Google – AFP, 29 October 2013
 |
Ivory Coast's
football player Yaya Toure speaks during a press conference as
he was appointed
the United Nations Environment Program goodwill ambassador
at the UNEP
headquarters in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on October 29, 2013
(AFP, Tony
Karumba)
|
Nairobi —
Reigning African Footballer of the Year Yaya Toure, star of Manchester City and
Ivory Coast, warned Tuesday that the slaughter of elephants for their ivory was
threatening their very existence.
"Poaching
threatens the very existence of the African elephant and if we do not act now
we could be looking at a future in which this iconic species is wiped
out," Toure told reporters, as he was appointed an ambassador for the
United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
"Ivory
Coast's national team is named 'The Elephants? after these magnificent creatures
that are so full of power and grace, yet in my country alone there may be as
few as 800 individuals left," Toure added.
Toure,
speaking at UNEP headquarters in the Kenyan capital, said he wanted to help
combat the illegal ivory trade that sees thousands of elephants poached each
year.
Poaching
has risen sharply in Africa in recent years and the illegal ivory trade has
tripled since 1998, according to UNEP.
Large-scale
seizures of ivory destined for Asia have more than doubled since 2009 and
reached an all-time high in 2011, UNEP added.
Ivory trade
is banned under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of
Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).
Africa is
now home to an estimated 472,000 elephants, whose survival is threatened by
poaching as well as population expansion and increasing urbanisation
encroaching on natural habitats.
The illegal
ivory trade, estimated to be worth up to $10 billion (seven billion euros) a
year, is mostly fuelled by demand in Asia and the Middle East.
Elephant
tusks are used to make ornaments and rhinoceros horns are used in traditional
medicine.
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