https://news.thevoicebw.com/a-jumbo-debate/


CITES COP-19 to decide on trophy hunting next month

What is it about the number 19?

Covid-19 has brought death and misery to the world, claiming over 6.5 million lives around the globe and 2, 790 souls in Botswana; now COP 19 poses a threat to livelihoods in Southern Africa.

Set for the Panamanian capital, Panama City, next month, the CITES Conference of Parties (COP 19) is expected to order a blanket ban on elephant hunting and ivory imports.

In an agenda that is giving countries in Southern Africa sleepless nights, the conference is likely to move elephants from appendix II to appendix I of CITES regulations, which protect such class of animals from being hunted.

Highlighting the impact such a decision, made in Central America over 11, 000km away, will have locally, Director of Ngamiland Coalition of Non-governmental Organisations (NCONGO), Siyoka Simasiko explained, “What it essentially means is that the hunting quotas which communities have been benefitting from through hunting safaris will be outlawed through CITES.”

Simasiku just returned from a five-day African wildlife consultative forum in Maputo, Mozambique, where issues surrounding sustainable use of wildlife and conservation were discussed, including the possible ban of trophy hunting.



“Many communities in other SADC countries will be affected by this ban,” he told The Voice this week.

Although the ban will also apply to hippopotamuses, this will not impact Botswana as the country stopped issuing hunting licenses for hippos back in 2014 to allow their numbers to recover. However, it will affect Zimbabwe, Zambia and Namibia, were hippo hunting is currently permitted.

“The just ended forum was for us as SADC countries to meet, discuss priority action items in preparation for CITES among other matters of interest,” added Simasiku.



Hundreds of communities in SADC countries depend on wildlife related tourism, with the sector second to only diamonds in terms of Botswana’s GDP.

For communities in hard to reach areas, along Okavango Delta and Kgalagadi area, government introduced Community Development Trusts, which rake in Millions of Pula annually through tourism activities including hunting safaris. The income is used to provide basic needs and supplement deficiencies is such communities.

Reached for comment, Chairperson of Community Leaders network in SADC, Rogers Lubilo stressed Southern Africa is right to be worried, warning such a move would spell misery for them all.

“Indeed COP 19 is around the corner and we have noted with concern some maneuvers by other governments, primarily European governments, which are aimed at ensuring that there is trophy hunting ban especially from targeted countries in Africa. If successful, this will affect million of communities who depend on hunting and wildlife tourism in Southern Africa.”

Lubilo believes a ban would be counterproductive and cause more harm than good.

“It poses a great danger to conservation itself because sustainable use approach has been used over the last five years in Southern Africa to bridge the gap; to reduce human-wildlife conflict, to create incentives to rural communities and to create jobs. And also sustainable use has been used to actually champion conservation. Most of the habitat restoration of wildlife has recovered in areas where local communities were involved is sustainable conservation,” he pointed out.

Lubilo’s hope is that SADC governments will stand together and present a united front at COP-19, hopefully forming alliances outside its boundaries and ultimately vote in majority numbers against the ban.

“I am aware that our governments, through various ministries, are working together to ensure they present a strong message to the global world during COP-19 summit. Southern Africa has adopted an agenda of inclusiveness, community based resource management and their sustainable use is one of our approaches that we so much cherish!” he concluded.

https://worldanimalnews.com/re...fate-of-600-species/


Representatives From 184 Countries Will Meet At CITES Conference Next Month To Determine The Fate Of 600 Species

October 18, 2022
By
KarenLapizco

The 19th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora—known as CITES—will meet November 14-25 in Panama City, Panama, where delegates from the 184 member countries will consider 52 proposals to increase or decrease protections for 600 species of wild animals and plants. Key issues on the table include increasing protections for hippos, elephants, glass frogs, sharks, and amending annual leopard “trophy” export quotas.
Humane Society International experts will be attending the meeting to lobby countries to support proposals that could help ensure that species are not pushed further toward the brink of extinction by overexploitation through international trade in their parts and products. The HSI delegation will be available for comment throughout the proceedings.
Key species and other proposals to be discussed include:

Hippos: Ten African countries propose to include the common hippopotamus in Appendix I of CITES, which would effectively prohibit international commercial trade in hippo parts and products. Hippos are threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation, poaching for their meat and ivory, and they continue to be targeted for commercial trade in ivory, skins and trophies. Current legal and illegal exploitation levels are predicted to lead to wild population declines, indicating the need to enact a higher level of protection for this species. HSI released an undercover investigation earlier this year into the robust sale of hippo parts in the U.S.
Adam Peyman, director of wildlife programs for HSI, said: “Hippos are an iconic African species, yet the scale of the international trade in their parts and products such as tusks, teeth, skins, skulls and trophies is shocking. We urge CITES Parties to adopt this proposal to ensure that this commercial trade ends. This pointless industry of selling animal parts, along with other threats facing hippos, is pushing these incredible animals to the brink of extinction.”

Glass frogs: Fourteen countries in Central and South America are proposing to include the family of glass frogs in Appendix II of CITES. Twelve members of this family are highly threatened, but it is nearly impossible to distinguish them from other, less threatened species, indicating the need to enact protections for all glass frogs. Listing them on Appendix II of the Convention would provide crucial monitoring and put measures in place to help ensure that future trade is legal and sustainable.
Grettel Delgadillo, deputy director of HSI Latin America, said: “Glass frogs, with their translucent skin, are an amazing family of species. Sadly that is what has attracted the attention of the pet traders, who will go as far as smuggling live frogs out of Central and South America to sell them. It is crucial that CITES Parties adopt this proposal to stem the illegal trade in these incredible frogs and put in place critical monitoring of legal trade to prevent overexploitation by the pet industry.”

Sharks: There are three proposals to list families of sharks and related species on Appendix II. The proposals are to list requiem sharks, hammerheads, and guitarfishes, which are related to sharks. All of these species have low reproductive output and several species in each species group are highly endangered. Fins are the primary products in trade derived from the endangered members of these families. As these fins are practically indistinguishable from those of other species, their families should be included in Appendix II so that international trade can be monitored to ensure it is sustainable and legal.
Rebecca Regnery, senior director of wildlife for HSI, said: “Several shark and guitarfish species have seen declines in their wild populations of up to 70-90%. It is unconscionable that trade in fins from these imperiled families is not monitored to ensure its legality or sustainability, especially since upward of 100 million sharks are killed each year for their fins. We urge CITES Parties to adopt the proposals to list requiem sharks, hammerheads, and guitarfishes on Appendix II before it is too late.”

Leopard trophy hunting quotas: Although the leopard is threatened with extinction and trophy hunting is one of the major threats to their survival, CITES Parties have set export quotas for 12 countries that allow for the annual export of up to 2,648 leopard “trophies” or skins. These controversial export quotas are not based on science. Furthermore, trophy hunting has been shown to cause population declines. Two countries with such quotas, Kenya and Malawi, are asking for their quotas to be removed, while Ethiopia is asking for its annual quota to be reduced from 500 to 20 leopards. However, this leaves leopards in the remaining nine countries in the crosshairs, including two countries (Tanzania and Zimbabwe) with an outrageous annual export quota of 500 leopards each.

Southern white rhino and African elephant proposals: HSI is urging countries to oppose a dangerous proposal that would reduce CITES protection for southern white rhinos in Namibia, which are under severe threat due to poaching for rhino horn. If adopted, the proposal would ease control over international trade in hunting trophies of the species. In addition, HSI is supporting a proposal to increase CITES protection of African elephants in Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa, which would increase regulation of international trade in hunting trophies. Given the serious and long-lasting impacts of trophy hunting on the survival of species, it is imperative that member countries restrict the trade world-wide in hunting trophies of species listed under this Convention.

Sarah Veatch, director of wildlife policy for HSI, said: “CITES is the international oversight authority for trade between member countries in hunting trophies of leopards, elephants, rhinos, lions, and others. As highly sought-after trophies, it is imperative that members take a precautionary approach here. Quotas based on outdated data, unreliable data or inaccurate methods are unacceptable and should be invalidated. CITES Parties have the opportunity to give these species the necessary protections and oversight to avoid overexploitation, and we urge them to act with prudence before we reach a point of no return.”

Every time I read an HSI press release my head hurts and I can feel intelligence being sucked out of my brain.

In an odd way, this may not be all bad.

At some point organizations such as HSI and their ilk will overplay their hands at CITES and countries will seriously look at leaving CITES altogether (this has been discussed by some African countries in the past). That may not help hunters who are trying to get trophies home, but many of us have reached the point where the hunting is more important than the trophy.

And if countries do decide to leave CITES, it may just bring about some much needed change in how decisions are taken at CITES.