拯救大象：肯尼亚小伙伴的中国行日记（二）

编者注：前几日耶鲁大学环境科学硕士的高煜芳童鞋此次带着两名肯尼亚从事大象保护的青年人Resson Kantai和Christopher Kiarie到中国，希望能够与更多中国的公众分享他们所做的研究与工作，介绍非洲象的生存状况和在肯尼亚进行的象群保护工作，让更多的中国人了解遥远的非洲土地上的象群的命运是如何与中国发生关联，应该如何正确地认识复杂象牙贸易背后的问题。他希望能够通过此次的交流行动让更多公众开始关注大象保护议题，也为中国和肯尼亚的环保圈子搭建一座桥梁。

在一系列主题分享会过程，两位外国小伙伴在他们的facebook记录下了他们此次中国行的感受。我们也在小伙伴的帮助下翻译了他们的感受，与大家分享。

翻译/陈斯缘、郑舒文

6月10号  广州

上午，小高带Chris和Resson走访了广州的合法象牙制品市场，下午他们跟4个记者分享了他们的故事和研究。他们还与非物质文化保护组织的工作人员交谈，对保护非物质文化遗产和保护野生动物之间的矛盾和联系展开了讨论。

白色石头

文 /Resson Kantai Duff

这一天，我等了很久了。我终于可以看到那些我认识的大象们在经历可怕死亡后的最终去向：象牙交易市场。我们从一家坐落在繁忙高速公路旁的并不显眼的古董店开始逛起。我看到了一个花样繁复的老牙雕，根据横截面上独特的纹样，我立刻认出，这象牙来自一头长毛象。接着，我们来到一家象牙商店。女店员一开始还有所保留。小高跟她聊天，奉承她，就像眼镜蛇随着印度管乐器的音乐舞动一样，她开始滔滔不绝地把说起自己的家事。她说侄子不久就要上大学了，这孩子不考虑家境，选了不太能赚钱的专业，她真希望他能做更好的选择。其实他本可以去技校学习雕刻，不久之后就能过上好日子。在她看来，象牙雕刻这一行是有前途的。她安排我们就坐，向我们展示了我见过的最美最精致的雕刻艺术品。“小心点儿！” 她说，“这很贵。” 她说这话时，我正捧着一件价值6000美元的牙雕。这家商店是合法经营，所有工艺品都有认证证书。但是，她承认也有些时候，有人会冒险从“其他途径”获取象牙。我离开商店，混合着矛盾的情绪：多么叹为观止的艺术品，可它们背后的代价却那么高昂。

我们随后到一个开放式购物中心闲逛，一开始我还以为是去打发时间。我们看到了一些极其夺目珍贵的宝石。我们从橘色的珊瑚石开始看起，又走到卖翡翠的商铺。对我来说，它们看起来都像玻璃手镯，易碎而炫目。我们询问了看起来最绿的翡翠手镯的价钱。那个手镯就像街角小店里卖的糖果一样简单摆放着。当得到答案是80万人民币时，我们惊讶得下巴都快掉了，一个手镯居然卖10万美元！“是的。” 店员小姐回答时眼睛眨都不眨。原来这才是值钱物件的价格啊！

然后我看到琥珀。这是我最喜欢的石头，这种透明的有机物，总会包裹着某种完好保存的东西，对我而言，它是通往过去的一扇窗户，也许里面是千百万年前的世界。这是每克售价最贵的一种石头，按克计价，有时候卖到超过40美元／克。我们还看了许多其他的石头，包括象牙，相比而言，象牙的价钱在众多石头中算低的。我过了好一阵才反应过来，这就是所谓的“象牙市场” (ivory market)，我觉得现在应该停止用这个名字统称它们了。这不是我们想象中的”象牙市场”，这只是有“象牙的市场”(market with ivory)。

在回忆这次经历时，我脑子里闪过了很多想法。首先，我希望证实目前中国内关于象牙贸易的一个说法，就是“象牙其实价钱不高”。因为象牙和其他宝石同时在这样一个市场交易，相比之下确实不贵，唯一的区别是它潜在的增值可能性可能高于其他工艺品，而这正是问题所在。其次，我必须承认，走在这个交易市场时，我看到的全是“石头”。确实，即使是像我这样每天和大象在一起的人，在五颜六色的石头里，我自己也很难把这些白色的石头跟它们的来源——大象联系起来。（也许那些终日指责“麻木不仁”的象牙贩卖者的人应该来这一趟，这样我们就能快速对问题有一个共识。）现在我终于意识到，在这么一堆五彩的石头里，只有一种是大象被猎杀的证据，我终于意识到，要从这些石头中辨认出它来，是一件多么复杂的事情。一想到这，我几乎绝望了。

但是我很快再次找到了希望。如果象牙制品这些白色石头，因为最后一头大象被杀而从市场消失，这个市场并不会受到太大的影响，同样的道理，如果因为禁止交易而导致这种白色石头在市场绝迹，“不受影响”的情况也会发生。禁止象牙贸易的影响并不像我们想的那么严重。因此，我们仍有改变的可能。

 英文原文：【Elephant Conservation Tour in China – June 10 – Guangzhou】From Resson Kantai Duff

<p class="p1">
  The White Stone
</p>

<p class="p1">
  This was the day I had been waiting for, the day I would finally see where all the elephants I knew had gone after they had met their horrible death: the visit to the ivory market. We started off going into obscure antique shops on the side of a busy highway. The first was intricately carved mammoth ivory. I recognized immediately that it was indeed mammoth by the distinct patterns on the cross section. Then we headed into an elephant ivory shop. The lady employed in the shop was reserved at first, but Gao charmed her, and like a snake dancing to Indian pipe music, she began to tell us about her frustrations. Her nephew was starting university soon, and instead of thinking about his poor background wisely, he picked a course that would never make him much money. She wished he had chosen better. He could even go to the carving school, and soon live a dream. This industry has a future. She kindly offered us seats, and showed us the most beautiful, meticulously carved art I have ever seen. &#8220;Be careful,&#8221; she said, &#8220;it is very expensive&#8221; she said to me as I held a $6000 piece. All the work in the shop had certificates attached; this shop is legal. But she did admit that sometimes, someone took the daunting risk of getting ivory from &#8220;other sources&#8221;. I left the shop with confused feelings fighting within me: such beautiful art, but such a great cost.
</p>

<p class="p2">
  Then we wondered into an open plan shopping mall, to kill time I thought. Here we saw some of the most beautiful gems and precious stones. We started off looking at orange coral, then ambled into a section with jade. It all looked like glass bangles to me, brittle and pretty&#8230;then we asked the price of the greenest bangles we could see displayed (simply) like sweets in a corner shop. RMB 800,000 was the answer. Our jaws dropped open. This is over $100,000&#8230; For a bangle!! &#8220;Yes&#8221; replied the unblinking shop lady. This is the price of something valuable.
</p>

<p class="p2">
  We then saw amber, my favorite stone &#8211; with the transparent kind always containing some organic substance, well preserved. For me, it is a window into the past, maybe even hundreds of thousands of years. This was the most expensive, sold per gram, sometimes over $40 a gram. We saw many other stones, including ivory, which in comparison, was rather low-end. It took me a while to figure out that this was the &#8220;ivory market.&#8221; I now think we should stop using this name altogether. This was not an “ivory market”; Indeed, it was a “market with ivory”.
</p>

<p class="p2">
  Many thoughts run through my mind at the memory of this experience. First, I wish to corroborate a Chinese current saying concerning this issue, which is that the ivory price is &#8220;not high.&#8221; Because ivory is sold in this market with all these other gems, in comparison, its price is rather low. The only difference I know, is that it has a high potential for price increase compared to the rest, wherein lies the first problem. Second, I wish to make an admission: walking through this market, all I saw was stones. Even I who works with elephants every day found it difficult to make the connections between this white stone &#8211; among green, blue, orange, yellow and red ones &#8211; and it&#8217;s origins. [Perhaps those who make a living bashing the &#8220;unfeeling&#8221; people who sell this need to take a trip here so we can speed along our quest for a common understanding.] I now see how complex this issue is, to recognize that out of all these colors thrown together, only one is the proof of killing. In this, I almost despair.
</p>

<p class="p2">
  But I find hope quickly again. It is true that if this &#8220;stone&#8221; disappeared from this colorful market because the last elephant was killed, the market would not change much. But in the same breath, if this white stone vanished because the trade ended, the same would be true. It is not as big a deal here as we have believed. And for this reason, it can be changed.
</p>

<p class="p2">
  <p class="p1">
    <p class="p1">
      文/Chris Kiarie
    </p>

    <p class="p1">
      象牙商贩：你好！
    </p>

    <p class="p1">
      Chris: 你好！
    </p>

    <p class="p1">
      象牙商贩：看看这个！
    </p>

    <p class="p1">
      Chris: 好，我看看。
    </p>

    <p class="p1">
      象牙商贩：这个可以卖给你。
    </p>

    <p class="p2">
      Chris: 多少钱？
    </p>

    <p class="p2">
      象牙商贩：1万人民币。
    </p>

    <p class="p1">
      Chris: 这是从哪儿来的？
    </p>

    <p class="p1">
      象牙商贩：肯尼亚。
    </p>

    <p class="p1">
      Chris: 1万太贵了，能便宜点么？
    </p>

    <p class="p1">
      象牙商贩：这个在你们国家可能不值什么钱。你是从哪儿来的？肯尼亚还是尼日利亚？
    </p>

    <p class="p1">
      Chris:从肯尼亚来的。
    </p>

    <p class="p1">
      象牙商贩：真的么？那我们可以一起合伙做生意。象牙生意。我知道在肯尼亚我们可以找到很多象牙。看，这些都是我其他的肯尼亚朋友们。我经常去肯尼亚做买卖。也去尼日利亚。你能说中文，我们就可以合作得更好。给我一下你的联系方式&#8230;..
    </p>

    <p class="p1">
      上面的对话发生在昨天中国广州的一个市场里。这个商贩在得知我会说中文后开始对我感兴趣。他戴着一条“鱼跃龙门”的象牙项链，我后来得知这代表他希望变得富有。
    </p>

    <p class="p2">
      通过这次在市场的走访，我和我的同伴们学到了重要的一课。在中国，象牙并不是最昂贵的商品。我们看到一对翡翠手镯可以卖到160万人民币。翡翠的颜色决定了它的价值。据店主说，有一些产品价格很高，一比较，象牙制品的价格便宜得可笑。同时，我们也看到了一件猛犸象牙的大型雕刻品，标价高达600多万人民币。象牙制品也会卖出很高的价格。一个很好的例子就是 一个内有30层的象牙雕刻球可以卖到90万人民币。大多数贩卖象牙的商店在象牙制品的证件上都有一条信息说，“不要把象牙带出中国”。
    </p>

    <p class="p2">
      在这次的旅程中，和我们交流过的大多数人都坦诚表示，他们从没想过大象象牙被拔时发生的可怕事情。几乎所有听众在看到和听到大象的故事后都十分震惊。他们都很希望也承诺要为这一问题做一些事情。大家表达了很多想法。很多合作的机会也随之而来了。我希望大家可以一起为之努力。随着分享会的进行，会有更多人加入到我们中来。
    </p>

    <p class="p1">
      至于我和那个象牙商贩的对话，也许你会想知道我到底有没有给他我的号码。如果是你，你会怎么做呢？
    </p>

    <p class="p1">
      <p class="p1">
        <strong>英文原文：[In the market I took Chris and Resson to visit, an illegal Chinese ivory dealer approached Chris to do business together&#8230;]</strong>
      </p>

      <p class="p1">
        Chris Kiarie
      </p>

      <p class="p1">
        <p class="p1">
          A: Hello!
        </p>

        <p class="p1">
          B: Hello!
        </p>

        <p class="p1">
          A: Have a look!
        </p>

        <p class="p1">
          B: Ok, let me see
        </p>

        <p class="p1">
          A: I can sell this to you
        </p>

        <p class="p1">
          B: How much is it?
        </p>

        <p class="p1">
          A: This one costs 10,000RMB
        </p>

        <p class="p1">
          B: Where is it from?
        </p>

        <p class="p1">
          A: It comes from Kenya.
        </p>

        <p class="p1">
          B: 10,000 is too high. Give me a better price.
        </p>

        <p class="p1">
          A: Probably this product has no value in your country. Which country are you from? Are you from Kenya or Nigeria?
        </p>

        <p class="p1">
          A: I am from Kenya.
        </p>

        <p class="p1">
          B: Really? We can do some business.
        </p>

        <p class="p1">
          Ivory business. I know we can find a lot of ivory in Kenya. Have a look at my other Kenyan friends. I always come to Kenya to do business. I also go to Nigeria to do business. Because you speak Chinese, we can do even better Chinese. Let me have your number…
        </p>

        <p class="p1">
          The above is a conversation that happened yesterday at a market in Guangzhou China. The man in this case became interested in me after he realized that I can speak Chinese. He was wearing an ivory necklace which I was later informed that it shows that he has a wish to get very rich.
        </p>

        <p class="p1">
          During the visit, my colleagues and I learnt a very important lesson. Ivory is not the most expensive product in China. We saw Jade products that go to prices as much Ksh.140,000,000 for a pair of bangles. The color of the jade stone determines the price. According to the shop owners, there are products that are very expensive that they make ivory products prices appear like a joke. At the same time, we came across a mammoth product that goes for Ksh.560,000,000. Ivory products also go for high prices. A good example is an ivory ball with 30 layers within the same ball that goes for Ksh.80,000,000. Most of the shops that sell the ivory have pieces of paper with part of the message saying “Do not carry ivory out of China.”
        </p>

        <p class="p1">
          Most of the people we have spoken to during this tour are frank enough to say that they never had an idea what happens to elephants when the ivory is taken from them. Almost all of our listeners are shocked when they see and hear the stories of the elephants. They are eager and committed to do something. Plenty of ideas are been expressed. A lot of opportunities to work together have come up. I wish people will be willing to work together. More to follow as the experience continues.
        </p>

        <p class="p1">
          About the conversation between me and the ivory dealer, may be you are wondering whether I gave him my number. What would you have done?
        </p>