UN wildlife body rejects bids to reopen ivory trade

Marlowe Hood Yahoo News 22 Mar 10;

DOHA (AFP) – A UN body rejected Monday proposals by Zambia and Tanzania to reopen trade in ivory that experts say would have worsened a surge in illegal trafficking driven by Asian-based organised crime.

After a tense debate, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), meeting in Doha, voted down Tanzania's request to sell 80.5 tonnes of stockpiled ivory to Japan and China.

Zambia later withdrew its own bid for a one-off sale of 21.7 tonnes worth several million dollars.

Efforts by both countries to downlist wild populations of the intelligent mammals to a lower level of protection were also slapped down in separate votes.

"We are sitting on a treasure that we are not allowed to use to help our population, to help the poor build schools and roads," said Stanslaus Komba, from Tanzania's ministry of natural resources.

The move to reopen ivory trade -- banned since 1989 with the exception of a few one-time sales -- comes on the heels of a dramatic surge in illegal trafficking since 2005.

"Large-scale ivory seizures are becoming not only more frequent but larger in size," said Tom Milliken, head of the Elephant Trade Information System.

Organised crime syndicates in Asia have also gotten into the act to satisfy growing demand in the region, he said.

In Africa, the countries most directly involved in the traffic have been Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo, while in Asia activity was particularly high in Thailand, he added.

Some 25 tonnes of the precious material -- culled from an estimated 2,600 elephants -- were confiscated last year, mainly in Asia, according to wildlife trade monitoring group TRAFFIC.

All told, tens of thousands of elephants are likely butchered every year for their tusks, experts say.

Poachers have taken to using heavy arms to carry out military-style operations, leaving local law enforcement outmatched.

"They fire on herds with rocket launchers," said Cosma Wilungula Balongelwa, a delegate from the Democratic Republic of Congo, citing cases from earlier this year.

Except for populations in four southern African nations, African elephants in two dozen other range states are listed on CITES Appendix I, which bans cross-border trade.

Tanzania and Zambia sought a downlisting to the less restrictive Appendix II, which allows commerce if it is monitored and deemed sustainable.

The one-off sales would have netted about 13 million dollars (9.5 million euros), said TRAFFIC.

The last such sale in 2008 by Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe set the clock running on a nine-year moratorium on international ivory sales, agreed upon at the last CITES meeting in 2007.

The recent surge in seizures has caused officials to question whether one-off sales stimulate illegal trade rather than stem it, as was once thought.

"In the last three years, the population of the Selous game reserve in Tanzania has declined by 30,000 elephants," Sam Wasser, director of the University of Washington's Center for Conservation Biology, said in an interview.

"Tanzania argues that they have just moved, but where did they go?" added Wasserman, whose laboratory has pieced together a genetic map of African elephants based on DNA take from dung samples that will allow police to trace seized ivory to its origin.

Conservation and wildlife groups applauded the decisions.

"Governments made the right move by rejecting the proposals," said the WWF's head of species programme, Carlos Drews.

"It is not the right time to be approving ivory sales due to increased elephant poaching in central and western Africa."

Both Tanzanian bids fell far short of the two-thirds majority needed to pass.

But Zambia -- whose bid was backed by China and Japan -- missed the downlisting by only a handful of votes, and said it may resubmit the measure in the finally plenary session on Thursday, permitted under CITES rules.

A separate proposal backed by 23 other elephant range nations that would have extended the trade moratorium on ivory trade to 20 years was withdrawn at the last minute.

UN meeting rejects proposed one-off ivory sales
Michael Casey, Associated Press Yahoo News 22 Mar 10;

DOHA, Qatar – Conservationists scored a rare victory at a U.N. wildlife meeting Monday when governments voted to reject contentious proposals by Tanzania and Zambia to weaken the 21-year-old ban on ivory sales over concerns it would further contribute to poaching.

The heated debate over the proposed sale of the two countries' ivory stocks divided Africa, as it has in years past, at the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

Nearly two dozen central and east African countries came out against the proposals on the grounds that they would hurt already declining African elephant populations. Southern African countries, in contrast, argued the two nations should be rewarded for the conservation efforts undertaken and should have to right to manage their herds as they see fit.

"People born in 100 years, they should be able to see an elephant," said Kenya's Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife Noah Wekesa, whose country opposed the sales and had called at one point for a 20-year moratorium on such auctions.

"We should not lose this heritage that we have," he said. "We have a duty to make sure we increase the numbers of elephants."

The ivory stocks the two nations wanted to sell come from natural deaths or controlled culling of problem animals.

Key to the defeat of the two proposals were concerns among many delegates and environmentalist that the sales would further exacerbate a poaching problem that some say is at its highest levels since the 1989 ivory ban.

Environmentalists welcomed the decision, which came on the same day that countries agreed on a conservation plan for African and Asian rhinos. Delegates agreed to step up enforcement against rhino poaching, which is at a 15-year high, and work to slow the demand in Asia mostly from traditional medicine markets.

Until the rhino and elephant votes, environmentalists had achieved little at CITES. A proposal to ban the export of Atlantic bluefin tuna was defeated along with a plan to regulate the coral trade and conserve sharks.

"After the way the week went for marine species, today's decisions were much more positive, particularly the decision on rhinos, which was really a boost for conservation and morale," said Carlos Drew, head of the WWF delegation.

On the elephant proposals, Tanzania was asking to sell almost 200,000 pounds (90,000 kilograms) of ivory that would have generated as much as $20 million. It noted in its proposal that its elephant population has risen from about 55,000 in 1989 to almost 137,000, according to a 2007 study.

Zambia wanted to sell 48,000 pounds (21,700 kilograms) of ivory worth between $4 million and $8 million. It withdrew a request for the ivory sale and offered a compromise to allow a regulated trade in elephant parts excluding ivory — a first step toward future tusk sales.

The two countries argued that their elephant populations had reached the point where they were trampling crops and killing too many people. They also said preventing them from selling the stocks would increase anger toward the beasts, which are seen increasingly as pests by affected communities.

"Tanzania is committed to conservation of its wildlife, including elephants," said Shamsa Selengia Mwangunga, the country's minister of natural resources and tourism. "But should this meeting fail to consider this proposal, we run the risk of enhancing hostility against elephants by our local community especially where human-elephant conflicts are prevalent. More elephants would be killed."

Zambia's Minister of Tourism, Environment and Natural Resources Catherine Namugala accused activists and other delegates of misrepresenting the poaching situation in her country and spreading rumors that it would spend the money raised from sales on election campaigns.

She also complained that her country was struggling to protect elephants even as it fails to provide its citizens with basic needs and should be able to sell its ivory just as its neighbors "were selling their gold and oil."

"We can't justify failure to take a child to school because we are using resources to conserve elephants," Namugala said. "I appeal to allow Zambia to utilize the natural resources given to us by God."

Opponents of the proposals said there was evidence to back claims that such sales worsen poaching.

For example, the poaching of elephants has risen sevenfold in Kenya since a one-time ivory sale was approved in 2007 by CITES for four African countries, Kenyan wildlife officials have said. Last year 271 Kenyan elephants were killed by poachers, compared with 37 in 2007.

TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring group, tracks ivory seizures and found that poaching and smuggling to markets mostly in Asia has risen steadily since 2004. They blame weak law enforcement in Africa and growing demand for ivory products like chopsticks and ivory jewelry mostly in China, Thailand and other Asian countries.

The price of ivory on the black market has risen from about $200 per kilogram in 2004 to as much as $1,500 now.

African elephants have seen their numbers drop in the past 40 years by more than half to 600,000 mostly due to poaching. The global ban briefly halted their slide. But conservationists said that poaching, especially in central Africa, now leads to the loss of as many as 60,000 elephants each year. Without intervention, the elephants could be nearly extinct by 2020.

Samuel K. Wasser, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington, said there was a clear link between one-off sales and the rise in poaching. He said the sales revive dormant markets by sending consumers the message that it is OK in general to once again buy ivory and make it difficult to differentiate between legal and illegal products.

Ivory bids fall on poaching fears
Richard Black, BBC News 22 Mar 10;

The UN's wildlife trade organisation has turned down Tanzania's and Zambia's requests to sell ivory, amid concern about elephant poaching.

The countries asked the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) meeting to permit one-off sales from government stockpiles.

The ivory trade was banned in 1989, but two sales have since been granted to nations showing effective conservation.

Kenya withdrew a bid to ban sales for 20 years, after finding little support.

Most conservation groups were delighted that the Tanzanian and Zambian bids were turned down.

"This is a real victory for elephants," said Jason Bell-Leask, director of Southern African operations with the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw).

Others argued that the real issue facing African elephants was poaching, not the occasional legal sale.

"While the issue of whether sales should be allowed to proceed or not has dominated much of the discussions here... the key driving force behind the ongoing elephant poaching is the continued existence of illegal domestic ivory markets across parts of Africa and Asia," said Steven Broad, executive director of Traffic, the body charged with monitoring the illegal wildlife trade.

Traffic's latest report shows that poaching and smuggling are rife in West Africa in particular, with several Asian nations complicit in smuggling.

Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Thailand are picked out as the worst offenders.

Organised crime syndicates are increasingly involved in the lucrative trade.

"Poaching and illegal ivory markets in central and western Africa must be effectively suppressed before any further ivory sales take place," said Elisabeth McLellan, species programme manager with WWF International.

Rejection slips

An expert report released on the eve of the CITES conference raised concerns about the extent to which organised crime rings are involved in Tanzania's poaching and smuggling operations.

Although commending the national wildlife services for their "professional" approach, it noted signs of a declining commitment to law enforcement and a lack of co-ordination between wildlife and customs services.

Traffic also noted that almost half of the ivory in the government's stockpiles - which would have been the source for the ivory sales - was of unknown origin.

As a result of this, it recommended rejecting Tanzania's bid. Similar misgivings also led to a recommendation to reject the Zambian proposal.

Both countries also failed in bids to switch their elephants from CITES Appendix One to Appendix Two, which would have permitted trades under certain restrictions.

The vote on the Zambian proposal was extremely close, and Zambia may seek to re-open the issue on Thursday, the conference's final day.

A number of conservation and animal welfare groups say the one-off ivory sales ensure there is an ongoing market into which crime rings can sell poached ivory, although the data is hard to interpret.

However, Eugene Lapointe, president of the IWMC World Conservation Trust and a former CITES secretary-general, said the one-off sales generated revenue that under CITES rules had to be ploughed back into elephant conservation.

"The situation is simple: prohibition plus poverty causes poaching," he said.

"Where people are given incentives to conserve, elephant stocks increase and poachers are put out of business."

The last legal sale - in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe - took place in 2008.

Over the weekend, the CITES meeting in Doha, Qatar also turned down a bid to ban trade in red and pink corals from the Mediterranean Sea.

Conservation groups say the corals - which are used in jewellery - are threatened with local extinction if extraction continues.

Elephant Trade Ban Reaffirmed For Tanzania, Zambia
Regan Doherty, Yahoo News 23 Mar 10;

A U.N. wildlife conference rejected on Monday proposals by Tanzania and Zambia to relax a trade ban on elephants to allow a one-off sale of their ivory stockpiles.

The 175-nation meeting voted down calls by the two nations, which say elephant numbers are rising and are a danger to people in rural areas, to ease trade restrictions to permit a sale of 112 metric tons of ivory.

"We do not think our sovereignty has been respected," Zambia's Tourism Minister Catherine Namugala said of the decision by governments at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in Doha, Qatar.

"Many people have been killed by elephants. Even as we speak, children are not going to school because they are afraid of encountering elephants along the way," she said.

Conservation groups broadly welcomed the vote.

"Poaching of elephants and ivory seizures are escalating, not decreasing, this decision is a victory for common sense," said Jason Bell-Leask, Southern Africa director of the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

The last CITES meeting in 2007 agreed to a nine-year moratorium on any further trade in ivory, after a sale of 105 metric tons of elephant ivory from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe to China and Japan.

Elephants, the world's largest land mammals, are under pressure in many parts of Africa from poaching, loss of habitats to farms and towns, pollution and climate change. Numbers have fallen to 470,000-685,000 against millions decades ago.

JUMBO RISING

But in some countries numbers are recovering.

"The wild population is large (about 27,000 animals) and steadily increasing," Zambia's proposal says. Tanzania says its wild population "has considerably increased (from about 55,000 in 1989 to 136,753 in 2006) ... and continues to increase."

But Esmond Bradley Martin, an authority on the rhino horn and ivory trade, estimated that Tanzania's elephant population had fallen by 30,000 over the last three years due to drought, migration and increased poaching.

"The main problem is unregulated markets that exist throughout tropical Africa and Asia," he told Reuters. "In any city in west or central Africa, you can buy ivory. We need to close these illegal markets down. It's so simple, because they're out in the open, they're not hidden."

Ivory prices peaked in 1988 before a CITES ban in ivory trade, but plummeted by about 75 percent during the early 1990s. Prices have increased recently as a result of new demand from China and Asia, Martin said.

Ivory can range from $25 to $150 a kilo throughout Africa. Prices in Asia are higher, ranging from $250 to $500 a kilo. Proceeds from one-off ivory sales are meant to be put into conservation and community development.

"My people definitely think that CITES has no human heart," said Christine Eva Mambo, tribal head of Zambia's Lusaka province, where she said more than 18 people have been killed by elephants in the last three years.

The CITES talks will consider trade protection for about 40 species during the talks from March 13-25. Governments have rejected trade bans for bluefin tuna and polar bears.

(Editing by Alister Doyle and Janet Lawrence)

For elephants' sake – let’s get our act together
IUCN 22 Mar 10;

The elephant issue remains central to CITES though, unfortunately, the emotiveness of the ivory debate has not dissipated and the divisions are as deep now as at any time in the past. IUCN is concerned, that much of this may be diverting efforts from the real issues and what must really be done to reduce the impact of illegal killing on Africa’s elephants.

It would be a more positive step forward to use the considerable energies of the Parties in a constructive manner in dealing with the issues at hand and not in a divisive manner. To this end, IUCN encourages the Parties to step back from the outcomes of decisions taken on the proposals before this Conference of the Parties and take a holistic look at the situation and the future prospects for this species.

“Although we currently do not have unequivocal answers to all the questions, it’s true to say that we do now, through trade monitoring processes, have a greatly improved understanding of the current situation on the ground, the ivory trade dynamics facing the species across its range and the market drivers behind this trade,” says Dr. Holly Dublin, Chair of IUCN’s SSC African Elephant Specialist Group.

Africa’s elephants are being exposed to different circumstances in different parts of their range. Because of these very real differences, trying to manage to the lowest common denominator ends up being unsatisfactory all round; thereby feeding the division because different countries are faced with radically different management challenges. In most countries, former elephant range has been drastically reduced by land conversion in the face of rapid human population growth and conflict between people and elephants presents an ever-growing problem to management authorities.

It comes as no surprise that while elephant populations continue to show significant growth in some countries, others, particularly those in the Congo Basin of Central Africa, give cause for grave concern. Elephants are being killed illegally and illegal ivory, in significant amounts, is moving off the continent.

“Time and again reports of the Secretariat with regard to the implementation of the Action plan for the control of trade in elephant ivory demonstrate worryingly little progress on what we know to be two of the most important factors in this dynamic – that unregulated domestic markets provide a ready flow of ivory to the illicit market and that large-scale syndicated operations are on the increase,” adds Dublin.

Just as it is incumbent on those African countries cited in Decision 13.26 of the Action Plan mentioned above to do what they can to close these loopholes, we feel it is incumbent on the consuming and entrepot countries, to contribute as well. Without unprecedented actions from both sides acting independently and in concert, the future for elephants subjected to such pressures does, indeed, look bleak.

“IUCN must admit its frustration with the current situation and we would urge the Parties to rise above these divisive and distracting stalemates in favour of more decisive action on the known problems facing African elephants in many parts of their range,” says Sue Mainka, Head of IUCN’s delegation to CITES. “We stand ready to assist, as we always have, in processes and engagements that will move us towards positive outcomes for the species.”

Tanzania, Zambia ivory sales requests fail at CITES
WWF 22 Mar 10;

Doha, Qatar – Requests from Zambia and Tanzania to hold one-off sales of their ivory stockpiles failed during a United Nations species trade meeting today that comes during a worldwide poaching crisis.

Governments participating in the United Nation’s Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) rejected proposals by Tanzania and Zambia to relax trade restrictions on their elephant populations by moving them from Appendix I – the highest level of protection under the Convention banning all international commercial trade – to Appendix II.

The two countries had also initially, asked in addition to their downlisting requests, that they be able to hold a one-off sale of their ivory stockpiles.

No commercial ivory sale is permitted if their elephants remain in Appendix I, but are possible with the Appendix II listing, which allows some regulated international commercial trade.

But neither country was given permission to sell their ivory at this stage or relax trade controls on their elephant populations. The decisions come amid a poaching crisis destroying elephant populations in Asia and Africa.

Governments rejected Tanzania’s downlisting and ivory sales request. They also voted against Zambia’s request to move their elephant populations off Appendix I – a decision which came despite an amendment by Zambia to remove the request for a one-off sale of their ivory stockpiles from their original proposal.

“While the issue of whether sales should be allowed to proceed or not has dominated much of the discussions here in Qatar, WWF and TRAFFIC believe the key driving force behind the ongoing elephant poaching is the continued existence of illegal domestic ivory markets across parts of Africa and Asia,” said Steven Broad, Executive Director of TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring network of WWF and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS) also was formally presented to delegates at the meeting.

The report found that the illicit trade in ivory, which has been increasing in volume since 2004, moved sharply upward in 2009 and there continues to be a highly significant correlation between large-scale domestic ivory markets in Asia and Africa and poor law enforcement, suggesting that illicit ivory trade flows typically follow a path to destinations where law enforcement is weak and markets function with little regulatory impediment.

“Poaching and illegal ivory markets in central and western Africa must be effectively suppressed before any further ivory sales take place,” said Elisabeth McLellan, Species Programme Manager, WWF International.

ETIS, one of the two monitoring systems for elephants under CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) but managed by TRAFFIC, comprises the world’s largest collection of elephant product seizure records. The latest analysis was based upon 14,364 elephant product seizure records from 85 countries or territories since 1989.

In the middle of a poaching crisis

According to new data released today from park rangers and WWF field staff on the ground in Cameroon, for example, there has recently been an increase in poaching and use of high-calibre weapons.

In February, two unarmed game guards and 14 elephants were gunned down in Bouba Ndjidda National Park in northern Cameroon. During the past few months at least 40 elephants in and around protected areas were killed for their ivory and it is estimated that about 400 elephants have been killed within the last four years in three national parks in Cameroon alone.

The grim situation in Central Africa will not be addressed until domestic markets in that region are brought under control, WWF said. The sight of ivory openly on sale in many cities of Central and Western Africa sends a potent signal to poachers, smugglers and consumers that it is legal to buy and sell unregulated ivory.

Monday’s decisions follow the release last week of a new analysis of elephant trade data showing that coordinated enforcement in Central and West Africa and South-east Asia is crucial to addressing the illicit ivory trade.

Detailed regional summaries of the data held in the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS), the world’s largest database on ivory seizures, highlighted the failure of law enforcement in key elephant range states facing an increasing threat from organised crime and the presence of unregulated markets.

ETIS is compiled by TRAFFIC on behalf of CITES, and comprises more than 15,400 ivory seizure cases compiled over the last 21 years.

The re-analysis of the data was made by region rather than by country, and was carried out to align the data with another CITES-tool used to monitor poaching, which also shows that the Central African region is losing the most elephants.