Southern Africa to auction more than 100 tonnes of ivory

Yahoo News 15 Oct 08;

More than 100 tonnes of ivory will go on auction in four southern African countries in two weeks, in the first sale of stockpiled elephant ivory in nearly a decade, wildlife groups said Wednesday.

The sales were approved in July by the UN-backed Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), and auctions have now been scheduled in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, wildlife officials said.

China and Japan are expected to be among the biggest buyers, after CITES agreed over the last two years to allow them to take part in legal auctions.

Both countries had to first provide assurances that they would closely monitor their domestic markets, CITES said on its website.

Animal welfare groups say the two countries are among the world's biggest destinations for illegal ivory sales.

CITES said that all proceeds of the sale are to be used for elephant conservation products. The last sale in 1999 earned five million dollars, it added.

CITES banned international ivory sales in 1989, but agreed to the earlier auction after judging that southern Africa's herds were healthy and well-managed.

The ivory stocks up for auction come from elephants that have died from natural causes or from culling of herds, when animals are killed to prevent overpopulation.

Each of the four African countries will hold a single auction, staggered three days apart, beginning with nine tonnes of ivory on sale in Namibia on October 28, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) said in the statement.

Botswana will then auction 44 tonnes on October 31, followed by a four-tonne auction in Zimbabwe and a 51-tonne auction in South Africa, the group said.

David Mabunda, the head of South Africa's National Parks service said that nearly half of the ivory on auction in the country had been stockpiled since before 1994, when culling was still practiced.

The rest was obtained from elephants who died of natural causes or tusks that broke off, he told the Sapa news agency.

IFAW criticised the sale, warning that even legal auctions encourage poaching.

"Even though the ivory was not obtained through illegal poaching activities, these legal sales only encourage poachers to launder their illegal stocks," said Michael Wamithi, the head of IFAW's elephant programme.

"We have no doubt that flooding the market with over 100 tonnes of ivory will put this endangered species in even further jeopardy," he said in a statement.