Skip to content. | Skip to navigation

Personal tools
Sections
You are here: Home Breaking news African coalition urges EU to block new ivory sales

African coalition urges EU to block new ivory sales

26 January 2010, 11:01 CET
— filed under: , , , ,

(BRUSSELS) - African nations on Monday urged European governments to resist calls for a new round of legal ivory sales and protect the world's elephant population.

Representatives of the 17-country Coalition for the African Elephant came to Brussels seeking support after Tanzania and Zambia each requested fresh authorisations from international regulators.

"We are asking the European Union to take a clear stance in support of a nine-year moratorium adopted in 2007 by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)," Kenyan Forest and Fauna Minister Noah Wekesa told journalists.

Experts say some 38,000 African elephants are killed each year for their tusks -- out of total numbers of perhaps half a million.

With black market sales on the rise again, some nations that consider their elephant populations to be out of danger are arguing stocks of the precious ivory should be sold legally.

Tanzania wants to be able to sell 90 tonnes of ivory, and Zambia 22 tonnes, but both need permission from the CITES international body when it next meets in Doha, Qatar, from March 13 to 25.

A 1989 ban on ivory sales, a measure destined to protect the African elephant and rhino, was relaxed in June 2007 under a compromise that prolonged the moratorium but allowed Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe to make a one-off sale of 108 tonnes to buyers in China and Japan.

"The EU plays a major role within CITES," Wekesa insisted. "If it abstains during this vote, it will contribute towards worsening an already critical situation.

"The last elephants in Sierra Leone have been slaughtered by poachers only in the last few months," he warned.

The EU's common position has yet to be worked out, said liberal Dutch lawmaker Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy.

"Britain, France, the Netherlands and Spain don't yet know what they will do, although they are inclined towards backing Tanzania's call," he said.

"If the 27 member states cannot agree, they abstain -- which will be the equivalent of a green light to the poachers," Gerbrandy warned.

A negotiator told AFP on Monday that member states were "working to find a consensus to ensure African elephants are protected".


Document Actions

Now is the time for the EU to ensure the future of elephants

Posted by John Allbon-Gardener at 31 January 2010, 10:46 CET
The ultimate fate of elephants will be decided at this meeting. If elephants are to survive then ivory sales must stop now and remain banned for at least 20 years. Only then will this deplorable trade stop.

After the last round of ivory sales a couple of years ago poaching elephants for ivory increased significantly all over Africa, including countries like Kenya and Mali who are desperately trying to hold onto their remaining elephant populations and who are opposed to the sale of ivory.

The Government wildlife protection organisations in the countries sponsoring the request for sales, Zambia and Tanzania, rank 99 and 126 respectively on http://www.transparency.org , who monitor corrupt practices around the world. Sadly in Zambia, Tanzania and some other African countries, some officers employed by these same wildlife protection agencies are actually aiding and abetting poachers in locating and killing elephants and transporting their bloody cargo out of the country of origin. Furthermore, if funds from elephant ivory sales do go to these self same wildlife protection authorities and organisations it will have the perverse effect of giving yet more resources, vehicles, guns, roads and money to the very people who are assisting poachers or who are, indeed, poaching elephants themselves. So sales as a strategy to fund the protection of elephants have failed.

The so called ‘legal ivory’ is nothing more than poached ivory that has come into government hands from raids and confiscations. It is simply laundered through government agencies. It is illegal ivory and whether it is sold by governments or criminal poachers the effect is the same- money and encouragement to poachers and criminals and escalating elephant killing, even in countries who are trying hard to stop the trade and want to save elephants, such as Kenya.

Elephants are a keystone species in the habitats they live in. They are integral to the African landscape providing tree and other plant seed disbursement, digging waterholes for other animals and open pasture regeneration through tree clearing, vital for some antelope species. Whole ecosystems are under threat if elephants are no longer around to play their part in the environment. If we want elephants to be around for our children, and their children, then CITIES must act and say ‘NO’ to ivory sales now and in the foreseeable future.