THE night after governments meeting in Nairobi last week decided to continue
the ban on international trade in ivory, a woman tending her cattle not far from
the city was trampled to death by a rogue elephant. It was a sad reminder that
our relationship with the planet’s largest land mammal is more complex than the
debates on poaching and the ivory trade might have suggested.
Closing the conference of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species (CITES), its secretary general, Willem Wijnstekers, noted that delegates
have swung away from “sustainable use” of wildlife, towards narrow
protectionism. The mood…
