Namibia: The controversial auction of stockpiled ivory from four African nations approved by the 14th CoP of CITES began yesterday. About 7 tonnes of raw African elephant tusks as well as carved ivory from Namibia were sold to bidders Japan and China on the first day.
The ongoing one-off sale of about 108 tonnes of ivory by Namibia, Zimbabwe, Botswana and South Africa is the second, since the 1989 international ban on trade in elephant parts. The sale was sanctioned on the condition that the revenue generated be used to strengthen elephant conservation efforts in these countries. The auction yesterday earned Namibia more than one million US dollars.
Acknowledging the limited benefits, elephant conservationists in Africa as well as Asia have denounced the sale as “an overall negative decision for elephant conservation worldwide”.
Ashok Kumar, Vice-chairman, Wildlife Trust of India (WTI), questioned if the monetary returns was validation enough to allow this sale.
“During the first stockpile sale in 1999, there was a sharp increase in poaching of elephants in India, clearly indicating the threats. No amount earned through such a sale can justify the negative impacts on elephant populations,” Kumar said.
“By permitting legal trade in ivory, we are only encouraging the laundering of stocks by poachers, thereby increasing illegal hunting activities,” cautioned Michael Wamithi, Elephants Programme Director, International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).
“Rangers on the front lines in elephant range states continue to lose their lives protecting elephants from poaching. Developing countries continue to bear the brunt of burgeoning Asian markets. The situation is very clear: more ivory in the marketplace equals many more dead elephants – and rangers. Allowing this exorbitant amount of ivory to flood the market, considering the level of elephant poaching occurring today, is just plain irresponsible,” adds Wamithi.
Additionally, illegal trade control mechanisms of both importing nations, Japan and China, are inefficient, say conservationists. A survey between October 2003 and January 2005 by the Japan Wildlife Conservation Society (JWCS) found that approximately 90% of the dealers in Japan selling ivory hankos (traditional seals) were unregistered. Likewise, in China, an IFAW trade poll in 2007 revealed the low awareness of the ivory control system and also citizens’ unwillingness to comply with this framework.
“International ban in Asian elephant ivory came into effect in 1976, when the species was listed on the Appendix I. But, it is difficult to distinguish between ivory of the two elephant species and to classify the legal ivory from illegal ones,” said Kumar adding that illegal traders can easily misuse weak enforcement in Asian elephant range countries and weak control in importing countries to acquire and infiltrate illegal ivory into the legal market.
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