South Africa has come under pressure to abort its plan to sell ivory stockpiles after seven African states this week called for the proposed sales to be halted.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw) said in a statement on Wednesday that Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Mali, Cameroon, Tunisia and Ghana were concerned that conditions under which the ivory should be sold had not been met.
These countries said that until the conditions were met, no sales should be allowed to take place. The decision was taken at a meeting in Nairobi this week.
Ifaw applauded the group’s decision to oppose the sales.
”We’re encouraged by the very important stand taken by these African countries against the sale of ivory stockpiles by South Africa, Namibia and Botswana,” said Jason Bell-Leask, Ifaw’s Southern Africa Director.
A decision to provisionally allow the three countries a one-off sale of their stockpiles — a combined total of 60 tons — was taken in November 2002, at a Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites).
According to the resolution, provided a series of criteria was met, the sales could go ahead from May 2004.
Next week a Cites standing committee will meet in Geneva, Switzerland, to decide if the actual sales may go ahead.
The decision will be based on a series of criteria, including verification that only registered government stocks originating from exporting countries should be sold, that any ivory seized or of unknown origin should not be traded, and that the proceeds of the 60 tons of ivory should be used exclusively for elephant conservation, community conservation and development programmes within or adjacent to the African elephant range.
”One key condition to allow the sales to take place is that a system to monitor illegal killing of elephants has not been successfully implemented. Ifaw firmly believes this system is not properly in place and so do the seven African countries that have taken a stand against the sales,” Bell-Leask said.
”Africa’s elephants are in no way safe from poachers as the continued seizures of illegal ivory across the globe indicate.
Despite trade in ivory being illegal, there is a thriving black market most particularly in Japan and China.
”The moment a legal trade in ivory of any sort is opened, it only encourages the growth of an already voracious legal market,’ he said.
He said financial constraints and the volatile political climate of many countries meant that it was impossible for conservationists to safeguard populations of rare and endangered species.
”So, while South African elephants thrive mostly in safety, the same is not true of the rest of Africa. That is why the decision by these countries to stand together against any stockpile sales should be considered so important.
”Without defining stringent conditions for trade and verifying that these conditions are met by both the export and import countries, no ivory trade should be allowed to proceed,” said Ifaw’s Programme Manager on Wildlife Trade/Habitat Protection Grace Gabriel.
Numbers of the African elephant had plummeted from 1,3-million in the early 1970s to an estimated 600 000 in 1989 — due to severe poaching.
Current statistics indicate that African elephants number about 400 000 and Asian elephants number 35 000 to 50 000.
The South African Environmental Affairs and Tourism department’s spokesperson was not available for comment on Thursday morning. – Sapa