R-e-s-p-e-c-t... all life, that's what you mean to me

(this is the same posting as currently appears on my Wild Orphans blog)

One would think 'sense and reason' should be the rule by which we travel through our lives, across the Earth, but sadly it's not always the route we humans choose, rather the road less traveled.

Today the folks representing how we treat all things but ourselves met in Doha to play god for another few years - elephants lucked out. Although not everyone was tickled pink, "We do not think our sovereignty has been respected," the Zambia's Tourism Minister Catherine Namugala said. "Respected", interesting word Ms Namugala, apparently that sovereignty doesn't extend to all life? No comment yet from the elephants who's sovereignty (and tusks) may have been spared.

Finally, perhaps, we have looked down that respect road, strewn with life other than our own, and decided they too have a place on earth. If that's the case it is somewhat ironic timing since this weekend in several countries the new BBC/Discovery Channel series LIFE took to the airwaves. Elephants, maybe more specifically African elephants have been given a short reprieve by a group with the highly ironic title the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species - yes, I know you are scratching your head and saying, how can one "Trade" something that is labeled as "Endangered", if by the very meaning Endangered you are saying this thing is near disappearing, poof, gone! - doesn't that seem counter-intuitive? Oh well, I did say there were two roads and most of the time...

From a web article on BBC online:

"The UN's wildlife trade organisation has turned down Tanzania's and Zambia's requests to sell ivory, amid concern about elephant poaching.

The countries asked the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting to permit one-off sales from government stockpiles."

An overview article on the CITES vote and who's involved can be found in BBC Enviro corespondent Richard Black's article:

Ivory bids fall on poaching fears

And from the Washington Post: Elephant trade ban reaffirmed for Tanzania, Zambia

Tiger Trap

To answer several of you at once (thanks for asking) - the project in India I was working on is called Tiger Trap; so I've titled it for the moment. It is my first major overseas endeavor since returning to photography and writing full-time; it is a self-assignment. Like most of the projects I have worked on previously, it relies heavily on contacts I have developed over the years, and subjects or species, that I have a keen interest in seeing explored from a perspective I think has been neglected.

Tiger Trap follows project leader Dr. M Firoz Ahmed and his team of researchers in Kaziranga National Park, in Assam, India. The team is with the conservation organization Aaranyak, based in Guwahati.


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As is painfully the case in many of the endangered species stories I have researched and photographed, the cost and state of affairs become sad reminders of our planet and the life on it. Just over a century ago there were an estimated 45,000 tigers living wild in India's forests. By the time hunting was banned in 1972, their numbers were down to 2,000. Over the past century, the world's population of tigers has been reduced by 95% as a result of hunting and poaching for their body parts, which are used in traditional Asian medicine. As we celebrate The Year of the Tiger there are only around 3,200 tigers left on the planet.

A bit more about the project and updates will be posted on my website at http://gerryellis.net/tigertrap.html

Tiger Trap Photo: ARNYK_KNP_Female20 (courtesy Aaranyak - not to be reproduced without permission)