MONDAY, 1.30PM
THE 10th annual conference of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (Cites) kicks off in Harare on Monday, with the call by Botswana, Zimbabwe and Namibia for a limited resumption in the international ivory trade expected to dominate proceedings.
For the next 10 days, representatives from 136 member states will attempt to resolve ways of checking the international trade in mammals, reptiles, birds, fish, insects and plants that threatens their continued existence because of demand for them as food, medicines, ornaments and pets.
The proposal by Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe, which between them are home to a combined total of 150 000 elephants, will be the third successive occasion they have tabled the demand for a resumption in the ivory trade.
The three Southern African countries, backed by the SA government, argue that the ecology of their elephant habitat is being compromised by too many elephants. They also argue that proceeds from ivory auctions and big game hunting will fund conservation programmes directly.
Critics, however, led by the United States and major Western governments, and backed by international animal welfare groups, including Greenpeace, claim that a relaxation on the ivory trade ban will lead to a resumtion in poaching that decimated populations in East and West Africa.
Zimbabwe, Namibia and Botswana have called for a secret vote on renewing the trade in elephant ivory, saying that some sympathetic African nations will have difficulty voting in the face of sustained opposition from the US.
Controversy is also expected around a proposal by Norway and Japan that hunting of three species of whales be excluded from the world moratorium on whaling.
Cites currently bans trade in 800 species because they are on the brink of extinction, and imposes strict limits on exports and imports on another 2 500 because it believes uncontrolled trade will jeopardise their chances of survival.