Elephants, ivory and international law

Review of European Community and International Environmental Law

Volumn 10, Issue 3, 2001, Pages 277-286

  Favre, David ^a  

^a NONE

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

BIODIVERSITY; ELEPHANT; ENVIRONMENTAL LEGISLATION; IVORY; NATURE CONSERVATION;

AGONIDAE; ANIMALIA; ELEPHANT; ELEPHANTIDAE;

EID: 0035652704     PISSN: 09628797     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1111/1467-9388.00287     Document Type: Article

References (1)

1. N. Myers, The Sinking Ark: A New Look at the Problem of Disap-pearing Species (Oxford, Pergamon Press, 1979). Myers wrote in his introduction: 'Ask a man in the street what he thinks of the problem of disappearing species, and he may well reply that it would be a pity if the tiger or the blue whale disappeared. But he may add that it would be no big deal, as compared with real crises of energy, population, food and pollution - the "real problems". In other words, he cares about disappearing species, but he cares about many other things more: he simply does not see it as a critical issue. If the tiger were to go extinct tonight, the sun would still come up tomorrow morning'. In point of fact, by tomorrow morning we shall almost certainly have one less species on Planet Earth than we had this morning. It will not be a charismatic creature like the tiger. It could well be an obscure insect in the depths of some remote rainforest. It may even be a creature that nobody has ever heard of. But it will have gone. A unique form of life will have been driven from the face of the earth forever. Equally likely is that by the end of the century we will have lost 1 million species, possibly many more. Except for the barest handful, they will have been eliminated through the hand of man.