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SPECIAL REPORT
New bid for stiffer laws on
ivory sale
Story by JULIUS BOSIRE
Publication Date: 06/09/2004
Daily Nation
Fifteen years since ivory trade was banned, debate on whether or not
it should be lifted goes on unabated.
Before the ban, Africa's elephant population had decreased from 1.2
million to about 600,000.
Now the majority of world conservationists want the move granting
some countries a one-off sales of 60 tonnes of ivory from their
stockpiles this year to be halted pending the establishment of
proper channels for the disposal.
They argue it would cause massive sale of illegally held tusks
worldwide and lead to increased poaching.
Debate on the ban gained momentum during a conference for
conservationists in Chile, two years ago, which voted to allow
Botswana, South Africa and Namibia to start selling elephant tusks
this year.
Conservationists opposed to its lifting argued that the move had
caused massive killing of elephants by poachers hopeful that the
trade would soon be legalised.
At the meeting by the UN convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species (Cites) in November, 2002, conservationists were
firm that the trade should not rise from its death-bed, although
some voted for the disposal of the stockpiles in southern Africa
states.
In Kenya, the debate over whether to burn the stockpiles resurfaced
recently, with conservationist Dr Richard Leakey, challenging his
colleagues to seek worldwide opinion over the move.
The matter was raised by Mr Ali Kaka of the East African Wildlife
Society, who asked Dr Leakey to approach Natural Resources minister
Dr Newton Kulundu over the possibility of allowing the burning of
the existing stocks.
In July, 1989, the then President Daniel arap Moi lit a historic
bonfire to destroy 12 tonnes of ivory worth Sh60 million, to pass
the message that the trade was illegal.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) country director,
Ms Phyllis Campbell-McRae, said the value of whatever stocks the
countries may be having are mere peanuts compared to the benefits
that would come out of a campaign for tougher laws.
Ms McRae said a research carried in Britain last year had revealed
worrying loopholes in the existing legal controls and measures to
contain the trade.
"The UK is the third biggest source of intercepted illegal
ivory entering the US, which has been singled out by the Cites as a
problem country, with a large domestic ivory trade likely to provoke
illegal poaching," Ms McRae said.
On May 21, a group of conservationists met in Mombasa to discuss
what they said was better management and use of the wildlife.
Leading wildlife conservationists rejected conditions for the
disposal of stockpiles in Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, saying
there were many loopholes.
The conditions included selling stocks to buyers verified by the
Cites secretariat in consultation with the standing committee to
control internal ivory trade and ensure the imported ivory was not
re-exported.
Another condition was that all the proceeds from the sales must be
ploughed back into elephant conservation or community projects in
elephant range areas.
A system to Monitor the Illegal Killing of Elephants (Mike) and
another to check illegal trade in ivory, Elephant Trade Information
System, was established in 1997 after the 10th conference of the
parties to Cites in Harare, where the first decision to allow a
"one-off" ivory stockpile was taken.
However, glaring weaknesses have been detected in the conditions for
the stockpile sales.
The programme is ambitious and is aimed at providing information on
population and figures on poaching sparked by the legalised ivory
trade at selected sites in Africa and Asia to provide an early
warning system.
The arrangement is expected to enforce laws and detect illegal
hunting and trade, as well as external factors that may lead to the
death of elephants, such as internal strife, increased level of
human activity and proximity of monitoring sites to international
boundaries, changes in elephant behaviour and distribution and
presence of poaching camps.
It would help in counting elephants and carcasses every two years to
give updates at future Cites meetings.
There is however debate as to whether the two systems have the
capacity to set the context of normal background poaching or
demonstrate links between stockpile sales and increased poaching
against a backdrop of proposed sales.
Many Mike sites are in protected areas where poaching is not an
issue. To be effective it should be monitoring all poaching hot
spots to give an effective early warning of any rise in cases of
poaching.
Conservationists argue that the funds required to set up Mike far
outweigh the potential income from the one-off stockpile sales,
making it an expensive venture, which may not be able to solve the
problem of elephant mortality through poaching.
The world is divided right in the middle over the lifting of the ban.
When launching the report by IFAW titled /Elephants on the High
Street/ – an investigation into UK ivory trade – in Nairobi on
Thursday, Dr Leakey said the one-off sale of stockpiles should be
halted until proper mechanisms were put in place to monitor the
transportation of ivory to their destinations.
No mechanisms are in place to ensure that the stockpiles are the
only ones that would be transported to curb any pilferage of illegal
consignments with the piles.
Said Dr Leakey: "I want to persuade the people of the world to
understand that opposition to ivory trade is not the same as
opposing people eating meat. Can we control ivory trade so that the
population of elephants is not wiped out."
Given that Britain had failed to contain ivory trade within its
borders, despite the ban of the trade worldwide in 1989, Dr Leakey
said, the world should not expect third world countries to contain
the trade if the ban was lifted.
Dr Leakey added: "We cannot allow stockpiles to be moved unless
a clear criteria is found."
He said Britain should give the European Union the leadership it
requires and say no to ivory trade. Currently, massive ivory is
being sold at the north-eastern region of the Democratic Republic of
Congo.
The Kenya Wildlife Service National Elephant Programme Coordinator,
Mr Patrick Omondi, said poachers had killed 11 elephants for tusks
and two rhinos for horns in Laikipia and Samburu in the past one
month.
Documented police cases and investigations by IFAW indicated that
the UK's high consumer demand for antiques had led to new ivory
being carved to look like antiques for sale in the high streets.
London's Portobello Road, the biggest antiques market in the world,
was identified as the single major source of illegal ivory,
according to the findings.
IFAW's findings were presented to the British Government and
Parliament passed a resolution to monitor and contain the illicit
trade.
The organisation recommends that Britain and other countries,
especially Kenya and India vote against reopening trade in ivory,
explore ways of disposing stockpiles through non-commercial ways and
destroy any seized ivory whose origin was not known.
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