CITES Seen Approving S. African Ivory Sale
11/22/99
*******************************
RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: CITES seen approving S. African ivory sale
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 22, 1999
Byline: Ed Stoddard
South Africa's bid to sell ivory is likely to be approved by the
Convention on Trade in Endangered Species even though the jury is
still out on the impact from previous sales.
South Africa is seeking permission from a CITES conference in Kenya's
capital Nairobi in April to hold an auction of about 28 tons of
elephant tusks from Kruger National Park.
The request follows similar experimental auctions last April by its
neighbors Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe. Proceeds from those sales
are being channeled into conservation and rural poverty alleviation
projects.
``South Africa must justify its proposal and show why it wants to do
this and show how the money will be spent. If it is well documented
and is in line with the previous sales, it will likely be approved,''
a CITES official in Geneva told Reuters.
South Africa's application will be rigorously examined by a CITES
team that will visit the country.
South Africa has one of the best track records with regard to
conservation and anti-poaching programs on the African continent, a
fact that boosts its prospects for approval. It also says the money
raised will be used for badly needed conservation projects including
the creation of new reserve land to relocate elephants from the
Kruger National Park.
The elephant population of the renowned Israel-sized park is over
9,000 while its ideal population is about 7,000. ``There is just not
enough space (in Kruger) for the current numbers,'' said Didi Moyle,
a special adviser to the Ministry of Environmental Affairs and
Tourism.
Impact of previous sales unknown
But environmentalists and animal rights groups say a new supply of
ivory on the market will be a red rag for poachers who will attempt
to launder dirty goods with the legal stuff.
``Until poaching has been eliminated any increase in (the ivory)
trade must be viewed in the context of its potential impact on
elephants continent-wide,'' the International Fund for Animal Welfare
said in a statement. Other environmentalists say CITES should move
cautiously as assessments of the impact of the previous sales have
not yet been scrutinized.
CITES says it has been receiving reports on the situation. But two
CITES-sponsored monitoring systems - the Elephant Trade Information
System and the System for Monitoring the Killing of Elephants (MIKE)
- have not yet submitted reports on the impact of the Namibian,
Botswanan and Zimbabwean sales.MIKE, which will monitor 45 sites in
Africa and 15 in Asia, is still being set up, which means it is
doubtful that it will submit a report soon.
Kenya, which opposed the resumption of the trade, says poaching may
be on the rise as a result. In late July, the Kenya Wildlife Service
said it had seized 770 pounds of ivory, its largest haul since a
total ban on the sale and trade in ivory products was imposed a
decade ago.
The ban is widely credited with ending a slaughter that saw Africa's
elephant population fall from an estimated 1.3 million to around
600,000 in the 1980s.
The South African proposal would mean ``downlisting'' -moving its
elephant population from appendix I on CITES' species list, which
bans all trade in an animal or its parts, to appendix II, which
allows limited trade.Some argue that is the whole point of the
listings. ``CITES is a tool for identifying threatened species ...
the goal should be to encourage conservation of animals,'' said Rob
Little, Director of Conservation at the World Wide Fund for Nature
(WWF) in South Africa.
``Downlisting should not be regarded as a bad thing provided all the
proper mechanisms are in place. It should be regarded as an
acknowledgment of achievement.''