A proposal that could curb the illegal trade in perlemoen has fallen between two stools, with neither the Department of Environmental Affairs and Tourism nor its fisheries arm able to explain why the process has ground to a halt.
A memorandum that recommended a Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) listing of perlemoen was produced by the environmental affairs department’s fisheries arm, Marine and Coastal Management (MCM), more than a year ago, said MCM head Horst Kleinschmidt.
But Pieter Botha, deputy director of the department’s trade and regulations section, said: ”I saw a memorandum months ago, but as far as I know it has not yet been submitted by MCM for Minister [of Environmental Affairs and Tourism Mohammed] Valli Moosa’s signature.”
Kleinschmidt, asked for comment, said: ”If all that is required is the minister’s signature, I shall make sure that it is submitted to him immediately.”
A Cites Appendix III listing would require member countries to ensure that all South African perlemoen imported to their countries would have a valid Cites permit, and an export permit.
The valuable marine snail has been poached to the verge of extinction in its Western Cape habitat. About five times more than the legal catch of 430 tons reached Hong Kong last year, and the state spends huge sums on fighting a ”perlemoen war” in which gangsters and drug lords are involved.
International agreements to stop illegal fishing are usually very effective. This week in Cape Town MCM impounded R21-million worth of Patagonian toothfish, listed under the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, to which South Africa is a signatory.
MCM’s perlemoen experts have been working closely with Traffic, an international body that monitors illegal trade in endangered wild animals and plants. Cape Town representative Marcus Burgener told the Mail & Guardian that Traffic was ”extremely concerned about the illegal harvesting of perlemoen and the effect that this is having on the species.
”However, like many others, Traffic is concerned that the poaching problem cannot solely be addressed through redistribution of quotas and traditional command and control mechanisms. Trade-related mechanisms, which require key importing states to assist in controlling trade, should also be used as a regulatory tool,” he said. The MCM memorandum agreed.
”One such avenue is to regulate the legal international trade in this commodity,” it said. ”Cites provides a mechanism for countries to achieve this. It makes provision for a member country to list a species in Appendix III of the convention if international assistance is required to control illegal trade of the species.”
Requirements for listing by Cites are that the species should be native to the country and that national regulations are adequate to control the trade and conserve the species. However, the member country applying for listing should need the assistance of the international community in controlling international illegal trade in the species.
”At present, there is no obligation on importing countries to ensure that South African abalone has been legally harvested. Poached abalone is seen as a legitimate product.
”The benefit achieved is that if abalone are imported to a country, only ‘official’ abalone will have a Cites permit. Therefore any South African abalone imported without a permit would be illegal. As Cites is active in the importing countries, they would be able to act against such imports,” said the MCM memorandum.
Moreover a Cites listing would put a stop to the laundering of poached perlemoen by road and by air through Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries as a result of the SADC customs agreement, said the memorandum. In the past year three light aircraft ferrying poached perlemoen to Mozambique and Zimbabwe have crashed before crossing the South African border.