Fiona Macleod
While limited legal trade in ivory was given the go-ahead this week, a report released by South Africa’s Endangered Species Protection Unit (ESPU) shows that the protection of endangered species in sub-Saharan Africa is in a dismal state.
The report is based on an intensive six-month surveillance of 11 countries undertaken by ESPU officers. It shows that international treaties aimed at saving endangered species, including elephants, have little impact on the ground.
Most of the countries lack the will and the resources to enforce international agreements, it says. In some countries, conservation authorities are not even kept informed about changes in international legislation.
The ESPU, a division of the South African Police Service, has become Africa’s top wildlife law-enforcement agency since it was set up 10 years ago. Its report is the outcome of a training and reconnaissance exercise codenamed Project Jumbo.
Squabbling among NGOs about whether the ban on the legal ivory trade should be lifted nearly scuppered the release of the report. But on Monday Gwen Mahlangu, chair of the parliamentary portfolio committee on environmental affairs, ordered the release of the report.
On the same day, a standing committee of the Convention on International Trade in Species (Cites) met in Switzerland to decide whether a controversial 1997 ruling on the limited resumption of legal trade should get the go- ahead.
On Wednesday the Cites committee ruled in favour of allowing Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe to sell their official stockpiles of ivory to Japan.
Namibia and Botswana will each be able to sell one stockpile, while Namibia will be able to sell two. The stockpiles range in size from 12 to 20 tons.
The Cites committee maintains Namibia, Botswana and Japan have implemented safeguards to prevent poaching of elephants as a result of the ruling. Botswana is expected also to be cleared soon.
Cites says the money raised by selling these stockpiles will be invested in elephant conservation and community development.
The ESPU report points out that such funds are desperately needed by the law-enforcement agencies tasked with executing Cites decisions: “The point is that if Cites makes recommendations, these have to be enforced by a person on the ground who in most cases does not exist, or it is done in a fragmented level.
“In South Africa the law-enforcement agencies are not involved in presentations to Cites, yet they are forced to implement fragmented laws, whether feasible or not.”
The ESPU does not take a stand on whether the ban should be lifted, but highlights the practical repercussions: “Cites unfortunately must rely on the member countries to enforce its regulations. In most countries this does not happen.
“From a criminological perspective it is of great concern that Cites recommendations have little impact on ground level, as people still trade illegally in a lucrative and seemingly expanding market.”
Project Jumbo indicated that Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe have relatively strict controls to prevent poaching and illegal trafficking, but they share borders with countries which don’t – and many of these borders are unfenced, enabling animals to move between countries.
Soon after Cites announced in 1997 that it thought the limited resumption of legal ivory trade would be a good idea, there was an increase in poaching and more ivory was available on the black market. But there is no evidence in the ESPU report that this is an ongoing trend.
In Zambia, where ivory smuggling is rife and often supported by officialdom, poaching increased in some reserves after the 1997 decision. But statistics also show that in the past year the number of elephants in some reserves has grown.
The ESPU’s chief concern is that even in the seemingly more organised countries, there simply aren’t the funds or resources to enforce anti-poaching measures.
For instance, “Zimbabwean customs are limping due to inadequate equipment such as computer systems, especially when taking into account that one of the busiest trade routes leads through Zimbabwe to South Africa.
`During 1998 Operation Padarani, which means `pay’, was launched by customs to upgrade the effectiveness of the customs department. Unfortunately, the customs officials are not very interested in wildlife products, and the name of this operation is an indication that the import and export of goods for trade, with the aim to earn revenue, were the main concerns of this operation.”
The ESPU calls for more support for the Lusaka agreement, a co-operative enforcement agreement adopted in September 1994. So far it has eight sub-Saharan signatories; Mozambique, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe have yet to sign.
It also recommends Cites extend its interest beyond legislation and monitoring of trends, and become actively involved in facilitating law enforcement