Kenya is leading the push for a total ban on ivory trading at a meeting of signatory nations to the UN Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES).
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A Kenya Wildlife Services (KWS) ranger stands guard around illegal stockpiles of burning elephant tusks, ivory figurines and rhinoceros horns.
Although an worldwide ban on the ivory trade was established in 1989, in 2008, the Convention on global Trade in Endangered Species allowed China a one-time trade ivory from four southern African countries, which at the time had large elephant populations.
A coalition of 29 African countries have proposed a complete end of the ivory trade.
According to Kenya’s Wildlife Service, the years 2011 to 2013 witnessed the highest levels of poaching since it intensified in the 1980s.
The Great Elephant Census revealed how staggering the decline in the elephant population across African savannahs has been: in just seven years, there has been a 30 percent drop. In that sale, ivory from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe went to China and Japan. Some nations, like the United States, also effectively ban domestic ivory sales.
Botswana, home to the world’s largest elephant population, will break ranks with its southern African neighbours and not support bids at the next United Nations conference to allow sales of ivory, its president says.
Earlier this month, the World Conservation Congress of the International Union for Conservation of Nature took a momentous step by calling on all governments to ban the domestic trade in ivory.
South Africa has about 27,000 elephants; Zimbabwe has 82,000; and Namibia has 20,000 or more.
“If you look at the communities that are bearing the brunt of living with these animals, their ecological systems are degraded and they lose food security and grazing lands”, she said.
Speaking on behalf of the wildlife charity and event sponsor, Tusk, William shared polarizing statistics on the number of African elephants that have been slaughtered since 1982. Its proposal says elephant populations exceeding 0.5 per km have a detrimental impact on woodlands and other species.
However, scientists say the damage done by elephants is being exaggerated and that they are crucial for healthy ecosystems because their dung disperses seeds and fertilisers and they create habitats for smaller creatures through foraging.
Since culling was stopped at Kruger in 1994, the elephant population has grown from about 8,000 to 17,000 – and other animals have not suffered, he said. This in turn has boosted the populations of predators such as lions. Muchinguri-Kashiri’s insistence that “the counter proposals essentially infringe upon Zimbabwe’s sovereign right to make decisions over its wildlife resources [.] without interference” rings particularly hollow given this dire threat to elephants in other countries on the continent. It says people have been killed by then, often when subsistence farmers come across the animals in their fields.
Zimbabwe’s Minister of Environment, Water and Climate, Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri, and Namibia’s Minister of Environment and Tourism, Pohamba Shifeta, have published details about their respective governments’ positions which deserve critical analysis.
South Africa supports Namibian and Zimbabwean proposals for worldwide ivory sales, said Edna Molewa, the country’s environment minister.
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“But it’s rather short-sighted and a bit selfish for them to request to sell their ivory, knowing full well that it will further stimulate poaching and trafficking from other populations. The global community needs to see this as an Africa-wide issue”.
