TUESDAY, 4.00PM
SOUTHERN African nations calling for a lifting of the ban on the ivory trade at the summit of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in Harare have tabled a last-minute compromise proposal in which Western donors will buy out all national ivory stockpiles to fund elephant conservation in Africa.
South African Deputy Environment Affairs and Tourism Minister Peter Mokaba said in Harare the proposal intends to “establish a new form of highly regulated trade for a limited period of time under strict international supervision.”
In terms of the proposal, elephant populations in all “range states” (where elephant occur in the wild) would be removed from Cites’s Appendix One of “critically endangered” species, to Appendix Two, which allows closely monitored trade in animal products. The plan then proposes Western donor agencies buy out all national ivory stockpiles from countries unwilling to trade in ivory. The cash thus raised would be placed in an international trust fund to finance elephant conservation programmes in Africa. The proposal also includes a commitment by Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe to an 18-month moratorium on ivory exports.
The Cites summit votes on the ivory issue on Tuesday. The compromise proposal is being viewed as a major climdown by Southern African countries seeking to reopen the ivory trade.
TUESDAY, 8.00AM
AFRICAN “range” states with large elephant populations are close to consensus on the Zimbabwe-Botswana proposal to reopen the trade in ivory. The critical vote on ivory is due today, and the African states are calling for the re-opening of the trade to approved buyers.
South African deputy Environmental Affairs minister Peter Mokaba has been a key player in negotiations, and said that “African countries are eager to act on the issues as a family”. Mokaba said the African states would request a secret ballot on the issue, as some had been threatened with the withdrawal of aid by western nations and by “wealthy animal rights groups”.
The SADC grouping of Southern African states issued a statement saying that there was broad appreciation that some southern African states have demonstrated significant achievements in conserving their elephant herds.
Zimbabwe ysterday denied a report in the government owned Herald newspaper that it would “go it alone” on the ivory trade — but did repeat that the country reserved the right to trade outside the convention.