Poaching of African elephant at critical levels: Interview with Shelley Waterland, Programmes Manager, Born Free Foundation
Tanzania and Zambia will ask fellow parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora to approve this week at their meeeting in Doha Qatar 13-25 March, “one off sales” of ivory stockpiled in the two southern African countries. The move is opposed by countries of the African Elephant Coalition, the EU and many conservationists. Shelley Waterland, Programmes Manager of the UK-based wildlife conservation organisation, the Born Free Foundation, answers our questions about what it means for elephant conservation in the African continent.
The Courier - Is the current international moratorium working given that poaching continues?
In 1989, an international ban on ivory trade was implemented by CITES following a decade of uncontrolled elephant slaughter which reduced the population of Africa’s elephants from 1.3 million to just 600,000.The ban was successful - elephant poaching was significantly reduced and prices of ivory on the black-market slumped. Unfortunately, since that time, there have been repeated attempts by a number of countries to chip away at it. Elephant populations in four southern African countries (Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa and Namibia) have been downlisted to CITES Appendix II, thereby enabling them to trade in ivory should such trade be approved by the CITES Parties. In addition, two experimental “one-off sales” of ivory have been authorised. In 1999, almost 50 tonnes of ivory was shipped from southern Africa to Japan and in 2009, 105 tonnes of ivory was shipped from southern Africa to Japan and China. In addition, Zimbabwe is entitled to export ivory carvings for ‘non-commercial purposes’ and Namibia is permitted to export ivory ‘ekipas’ (traditional carvings) for non-commercial purposes.
This represents a serious degradation of the international ivory trade ban, and the results are very clear – poaching is once again reaching critical levels and illegal ivory trade is spiraling out of control. Legal ivory entering the market provides organised criminal syndicates with open channels for laundering illegal ivory.
The international community could be forgiven for being confused about what’s legal and what isn’t.
In 2007, CITES approved a nine-year ‘moratorium’ on the submission of elephant proposals to CITES. The purpose of this moratorium was to give the world a rest from the intense and deeply divisive elephant debates. It was intended to provide an opportunity to focus on the impacts of the one-off sale that took place in 2009, to see what kind of effect that sale had on elephant populations. In addition, the moratorium was to allow the international community to address the most urgently required elephant conservation initiatives in Africa – such as equipping and training rangers in the field.
Much to the dismay of many, the final wording of the moratorium does not reflect the spirit of what had been agreed in 2007 – it contains a loophole – a loophole which has subsequently been exploited by Tanzania and Zambia.This March, in Qatar, at the 15th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES, Tanzania and Zambia will be seeking approval to downlist their elephants to Appendix II and to trade in more than 111 tonnes of ivory, completely undermining the 2007 moratorium.
In response, seven African countries – Mali, Republic of Congo, Ghana, Liberia, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Rwanda – have submitted a proposal to close the loophole in the wording of the moratorium, and to extend the moratorium to twenty years, recognising the critical situation that Africa’s elephants now face.
In which African countries is poaching been particularly rampant and how is it affecting elephant populations in those countries?
Many elephant populations across Africa are suffering greatly due to the recent upsurge in poaching. In Kenya, levels of poaching are at their worst since the ban was first implemented in 1989. In Tchad’s Zakouma National Park, the elephant population stood at 3,880 in 2005/6. In 2009 that number had dropped to just 617 and falling. For Sierra Leone, it may already be too late. It is feared that the last remaining elephants were poached in Sierra Leone in September/October 2009.
Can the international Community, including the EU, do anything more to deter poachers?
There are three key things that the EU and wider international community MUST do to protect elephants and deter poachers:
The EU must oppose the ivory trade AND downlisting components of the Tanzania and Zambia proposals. Downlisting is as potentially damaging to elephant populations as the trade itself. By sending out a message that Tanzania and Zambia are able to trade at some point in the future (even if it’s not this year), downlisting would potentially send a green light to criminal syndicates who could stockpile poached ivory until the legal trade is approved.There is no room for complacency now – the EU must take the precautionary approach and oppose these proposals in the strongest possible terms;
Support the proposal by Mali, Republic of Congo, Togo, Ghana, Liberia, Kenya, Sierra Leone and Rwanda. This is clearly the only way to ensure that Africa’s most fragile and vulnerable elephant populations have some chance at survival in the long-term;
Provide significant financial support to African elephant range States, particularly those in West and Central Africa, to ensure that they can protect their elephants in the field.
Importantly, we need to take action as individuals. We must let the EU know what our feelings are on the subject of elephant poaching and the bloody ivory trade. We can do this by going to www.bloodyivory.org to register our view and to support practical elephant conservation in the world’s poorest nations. The public seems to think that the ivory trade is dead and buried. Far from it. Elephants are dead and the ivory trade is rampant. www.bloodyivory.org can help change that but only if hundreds of thousands of people act now.
To read the submissions to CITES up for discussion:
Tanzania: http://www.cites.org/eng/cop/15/prop/E-15-Prop-04.pdf
Zambia: http://www.cites.org/eng/cop/15/prop/E-15-Prop-05.pdf
African Elephant Coalition: http://www.cites.org/eng/cop/15/prop/E-15-Prop-06.pdf
EU position: http://acp-eucourier.info/Newsview.79.0.html?&tx_ttnews[tt_news]=1618&tx_ttnews[backPid]=6&cHash=c97eae8f3f
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