An Open Letter to the CITES’ Secretary General — A Plea for Compassion!
Today, I share with the world the unedited version of my impassioned letter to the CITES’ Secretary General, imploring Ms. Ivonne Higuero to reconsider CITES’ decision to “auction off” the gentlest, the most collaborative and productive sentient beings, who offer so many benefits — ecological, intrinsic, spiritual and cultural — to humans and other living beings.
Emailed September 27, 2021
Madam Secretary General:
I am Sangita Iyer, a biologist, National Geographic Explorer, Nature & Wildlife Filmmaker, former broadcast journalist, and Founder of Voice for Asian Elephants Society. I am also the Producer/Director of the United Nations nominated and multiple award-winning documentary Gods in Shackles that exposes the exploitation of Asian elephants in India’s cultural rituals. My 26-part series, Asian Elephants 101, recently world premiered on multiple National Geographic channels this World Elephant Day.
Elephants arrived on the planet some 18 million years ago, long before humans. They are highly intelligent, social and self-aware beings. I’ve had the distinct privilege of spending the past eight years with Asian elephants, observing, researching and filming their behaviour and magnificence. During my field research, I discovered how their cultures thrive in tight-knit families, how they protect their young, respect their elders and value their own role in the herd. Above all else I had been profoundly touched by their reflective responses to aliens i.e., humans who venture into their territories. Being in their presence is like being in a magical world, where I deeply connect with these ancestors.
Now imagine this. You have gathered with your relatives. Babies, young children, and adults, are having fun, laughter, and food on your lawn. All of a sudden, massive trucks, loaded with machinery approach you, kicking up dense plumes of dust. It feels as though you are caught in an earthquake. You are terrified. You freeze! The babies begin to cry helplessly. Mothers grab the little ones and hold them close to their chest, desperately looking for an escape. But no matter where they turn, they are surrounded by the monstrous aliens. Your home has been ransacked and every single individual at the social gathering has been rounded up, and ruthlessly dragged into a truck. The shrieks and shrills of the babies are deafening, as each of your relatives is shoved into a different truck, separated from the family, and driven away.
This is the trauma suffered by the herd of 24 Namibian elephants, who were recently abducted from the wild, shrouded in secrecy. These innocent animals, including a baby elephant, were going about their daily lives when they were ambushed and captured last week. This horrifying news regarding the cousins of Asian elephants, now set to be “auctioned off” to the highest bidder from alien nations, has sent shockwaves across the conservation community, leaving us deeply perturbed and disheartened.
Madam Secretary General, as stated above, these sentient beings fiercely protect their babies and love their families just like we do. Isn’t it a heinous crime against nature to rip them apart from their families, “auction off” these sentient beings as though they are commodities, and transport them to strange places, only to suffer a lifetime of slavery, abuse and neglect, and ultimately die in agony?
Such reckless actions, initiated by the Namibian Government, and facilitated by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), charged with regulating the trade, strike at the core of the crises facing African elephants. Human ignorance, arrogance and deception, fueled by greed, selfishness, and a total lack of empathy for one of the most empathetic, and gentlest animals of our planet is categorically destroying this wonderful web of life on earth.
Let alone compassionate grounds, and let us explore the benefits that elephants offer humans. Elephants have been linked to mitigating climate change. This is important to understand, as the silent existential crisis unleashing around the world is not only pushing other species to the brink, but also threatening our own civilization. Extreme weather events such as wildfires are ravaging human communities, the iconic Koala bears and Kangaroos of Australia, and destroying resilient trees like sequoia in California. Intense hurricanes and storm surges are becoming all too common with the warming temperatures.
But nature has provided intelligent solutions. Certain animals, trees, and even microbes on land and in the ocean possess unique properties to mitigate climate change. In fact, a recent study of the African forest elephants has revealed exactly how they promote the growth of hard wood trees that absorb large amounts of carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas that exacerbates climate change. Elephants trample smaller soft wood trees that compete for nutrients, sunlight and rain that penetrate to the forest floor. They create space for these vital sources to permeate the ground, and with their dung, fertilize the mature hard wood trees.
Furthermore, I have been reliably informed that a group of NGOs had shared with CITES and relevant parties a ground breaking research published on the International Monetary Fund (IMF) website which suggests that the carbon sequestration attributable to each forest elephant is valued at $1.75 million over the course of his or her lifespan (IMF depiction on last page). Although similar studies have yet to be done for elephants in Namibia, the ecosystem services they provide may be valued far in excess of the price paid in the auction — that is if the elephants are left alone in their natural habitat.
Additionally, a recent study on Asian elephants has revealed that they travel 20 times farther than any other land mammal. In the process, each elephant drops approximately 300 lbs. of dung per day, spreading seeds, across the forest floor. What’s even more significant is that elephants discharge undamaged, whole seeds out of their system, of which up to 71 per cent germinate. Seeds become trees that release oxygen that we need to survive, and absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.
Wait a second! This means elephants facilitate the breath of life, even if indirectly. How foolish is it to destroy this life-giving source by removing them from their forests, savannah or deserts, where they promote biodiversity and help other species to thrive! And not to mention the significant tourism benefits and job opportunities that elephants create for local people, as tourists from around the world flock to see these majestic animals.
But these benefits have been conveniently ignored by the Namibian Government and CITES, who seem hellbent on “auctioning off” their souls, arrogantly turning their backs on the very source that can provide economic, ecological, and cultural benefits. Although the parties involved claim that these elephants will be used to promote species conservation, according to one report, they will likely be displayed in zoos, where they will remain confined for the rest of their lives, grieving the separation and loss of their loved ones until they die in misery. Potentially 170 elephants will suffer the same tragic fate, so the omnipotent, omniscient human beings can be entertained.
Madam Secretary General, please help us understand how forced breeding, which has failed miserably in American zoos, or how their presence in the Middle East would help with conservation efforts? Despite fierce global resistance from renowned scientists and conservationists, CITES Secretariat has allowed the Namibian government to exploit and misinterpret the regulations created by CITES, rather than ameliorating the legal flaws.
The exhaustive arguments include, but are not limited to the following factors:
Organizations such as Pro Elephant Network (PREN), Born Free Foundation and have painstakingly explained that the CITES’ regulations allow only the exportation of live elephants to countries within their natural range. Whereas, the CITES Secretariat is aiding and abetting the exportation of 42 elephants outside the African continent.
The job of the CITES Secretariat is to ensure that the parties follow the convention’s regulations. Therefore, the exportation of elephants is prohibited until after the standing committee’s findings are released in 2022, as Namibia’s misinterpretation of the convention is currently under review. But still, CITES, charged with preserving the authentic trade of endangered species, was quick enough to give the “green light”, ignoring its own protocols, and setting dangerous precedent to other nations in the region.
Even the baseless justification to remove these animals from their habitats due to the escalating human elephant conflict has been debunked. Conservationists explain that only a total of around 5,600 elephants reside in Namibia, whereas 17,265 to 20,000 elephants migrate between Namibia, Angola, Botswana, and Zambia.
Furthermore, opponents of the auction note that Namibia’s total elephant population is dwarfed by neighboring Botswana’s roughly 130,000 elephants. Namibia’s land area is 40% larger than Botswana, meaning its elephant density is at best about one-eighth that of its neighbor.
Madam Secretary General, in the backdrop of these facts, how can CITES grant permission to “auction off” the Namibian elephants? Isn’t it the responsibility of CITES to monitor and regulate impulsive and reckless actions that could have a detrimental impact on endangered species? However, as it appears CITIES is not only betraying the voiceless and vulnerable animals that are supposed to be protected, but also its own oath. CITES is allowing certain parties to blatantly misinterpret CITES’ regulations, thus desecrating its own core mission as described on the website: “ensure that international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten the survival of the species”. Doubletalk, sugar coating, misinterpretations, and reframing the regulations created in good faith constitute deceptive tactics and a blatant violation of CITES’ objectives.
Madam Secretary General, elephants are asking for nothing but to be left alone with their families, and carry out critical ecological functions, so other creatures of the forest ecosystems, savannah and dessert, can thrive. No doubt you have the power. But if you have an ounce of empathy and compassion you can still prevent this atrocity and release the captured and terrified elephants where they belong. The world will sing your glory, and elephants will send you trumpets of gratitude. But most importantly, your soul will rest in peace, because it knows deep down that this is the right thing to do!
Meantime, the daunting question for conservationists and wildlife lovers is how can we trust CITES with our planet’s endangered species when it not only allows the misinterpretation of its own mission, but also colludes with those who exploit and misinterpret its regulations. Isn’t it time we created an international body that would genuinely and earnestly regulate the trade in endangered species?
I look forward to receiving a response in favour of the elephants.
Thank you!
Sincerely,
Sangita Iyer (B.Sc., M.A. Env. Edu. & Com., Broadcaster & News Producer)
