Posted on 22 March
2010
Doha, Qatar – Requests from Zambia and Tanzania
to hold one-off sales of their ivory stockpiles
failed during a United Nations species trade
meeting today that comes during a worldwide
poaching crisis.
Governments participating
in the United Nation’s Convention on the
International Trade of Endangered Species
of Fauna and Flora (CITES) rejected proposals
by Tanzania and Zambia to relax trade restrictions
on their elephant populations by moving
them from Appendix I – the highest level
of protection under the Convention banning
all international commercial trade – to
Appendix II.
The two countries had
also initially, asked in addition to their
downlisting requests, that they be able
to hold a one-off sale of their ivory stockpiles.
No commercial ivory
sale is permitted if their elephants remain
in Appendix I, but are possible with the
Appendix II listing, which allows some regulated
international commercial trade.
But neither country
was given permission to sell their ivory
at this stage or relax trade controls on
their elephant populations. The decisions
come amid a poaching crisis destroying elephant
populations in Asia and Africa.
Governments rejected
Tanzania’s downlisting and ivory sales request.
They also voted against Zambia’s request
to move their elephant populations off Appendix
I – a decision which came despite an amendment
by Zambia to remove the request for a one-off
sale of their ivory stockpiles from their
original proposal.
“While the issue of
whether sales should be allowed to proceed
or not has dominated much of the discussions
here in Qatar, WWF and TRAFFIC believe the
key driving force behind the ongoing elephant
poaching is the continued existence of illegal
domestic ivory markets across parts of Africa
and Asia,” said Steven Broad, Executive
Director of TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade
monitoring network of WWF and International
Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
The Elephant Trade Information
System (ETIS) also was formally presented
to delegates at the meeting.
The report found that
the illicit trade in ivory, which has been
increasing in volume since 2004, moved sharply
upward in 2009 and there continues to be
a highly significant correlation between
large-scale domestic ivory markets in Asia
and Africa and poor law enforcement, suggesting
that illicit ivory trade flows typically
follow a path to destinations where law
enforcement is weak and markets function
with little regulatory impediment.
“Poaching and illegal
ivory markets in central and western Africa
must be effectively suppressed before any
further ivory sales take place,” said Elisabeth
McLellan, Species Programme Manager, WWF
International.
ETIS, one of the two
monitoring systems for elephants under CITES
(the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora)
but managed by TRAFFIC, comprises the world’s
largest collection of elephant product seizure
records. The latest analysis was based upon
14,364 elephant product seizure records
from 85 countries or territories since 1989.
In the middle of a poaching
crisis
According to new data
released today from park rangers and WWF
field staff on the ground in Cameroon, for
example, there has recently been an increase
in poaching and use of high-calibre weapons.
In February, two unarmed
game guards and 14 elephants were gunned
down in Bouba Ndjidda National Park in northern
Cameroon. During the past few months at
least 40 elephants in and around protected
areas were killed for their ivory and it
is estimated that about 400 elephants have
been killed within the last four years in
three national parks in Cameroon alone.
The grim situation in
Central Africa will not be addressed until
domestic markets in that region are brought
under control, WWF said. The sight of ivory
openly on sale in many cities of Central
and Western Africa sends a potent signal
to poachers, smugglers and consumers that
it is legal to buy and sell unregulated
ivory.
Monday’s decisions follow
the release last week of a new analysis
of elephant trade data showing that coordinated
enforcement in Central and West Africa and
South-east Asia is crucial to addressing
the illicit ivory trade.
Detailed regional summaries
of the data held in the Elephant Trade Information
System (ETIS), the world’s largest database
on ivory seizures, highlighted the failure
of law enforcement in key elephant range
states facing an increasing threat from
organised crime and the presence of unregulated
markets.
ETIS is compiled by
TRAFFIC on behalf of CITES, and comprises
more than 15,400 ivory seizure cases compiled
over the last 21 years.
The re-analysis of the
data was made by region rather than by country,
and was carried out to align the data with
another CITES-tool used to monitor poaching,
which also shows that the Central African
region is losing the most elephants.
