REPUBLIQUE GABONAISE UNION-TRAVAIL-JUSTICE

Dclaration de Son Excellence Monsieur Ali BONGO ONDIMBAPrsident de la Rpublique Gabonaise, Chef de lEtat

Clinton Global Initiative - Elephant Protection Initiative meeting

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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