SA to sell 50 tons of stockpiled ivory
South Africa will sell 51 tons of stockpiled ivory on November 6 in a one-off sale to China and Japan, the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism said on Wednesday.
Chief executive of South African National Parks (SANParks) David Mabunda said the stockpile consisted of ivory that was verified by the secretariat of the United Nations-backed Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) as being of legal origin with data to back the origins.
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“The ivory emanates from SANParks, Mpumalanga Parks and Tourism Agency, North West Parks and Tourism Board and KwaZulu-Natal Wildlife,” said Mabunda.
He said the ivory was obtained from culling, mortalities and breakages.
About 45% of the ivory was obtained before 1994 when culling was still practised in the Kruger National Park.
The rest of the ivory collected—from 1995 to 2006—was from mortalities and breakages.
South Africa is part of four Southern African countries that are to sell an estimated 108 tons of elephant ivory to China and Japan in two weeks.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw), in the meantime, expressed its dissatisfaction with the auctions.
Ifaw said it would be the first time in nearly ten years that international trade in elephant ivory was sanctioned by Cites.
Michael Wamithi, programme director for Ifaw’s global elephants programme, said even though the ivory was not obtained through illegal poaching activities, the legal sales only encouraged poachers to launder their illegal stocks.
Botswana will sell 44 tons, Namibia nine tons and Zimbabwe four tons.
Wamithi said the stockpiled ivory came from more than 10 000 elephants.
He said Ifaw has no doubt that flooding the market with over 100 tons of ivory would put the endangered species in even further jeopardy.
The first of the ivory stockpile sales will be held in Windhoek on October 28, followed by Gaborone on October 31, Zimbabwe on November 3 and Skukuza on November 6.—Sapa
