Jury Still Out on African Ivory Sales
10/6/99
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Title: Jury still out on African ivory sales
Source: Reuters
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: October 6, 1999
Six months after Namibia, Zimbabwe and Botswana held controversial
sales of ivory stocks, wildlife officials in the southern African
countries are hailing them as a success.
"We have no evidence of poaching that is attributable to the ivory
sale," Willas Makombe, the director of National Parks in Zimbabwe,
told Reuters.
The three countries say the April auctions, the first legal sales of
ivory in 10 years, raised money for wildlife conservation and poor
rural communities and did not lead to a new wave of poaching.
"We have certainly seen not seen an increase in poaching since the
sale," said Pauline Lindeque, a wildlife expert in Namibia's
Environment and Tourism Ministry.
But some conservation groups and other countries, notably Kenya,
maintain the resumption of the ivory trade has sparked poaching
outside the southern African region and poses a threat to the
continent's elephant populations.
Ivory ban a resounding success
Most wildlife specialists agree that the total ban on the sale and
trade of ivory, imposed by the Geneva-based Convention on
International Trade in Endangered Species in 1989, stemmed the
slaughter of Africa's elephants.
In the decade before the CITES ban, elephant numbers plummeted from
an estimated 1.3 million to around 600,000 as poachers sought the
tusks for the lucrative ivory trade.
Despite the success attributed to the ban and the subsequent
stabilization and even increase of elephant populations on many parts
of the continent, CITES this year allowed Namibia, Zimbabwe and
Botswana to hold one-time auctions of their existing stockpiles of
ivory.
All three have healthy elephant populations, with Namibia's numbering
close to 10,000 and Zimbabwe's 70,000. Botswana, a big, sparsely
populated country, has between 80,000 and 100,000 of the world's
largest land mammals, which can reach a weight of 13,000 pounds or
more.
CITES argued that as so-called "closed-loop auctions" the sales would
not lead to the resumption of a large scale trade in ivory. It also
said the money raised from the auctions would be used for
conservation projects and to help the rural poor, giving people in
the poverty-stricken African countryside a vested interest in
protecting elephants.
Wildlife officials and many environmentalists agree.
"If these resources are not managed in a way that benefits local
populations, why on earth would they support them?" asked Chris
Styles, a South African environmental consultant and authority on
elephant conservation.
Styles said the rampant poaching of elephants in the 1980s was
attributable partly to the failure of governments to spread the
revenues generated from ecotourism to local communities, giving them
little incentive not to kill elephants for profit or to prevent
others from doing so.
"If people see the long-term economic benefits in keeping animals
around, you will have gone a long way to solving your poaching
problem," he said.
"They (the auctions) were done to show you can use an asset to
benefit conservation," said Zimbabwe's Makombe.
Poaching seen on the rise elsewhere
But outside southern Africa there seems to be evidence the auctions
have sparked a fresh round of illegal elephant kills. Kenya, which
fiercely opposed the resumption of ivory auctions, 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 in 10 years. It said at least 23
elephants, including 10 bulls, had been killed.
"We hope it will not take the death of any more elephants for the
world to recognize the threat the ivory trade poses to our elephants
throughout their ranges," KWS said.
"The once-off legal sales from Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe will
once again create demand for the product and hence stimulate the
illegal trade," said Jason Bell, a Johannesburg-based activist with
the International Fund for Animal Welfare.
IFAW and some other conservation groups say the sales may also pose a
danger to Asia's elephant population.
CITES says the 50 tons that the three countries auctioned to Japanese
buyers - in each case for an undisclosed sum - have been marked and
are being carefully monitored, making it difficult for poachers to
launder "dirty" ivory on the market.