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

A Kenya Wildlife Services ranger shows elephant tusks intercepted from poachers. Kenya remains opposed to the lifting of the international ivory trade ban. Neighbouring Tanzania wants to sell some of its ivory. Photos/FILE

What you need to know:

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

The silent wars involving Kenya and Rwanda on one side against their East African partner Tanzania over trade in ivory heads to Brussels from January 22.

Kenya and Mali will be co-chairing a six-day meeting that brings together 27 countries which are members of the Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species (Cites).

They will be aiming at forging a united front against Tanzania and Zambia’s proposal for permission for a one-off sale of ivory.

The meeting in Brussels comes less than two months before the 15th Cites Conference of the Parties (COP15) between March 13 and 25 in Doha, Qatar.

Kenya and Rwanda are accusing Tanzania of betraying the Cites and East African Community spirit of consultation before taking a major step like the one it has proposed. Kenya has also accused Uganda of sitting on the fence when issues of wildlife conservation come up for debate.

Tanzania and its Southern African Development Community (SADC) partner, Zambia, sent a proposal to the COP 15 secretariat on November 17, 2009 seeking “to transfer the population of the African elephant, Loxodonta africana, from Appendix I to Appendix II”.

Appendix I include species threatened with extinction. Trade in these species is permitted only in exceptional circumstances.

Appendix II, on the other hand, includes species not necessarily threatened with extinction, but in which trade must be controlled in order to avoid utilisation incompatible with their survival.

In the proposal, Tanzania is seeking to be allowed to carry out a one-off sale of 90 tonnes of ivory from registered government-owned stocks originating in Tanzania, but excluding seized ivory and stocks of unknown origin, to trading partners that have been already designated by the Cites Standing Committee.

The committee has designated Japan and China because of their domestic trade controls that ensure the ivory is not re-exported. Zambia wants to sell 22 tonnes of its ivory stockpiles.

But Kenya has been joined by six other elephant range states, namely Rwanda, Congo, Ghana, Liberia, Mali and Sierra Leone, to oppose any such sale, arguing that it contravenes the spirit of COP14 that imposed a nine-year moratorium on ivory trade “from the time of the one-off sale by Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa”, says Mr Patrick Omondi, the senior assistant director and head of species at the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS).

Tanzania and Zambia exploited a loophole in the moratorium that appeared to bar only those who were allowed to conduct a second one-off sale of 108 tonnes of ivory to Japan and China in 2007.

The first experimental sale took place in 1997 during which Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa were allowed to dispose off 67 tonnes of ivory to Japan. Also, due to their population, Cites classifies South African elephants under Appendix II.

During 2007 meeting in The Hague, Kenya and Mali’s bid to impose a 20-year moratorium was defeated by the South’s great influence and eventually reduced to nine years with the insistence of the African Elephant Coalition.

The moratorium was meant to develop an African Elephant Action Plan before any proposal to downlist would be accepted. The plan included developing strategies for increasing population and dealing with trans-boundary concerns.

The countdown was to start once the 108 tonnes left the four countries, the resolution stated, and this only took place in November 2009. Thus, Tanzania and Zambia are asking for permission to sell their stockpiles before a year has elapsed.

Kenya has therefore accused the Cites secretariat of open bias for admitting the proposal against the 2007 resolution.

The seven countries responded by also depositing a counter proposal that seeks to extend the moratorium to 20 years.

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.