South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe are pushing to establish a process for an international trade in ivory – demanding minimal regulation of trade with limited safeguards for the continent’s beleaguered elephants.
The proposal will be submitted at the 17th Conference of the Parties (CoP17) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) to be held in from September to October in Johannesburg.
In contrast, the coalition of 29 African countries, a body representing more than 70% of the 37 African elephant range states, will present a comprehensive suite of five proposals at CoP17 in an effort to afford elephants the highest protection under international law.
At a meeting in Montreux, Switzerland, from June 24 to 26, the 29 concerned African countries, united as the African Elephant Coalition (AEC), issued a manifesto asking the rest of Africa, and the world, to join them in saving Africa’s elephants.
Bourama Niagaté, a member of the Council of the Elders for the Coalition from Mali says: “Our message in the Montreux Manifesto is clear. We need to all pull together for the sake of Africa’s elephants.”
Among other things, the AEC countries are proposing that all African elephant populations and their range states fall under the Cites Appendix I listing, which effectively bans any commercial trade in elephant products.
About half the continental population was lost in the decade before the Appendix I listing in 1989, and a dramatic spike occurred again after a “one-off” ivory sale in 2008 to China and Japan.
The sale was the second since Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe were granted a special Appendix II listing in 1997 followed by South Africa in 2000; the first “one-off” sale took place in 1999 before monitoring systems had been established.
Vera Weber, president of the Swiss-based Fondation Franz Weber, a partner organisation of the AEC, which facilitated the meeting, points out that: “Cites saved African elephants from certain extinction 27 years ago by listing them on Appendix I.
“It ended the poaching crisis and elephant populations began to recover, until their protection under Cites was weakened, causing poaching to escalate again.”
A recent report published by the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Massachusetts, reveals there has been a 71% increase in illegal ivory smuggling out of Africa since 2008.
The “one-time legal sale of ivory stocks in 2008 was designed as an experiment”, the report says, adding that its global impact had not been properly evaluated beforehand and concludes:
“We find that international announcement of the legal ivory sale in 2008 corresponds with an abrupt increase in illegal ivory production.”
“The one-off sales were opposed by most African nations,” says Patrick Ormondi, co-chair of the AEC. “It was granted. It hasn’t worked. So now we have an opportunity to do it the other way round.”
Even southern Africa, the long-viewed bastion of African elephants, is witnessing a steady rise in poaching with notable hot spots in northern Zimbabwe, and the surrounding area of Namibia’s Zambezi Region that includes southern Zambia and south-eastern Angola.
These countries are now facing a renewed threat from criminal syndicates.
South Africa has also seen an exponential increase in elephant poaching, especially in the Kruger Park. Until 2014 there had not been a single poaching incident for a decade.
In that year there were suddenly two poaching-related deaths.
This increased to 22 elephants last year. Already this year, according to Kruger’s chief ranger, Nicholus Funda, “the numbers have been steadily increasing”.
Yet, despite the overwhelming evidence supporting a total ban with an Appendix I listing, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia will be submitting their counter-proposals for deliberation at CoP17 effectively calling on the Cites Standing Committee to permit unrestricted commercial exports of ivory.
“A divided message will spell doom for Africa’s elephants,” warns Patricia Awori, the Secretariat of the AEC, who “longs for a time when all Africans unite to save its elephant heritage for future posterity”.
Awori fears the opposing proposals submitted by South Africa and its near-neighbours in Johannesburg in September could block an uplisting of African elephants, and open the door for more disastrous one-off sales.
“For too long the Southern African tail has been wagging the African dog,” says Dr Keith Lindsay, a technical expert for the AEC. “It’s time to restore the natural order.”
“Ours is a clear and simple message,” says Awori. “A vote for Appendix I is a vote for Africa’s elephants.”
Conservation Action Trust
* Adam Cruise is a published travel writer, photographer, adventurer and student in philosophy specialising in environmental ethics