27/06/2005 – Eight months
after African countries announced a continent-wide
action plan to crack down on their domestic
ivory markets – the single most important
factor in the international ivory trade –
unregulated markets continue trading ivory
openly throughout Africa, according to new
surveys by TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring
network.
TRAFFIC and WWF hope that members of the
Standing Committee of the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna
and Flora (CITES), meeting in Geneva, today,
will give a major boost to African elephant
conservation by strengthening the action plan
agreed by parties to CITES during their most
recent meeting held in Bangkok last October.
The tusks of between 4,000-12,000 elephants
are needed to meet the annual production needs
of local ivory carvers in Africa each year,
and virtually all of this ivory is from illegal,
unsustainable sources.
The CITES action plan calls on all African
Elephant range States to either strictly control
the trade from carvers and manufacturers through
retailers to end-use consumers, or shut the
trade down altogether.
Egypt, which has no elephants in the wild,
has harboured one of Africa’s largest domestic
ivory markets in the past. Though less thriving
than seven years ago, it still poses a major
threat to effective elephant conservation
efforts.
A newly released report by TRAFFIC, No Oasis:
Egyptian ivory trade in 2005, documents the
availability of more than 10,000 worked ivory
products in three Egyptian cities in March-April
2005. While this is half the level documented
in 1998, the trade still represents the equivalent
of between 310 and 875 elephants.
Egypt is not an African Elephant Range State
and so is not targeted under the CITES action
plan. However TRAFFIC and WWF urge the CITES
Standing Committee to add Egypt to the list
of countries under review.
“The government of Egypt is certainly making
progress on its own, but accountability to
the CITES oversight process will mark an important
step in speeding things along,” said Tom Milliken,
Director of TRAFFIC’s programme in Africa.
“Law enforcement data from Egypt also indicates
that over 80 per cent of the raw and worked
ivory seized from 2000 onwards has originated
from Sudan, a country where, earlier this
year, the domestic ivory trade was reported
to be on the increase.”
TRAFFIC and WWF are also calling for a suspension
of all wildlife trade in CITES-listed species
to or from Mozambique if it does not take
steps to effectively control its ivory markets.
TRAFFIC researchers documented more than 500
ivory products for sale in the duty-free departure
lounge of Maputo’s international airport earlier
this month. This traffic is in flagrant violation
of CITES, and the Mozambican authorities have
failed to act in the past.
“Mozambique has ignored numerous opportunities
to stop this violation of CITES, but continues
to allow illegal ivory trade with impunity,"
said said Milliken. "It’s time to take
decisive action and send a real message."
The TRAFFIC survey in Ethiopia earlier this
spring found a major reduction in the scale
of the country’s ivory trade with only five
of 82 shops surveyed selling a total of 78
ivory products.
This is remarkable as Ethiopia has been one
of Africa's biggest unregulated ivory markets.
Earlier last year TRAFFIC found over 3,500
ivory products on sale in the country.
“Ethiopia deserves to be commended for undertaking
a range of actions, including enhanced law
enforcement both at border points and within
the marketplace and improved reporting to
and participation in ETIS, the Elephant Trade
Information System,” Milliken said.
“Concerted effort since early 2004 to crack
down on the domestic ivory trade demonstrates
how relatively small investment in capacity-building
can help to leverage a significant enforcement
effort," said Dr. Peter J. Stephenson
of the WWF African Elephant Programme.
"Ethiopia’s coordinated action serves
as an excellent example for other countries
to follow."
TRAFFIC and WWF are willing to provide similar
help to other states who need support in building
their capacity to implement the CITES action
plan and to close down illegal domestic ivory
markets.
NOTES:
• The Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
(CITES) regulates international trade in more
than 30,000 species of wild animals and plants.
The Convention is currently applied in 167
nations, including all the African Elephant
range States except Angola.
• TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring
network – a joint programme of WWF and IUCN–The
World Conservation Union – works to ensure
that trade in wild plants and animals is not
a threat to the conservation of nature.
