Southern African countries plan to step up their campaign to win international support for allowing some sales of raw ivory, despite a ban aimed at protecting endangered elephants, an official said on Tuesday.
Five of the 14 members of the Southern African Development Community want to sell about 80 tons of ivory, arguing that their elephant populations are so large that they are causing environmental damage and destroying vegetation other animals need to survive.
”We have reached a consensus at the SADC head of states summit to support the members states and what we need to do now is talk to countries outside the region — especially those who are opposed to the proposal,” SADC executive secretary Preg Ramsamy told a press conference.
The move is opposed by countries like Kenya, which have yet to recover from massive poaching in the 1960s and 1970s. The Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species (Cites) has given elephants the highest level of protection and stopped commercial trade in ivory.
Southern Africa, excluding Angola, is home to nearly 40% of the elephants on the continent, with about
242 000 of the giant animals living in an area of 1,2-million square kilometres.
Elephants need enormous spaces to live in. Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe argue that some game parks have too many elephants, leading to environmental degradation. Cites is due to consider the proposed sale at its November 3-15 summit in Santiago, Chile.
South Africa wants to sell 30 tons, Botswana 20 tons, Zambia 17 tons, and Zimbabwe and Namibia 10 tons each.
Ramsamy urged member countries to ”intensify their law enforcement and wildlife management,” to ward off criticism from countries opposed to ivory sales.
Botswanan Tourism Minister Pelonomi Venson was in Brussels at the weekend to drum up support for the proposed sale. Botswana and Nambia won permission from Cites in 1999 to sell 60 tons of their ivory stockpiles, mainly to Japan. – Sapa-AFP