VARIOUS: Kenya says sale of ivory to Japan under UN wildlife pacts "will be a tragedy"

Record ID: 181658

  • Title: VARIOUS: Kenya says sale of ivory to Japan under UN wildlife pacts "will be a tragedy"
  • Date: 4th June 2007
  • Summary: (W3) SAMBURU, NORTHERN KENYA (FILE) (REUTERS) ELEPHANT BONE ON GROUND IN BUSH SKULL OF ELEPHANT WORKERS PULLING TRANSMITTING COLLAR FROM UNDER MOUND OF EARTH WHERE IT WAS HIDDEN BY POACHERS HERD OF ELEPHANTS TUSKS OF FEMALE ELEPHANTS ELEPHANT HERD
  • Embargoed: 19th June 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Environment / Natural World,Industry
  • Reuters ID: LVAAN4ZRG0OGEITT29WW4PF9Z3Y1
  • Story Text: A United Nations wildlife pact has allowed the export, to Japan, of 60 tonnes of ivory from three southern African countries amid concerns about the growth of the illegal ivory trade and elephant poaching in parts of Africa. A herd of female elephants is chased across a road in Kenya by a helicopter.
    This operation is part of an attempt by Kenya to protect its elephants using transmitters attached to a collar.
    Despite the huge effort involved, a flood of weapons into the area has meant that all too often, the efforts are not enough to protect the area's elephants from poachers involved in a deadly trade in illegal ivory.
    In one recent case, a faint radio signal picked up almost by chance led to these elephant remains - and a radio collar buried under a mound of earth nearby. Ivory poachers had struck again.
    The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) decided on Saturday (June 2) to permit the one-off sale of ivory from Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, saying it would closely monitor the impact on poaching and population levels.
    CITES, whose 171 member nations begin a two-week meeting in The Hague on Sunday (June 3), is credited with stemming the slaughter of the African elephant by banning the global ivory trade in 1989.
    But scientists and environmentalists say the killing of elephants for their tusks, mainly in central Africa, has now reached levels not seen since 1989, as Asian-run organised crime gangs push the illegal ivory trade to unprecedented heights.
    Last year alone, experts estimate as many as 23,000 African elephants were illegally killed.
    At a news conference in Johannesburg recently, IFAW (International Fund for Animal Welfare) officials said that decisions on ivory sales should not be made in isolation.
    "What the southern Africans will say is that, 'yes we should be rewarded because we managed to protect our elephants'. We believe this is a fallacious argument. Decisions that are made at CITES are of international significance. They are not decisions that can be made in isolation, of the impact or the prospective impact that those decisions will have on the species throughout its range," said regional director, Jason Bell-Leask.
    Some environmentalists say that a CITES decision to allow a one-off sale of 50 tonnes of ivory from Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe in 1997 increased black market demand for ivory and put elephants in grave danger.
    The convention allowed the 1997 exports on the ground that some southern African elephant populations had recovered and were well managed.
    A second one-off sale was agreed in principle in 2002 but was made conditional on the compilation of up-to-date data on elephant poaching and population levels. The CITES Standing Committee agreed on Saturday that this had been done and the 60-tonne export of existing stocks to Japan could go ahead.
    The debate on elephants is between the benefits that ivory sales may bring to conservation and local communities living side by side with large and sometimes dangerous animals, and concern that such sales may increase poaching, CITES said.
    The meeting in The Hague will see heated discussion as African countries are split between those wanting to protect the beloved elephant and those which say elephant populations have grown at an unsustainable rate.
    Botswana and Namibia want looser conditions on ivory sales from southern African countries, while Kenya and Mali seek a 20-year moratorium on sales from those countries to reduce poaching.
    Kenyan wildlife officials said that Saturday's decision would have dramatic consequences, particularly in countries with smaller elephant populations.
    Nehemia Rotich, Kenya Wildlife Services Director told reporters he thought the poaching of elephants to increase, "We expect increased poaching. For us in Kenya, we are lucky, we have the systems to contain them. But many African countries don't have and it will be tragic. Because many of them are small populations. I'll give you examples. Kenya has 30,000 elephants. Senegal has only eight. Nigeria I think has 500. Cameroon has 2,500, thereabouts. So many African states have small populations and they don't have the capacity to protect them. So we'll see an upsurge in poaching and they have no control. So to us as Kenyans, that is a tragedy," he said.
    But even in Kenya, a large elephant population, well protected by rangers, is no protection against poaching, or for the rangers themselves. For these Kenya Wildlife Service rangers, decisions made at CITES can mean life of death, not just for elephants but all too often, for themselves too.
    This was the grisly scene following an overnight shootout recently between poachers targeting elephant and KWS rangers. The shootout saw four poachers killed. But the price paid by the Kenya Wildlife Service was a high one. Three of its rangers died in the clash, some 350 km (215 miles) from the capital Nairobi.
    A tragedy which may be just the prelude to another.
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