eBusiness Weekly
Business Writer
Zimbabwe is seeking support from West and East African countries to be allowed to trade its ivory ahead of the 19th meeting of Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to be hosted in Panama in November this year.
CITES, the United Nations body imposed a global ban on ivory sales in 1989 to stem a wave of poaching.
Since the ban, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia were only allowed to sell stockpiles in 1998 in a one of sale.
Zimbabwe has already warned that if it is not allowed to sell its 130 tonnes of ivory, estimated to be worth US$600 million, it may pull out of the CITES.
Conservation advocates said Africa had always had a divided vote and will step up lobbying West and East African countries to support its bid.
‘‘Our lobbying strategy will involve engaging West Africa particularly Senegal and East Africa; Kenya and Tanzania,” Dr Emmanuel Fundira, the chairman of Safari Operators Association of Zimbabwe said in an interview last week.
Kenya and other members of the African Elephant Coalition, whose 32 members are mostly East and West African countries that have fewer elephants, have been opposing southern Africa’s bid to engage in international trade of Ivory.
‘‘If they can at least allow a one of sale like what they did in 1998, we will be very grateful,’’ said Dr Fundira.
Zimbabwe has an estimated population of 100 000 elephants, more than double the holding capacity. The ballooning number of the elephants has resulted in human wildlife conflict, which sometimes resulted in people’s death.
This week, Zimbabwe hosted international conference in a bid to win support for its campaign to be allowed to engage in global Ivory trade.
The three-day conference, which started in Monday at the Hwange National Park, was attended by representatives from 16 African countries, as well as Japan and China, major consumers of ivory, according to reports.
Last week, Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister, Mangaliso Ndlovu, said that Zimbabwe would attend the next Cites meeting in November to present a strong position.
He said the country was willing to defend its position, even outside of Cites.
‘‘We are clear that we are not going to CITES to beg them. We are going to CITES to present our strong position, a position which we are willing to defend, even if it means being outside CITES,” he said.
“We are there in CITES to share our success stories for the benefit of those countries who want to also experience the successes in the conservation that we have experienced; not to be lectured on how we conserve our wildlife.
‘‘We are left with limited choices. If this CITES is not decisive on this critical matter, we will be left with no choice than to either go the culling way or may be consider engaging our affairs outside CITES,” Minister Ndlovu added.
The Parties to CITES are collectively referred to as the Conference of the Parties. Every two to three years, the Conference of the Parties meets to review the implementation of the Convention. These meetings are often referred to as a ‘CoP’.
A ‘CoP’ meeting is the most important meeting in the context of CITES, as Parties take on a significant body of tasks, including the following:
CoP 19 will mark the 19th time that Parties have gathered since the Convention entered into force in 1975.
