East African battle on sale of ivory to take centre stage at Brussels forum

• Kenya and Rwanda accuse Tanzania of not consulting on whether to sell tusks

Mr Willem Wijnstekers is the secretary general of the 175-member Cites, and he is answerable to the United Nations Environmental Programme.

Dismissed

The secretariat has dismissed studies relating legal sale and heightened rate of poaching despite evidence to the contrary. Studies have shown, for instance, that Kenya has seen an increase in poaching, with 47 elephants killed in 2007, 145 in 2008 and 220 in 2009.

Today, Kenya has 35,000 elephants, mainly due to the rigorous protection efforts which include daily helicopter patrols, a real-time communication centre and 24-hour ranger surveillance.

Elephant populations have also deteriorated in Senegal, which now has less than 10, while Liberia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Chad have less than 50 each.

Botswana leads in Africa with 110,000 elephants, followed by Zimbabwe (105,000), Tanzania (91,000), then Kenya.

Tanzania projects its elephant population to be 136,753 in 2006 up from 55,000 in 1989. However, Mr Omondi insists the figure has been exaggerated to convince the world to allow trade in ivory.

“Should Cites approve the sale of Tanzania’s stockpile, the floodgates will open and the African elephant in Tanzania faces a very uncertain future. Tourism will be affected,” states a presentation by Kenya.

Kenya and Tanzania share three national parks that are among the most inhabited by elephants consisting of Mkomazi and Tsavo, Kilimanjaro and Amboseli and Serengeti and Maasai Mara.

And since there is currently no technology to identify Kenyan elephant from a Tanzanian, KWS alleges the ivory listed for sale could actually belong to Kenya. Kenya is in the process of putting collars on its elephants for identification.