From a Just Forests press release 21/12/2012:
With the news of the murder of Atamato Madrandele, Chief Warden of Upemba National Park, on 16th December in DR Congo, Just Forests is calling on the Catholic Church to stop driving the ivory trade.
“African elephants are being massacred across much of the African continent, with illegal slaughter accounting for 90 percent of recorded deaths in central Africa. The animals are being killed for their tusks, despite a 1989 ban on international ivory trading.” according to National Geographic reporter Bryan Christie.
“The Catholic Church fascination with ivory can be traces right to the doors of the Vatican, where ivory Catholic images are for sale.” according to Tom Roche of Just Forests.
While the Vatican in its role as a governmental entity has signed transnational agreements on drug trafficking, terrorism and organized crime, it has not signed the CITES 1989 global trade ban on ivory.
Just Forests is calling on everyone that loves wildlife to sign a petition aimed at asking the Irish Catholic Hierarchy to STOP the SLAUGHTER.
