Africa, Asia-Pacific, Environment, Headlines

SOUTHERN AFRICA: No Ivory Sales Now Doesn’t Mean None Later

Moyiga Nduru

JOHANNESBURG, Oct 21 2006 (IPS) - Concern about ivory sales in Southern Africa is persisting among environmental groups – this after the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) granted Japan stockpile buyer status earlier this month.

The move came despite CITES’ decision to turn down a request by Japan and China for a one-off purchase of 60 tonnes of ivory stockpiled in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. The CITES secretariat – located in Geneva, Switzerland – is administered by the Nairobi-based United Nations Environment Programme.

“We are extremely concerned by CITES giving Japan their blessing,” Jason Bell-Leask, Southern African director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), told IPS. “It’s difficult to distinguish between illegal and legal ivory in Japan…We do not believe that Japan has done enough to prevent the (illegal) trade in ivory.”

Instead, he would like to see ivory stockpiles put beyond the reach of all potential buyers.

“The stockpiles should be destroyed…They should have no commercial value. It encourages poaching,” Bell-Leask noted, calling on Southern Africa to follow the example set by former Kenyan president Daniel arap Moi in the 1990s.

“President Moi burned them (stockpiles), and it has reduced poaching and increased the number of tourists to Kenya.”

Fears about putting more ivory on the market stem reflect the consequences of a 1997 decision by CITES to allow a sale of ivory stockpiles from Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe. Since then, 13,333 tusks, a figure representing just the tip of the iceberg, have been seized, notes IFAW.

“The previous one-off sale to Japan has spun the ivory markets in Asia out of control,” Grace Ge Gabriel, IFAW Regional Director for Asia, said in a statement earlier this month. “With over 17 tonnes of ivory under investigation, all of which was confiscated in Asian ports in the past year, it is ludicrous to even contemplate allowing another sale to any country.”

Noted Lawrence Anthony, founder of the Earth Organisation, a non-profit based in South Africa: “In the Far East, there’s a huge market for ivory; there are thousands of businesses that make a living out of ivory. They are not going to close shop so soon – they will try to stay in the business.”

Many of these businesses produce ivory artefacts such as carvings, jewellery and name seals.

“There is too much illegal ivory in the market. Just look at the Congo where thousands of elephants have been killed in the past decade alone,” Anthony added, in reference to the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). “Ivory is a source of funding for all dubious groups, which may be politicians or military.”

An expert on African elephants, Anthony is also well-known for saving lions and a blind bear from the Baghdad zoo soon after the invasion of Iraq in 2003. He has just concluded a deal with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), a Ugandan rebel group, to save four northern white rhinos and other key endangered species under their control.

The rhinos are in neighbouring DRC’s Garamba National Park, which is occupied by the LRA. The number of rhino – whose horns are also in great demand in the Far and Middle East – has dwindled from more than 30 in 2004, according to the Earth Organisation. The population was decimated by armed groups roaming the DRC’s lawless east.

Rhino horns are used in China for traditional medicine to reduce fever, and in the Middle East for dagger handles.

Inasmuch as certain parties in Africa fear ivory sales, others are less decided on this issue.

However, a failure to resolve the matter satisfactorily bodes ill for Southern Africa – and the rest of the continent.

“Southern Africa accounts for 70 percent of Africa’s total elephant population. Africa has an estimated 450,000 elephants. Prior to the 1980s the population was one million. They were killed by poachers for their tusks,” said Bell-Leask.