there have been some positive moves in China but we do need to reinforce that message and we need to do more enforcement and have greater public awareness 8 to stop the market."
 
　　Similar public awareness campaigns are planned for Vietnam later in 2013.
 
　　Peter Knights says it is effective to have celebrities 9 like Yao Ming to help raise the public's awareness about wildlife protection.
 
　　Yao's previous WildAid campaign against consuming shark fin 10 soup, backed by Chinese government and media, is credited with a reduction of 50 to 70 percent in consumption of shark fin in China.