Business Daily (Nairobi)

Kenya: Govt Wins Key Backing for Ban on Trade in Ivory
Walter Menya
26 January 2010


Kenya has secured the support of 16 African governments in its battle with neighbouring Tanzania over a proposal to allow for controlled trade in ivory.

At least two thirds of the 23 member African Elephants Coalition are backing Kenya's proposal to replace the nine-year moratorium on ivory trade, which ends in 2019 with a 20-year moratorium.

If adopted, the proposal will bind all parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to outlaw trade in ivory a move that Tanzania and Zambia have opposed.

Reports from the six-days of meeting of AEC in Brussels indicate that Mali, Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Togo, Republic of Congo and Government of Southern Sudan backed Kenya's proposal to maintain the strongest possible international moratorium on trade in ivory.

"No proposals for trade in ivory should be considered until COP18 in 2019. Proposals from Tanzania and Zambia should therefore be withdrawn," a statement issued after the meeting chaired by Mali and Kenya said.

The position is a huge blow to efforts by the Tanzania and Zambia governments that had last November asked the CITES secretariat to remove the African elephant, Loxodonta africana, from the list of animals facing extinction (Appendix I) to Appendix II. That move would effectively have meant that trade in ivory and elephants would not be banned but controlled.

Trade in species facing extinction is allowed under exceptional circumstances while that involving species in the second tier is managed to avoid utilisation that can endanger their survival.

CITES press officer, Juan Carlos Vasquez, said the Secretariat was waiting for a panel of experts to advise on the merits of the Tanzanian proposal before deciding whether to accept the submission.

Tanzania is seeking CITES permission for a one-off sale of 90 tonnes of ivory from registered government-owned stocks to trading partners designated by the Cites Standing Committee while Zambia wants to sell 22 tonnes of its ivory stockpiles. That consignment excludes seized ivory and stocks of unknown origin.

Kenya and Rwanda are opposed to any such sale which Forestry and Wildlife minister Noah Wekesa said would increase poaching within wildlife corridors shared by the countries.

"With less than two months before 175 countries meet in Doha, Qatar, for COP15, AEC member states have been taking their message in person to Brussels hoping to persuade the EU to stand by the spirit of a nine-year moratorium on international ivory trade that was agreed at the last CITES meeting in The Hague in 2007," Dr Wekesa told the meeting.

The CITES-approved one-off sales of ivory in 2008 by Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe has been blamed for an escalation of poaching in Kenya to levels higher than when the global ban on ivory trade was imposed in 1988.

Last year 232 elephants were killed compared to 145 in 2008. Before the Southern African states were allowed to conduct the one off sale, only 47 elephants had been killed.

In Chad, the population of elephants at the Zakouma national park fell from an estimated 3800 in 2005 to 617. Last month, Sierra Leone announced the looming extinction of its elephants due to increased demand for ivory.

"The 20-year timeframe is fully justified. A whole generation of elephants across the continent needs to be given a chance to re-establish itself, which needs 20 years," AEC said in the joint statement

The meeting in Brussels was meant to lobby support from the European Union to support Africa's call for a global moratorium on trade in Ivory at the CITES meeting to be held in Doha in March.


The bloc was represented at the meeting by the Dutch member of EU Parliament Gerben-Jan Gerbrandy.

"The medium term survival of the African elephant is on the line and this is no time for the EU to take a low-key stance. We expect the 27 member bloc to do the right thing," said Patrick Omondi, the Head of Species Conservation at the Kenya Wildlife Service.

The EU parliamentary delegation to the CITES meeting comprises Mr Gerbrandy, Ms Sirpa Pietikäinen of Finland and Bas Eickhout (Netherlands).

The moratorium mediated by EU at the last COP14 in 2007 stated that no elephant trade proposals would be submitted by any Party to CITES, at least for the duration of the ban.

Business Daily (Nairobi)

Kenya: Total Ivory Ban the Answer
26 January 2010

editorial

Kenya's economy has emerged the victor after the government got the backing of 16 African governments for a complete ban on ivory trade.

Tanzania and Zambia had put forward a proposal for the lifting of the 2007 nine-year freeze on the sale of ivory from the continent citing their rising stockpile of the commodity.

Tanzania was seeking permission for a one-off sale of 90 tonnes of ivory to trading partners such as China that have been already designated by the Cites Standing Committee.

Zambia, on its part, was keen to offload 22 tonnes of its ivory stockpiles. The passing of this proposal could have had huge negative ramifications on Kenya's tourism sector and open the country to vicious international criminal networks egged on by insatiable appetite for the commodity from Asia.

Ivory poachers are known to use the same route used other international criminals such as drug dealers, and giving them a window to set base in the country given Kenya's strategic importance as a connection hub will place unnecessary burden on the country's stretched security system.

It's still fresh in our memories what has been happening to Kenya's elephant population since 2008 when the endangered species watchdog-- Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites)-- approved one-off sales by Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Since then, the incidence poaching in Kenya has been on the up with 232 elephants being felled in 2009, 145 in 2008 and 47 in 2007.


One would shudder to imagine what holds for Kenya should neighbouring Tanzania be allowed to sell its stockpiles of ivory given that the twin countries share three national parks that hold the largest numbers of elephants. The parks on the Kenyan side include the Maasai Mara, Tsavo and Amboseli, which happens to best sites for tourist attractions.

The tourism sector, which offers employment to more than half a millions Kenyans, is expected to generate about Sh70 billion this year with a forecast of grossing Sh200 billion by 2012.

Unlike Botswana, Namibia and South Africa, who have been avid proponents of ivory trading, Kenya does not hold mineral reserves that have been the engines of economic growths in these countries.

As a result, its wildlife is among the key resources that the country is betting on to catapult it into a middle income country by 2030 as prescribed in the vision 2030 blueprint. Therefore, we hail the 16 African governments that came to Kenya's defence since the performance of a sector that forms a key plank to Kenya's economic prosperity is at stake.

THE BIG IVORY DEBATE: To sell or not sell


Investors are raising the red flag as some foreign government and conservations and animal rights groups intensify a campaign to tighten the noose on trophy smuggling

By Tom Mosoba

A seemingly innocent and procedural proposal by the government to sell 90 tonnes of its ivory stockpiles has taken an unexpected twist that could return to haunt the nation in the long run.

Keen on pushing through with the sale to raise an estimated $15 million in much needed revenues, the government has, however, come under severe criticism that is threatening the country's image in the international arena.

Interestingly, even though Zambia has made a similar proposal, it is Tanzania that has attracted much of the scrutiny, with influential media in the UK and US accusing the country of seeking to abet elephant poaching and illegal trade in banned trophy.

Alarmed by the negative portrayal in the campaign to block Tanzania and Zambia, tourism investors are warning that the matter could destabilise the fledging tourism sector.

The investors are raising the red-flag as some foreign governments and conservation and animal rights groups converge on a platform to intensify calls to tighten the noose on ivory trade and smuggling to stop elephant poaching.

The chairman of the Zanzibar Association of Tourism Investors (Zati) Mr Mohammed Simai says that the campaign will impede Tanzania's efforts in recent years to promote tourism, including game viewing in prominent national game reserves like Selous, Serengeti and Ngorongoro.

"As private investors in tourism, we are foreseeing problems in this push to sell ivory. The choice of our game reserves as preferred destinations by high end tourists from the UK and US will be undermined by campaigns linking the country with elephant killing and smuggling," warned Mr Simani.

He told The Citizen that Zati members on Wednesday wrote to the Union and Zanzibar Governments to urge for shelving of the proposal to sell the 90 tonnes of ivory for the sake of avoiding negative publicity that will hurt the industry.

"We are urging President Jakaya Kikwete to intervene and stop the move to sell the ivory,"Mr Simani said in a telephone interview from Zanzibar. He said the furore that followed the revelation did not portend well with tourism promotion and regional trade objectives.

He said Zati as a member of the Tourism Confederation of Tanzania (TCT) has forwarded its concerns to the agency and demanded that prudent decisions to safeguard the country's tourism image be taken over the ivory saga.

"Some international environmental and animal protection campaigners are already sending warnings that Tanzania risked blacklisting as a preferred game viewing spot if it pushed through the sale of seized elephant tusks," cautioned Mr Simani.

The TCT executive secretary Mr Richard Rugimbana confirmed on Wednesday that the body had held a meeting of members over the matter but said no concrete outcome had been reached.

"We are still consulting and have not come to a common position with the many other authorities involved," Mr Rugimbana said.

Mr Simani warned that the tourism sector that was recovering from a decline caused by the global economic crisis last year does not deserve another round of controversy. "I urge the government to act on the long term interest of this vital sector and drop its case at the Cites meeting," he said.

The Zati chairman noted that the $15 million envisaged from the sale was a drop in the sea compared to potential tourism arrival loses were campaigners to dissuade visitors from touring due to poaching and smuggling concerns. Tanzania earned $1.3 billion (Sh1.6 trillion) in 2008 from 642,000 tourists to account for 17.2 per cent of the GDP.

�What we are doing is digging a well while we are still in a hole. Tanzania�s positive image that has been achieved through investment of millions of shillings is bound to suffer if we are branded as supporting activities that promote poaching,� said Mr Simani adding that Zanzibar would lose heavily because 30 per cent of foreigners who end there were game viewing tourists.

The call by Zati, is the first local opposition to the move by the government and coincided with a visit by a delegation from the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) to assess if the country deserved a stockpile trade window.

Cites was established to check practices that threatened endangered animals species across the world and in 1989 banned the sale and trade in ivory to protect the African Elephant whose population was under siege from marauding poachers. A growing demand for ivory in Japan and China was blamed for fuelling a smuggling syndicate worldwide.

But arguing that its elephant population was safe and on the rise, the government has asked Cites to allow controlled trade in legal ivory exports. The application alongside that of Zambia would be decided at the Cites conference in Qatar in March.

Tourism and Natural Resources minister Ms Shamsa Mwangunga has indicted that the government would match on with it agenda. She noted that the sale proceeds would be used in conservation efforts and help fight poaching.

But her stance has attracted opposition from East Africa Community partners Kenya and Rwanda, and angered several other western countries and conservation groups that are campaigning to block an approval by Cites.

Britain's Environmental Secretary Mr Hilary Benn declare on Monday that UK will vote against Tanzania and Zambia at the Doha conference after pilling pressure from Members of Parliament and the media.

The 'Times' this week wrote "Tanzania has established itself as the leading country for the illegal slaughter and export of ivory."It reported that up to 50 elephants were killed every month at Selous national reserve, and "the authorities are torching the carcasses to cover it up."

It also quoted a DNA research that established that recent seizures of smuggled trophy were from Tanzania�s elephant species.

Other countries that have called for a 20 years ban as the strongest possible international moratorium on trade in ivory at last week's Brussels meeting ahead of the Qatar conference include Mali, Benin, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Republic of Congo and Government of Southern Sudan.

Namibia is the only country that has openly declared support for the proposal. "We will support Tanzania and Zambia�s proposal because it is in line with our philosophy of utilising our natural resources sustainably," Dr Kalumbi Shangula, the Environment and Tourism Permanent Secretary was reported as saying.

Washington based Species Survival Network (SSN) and Humane Society International, a protectionist charity also based in the US protested a new trade window would boost poaching and fuel illegal trade in trophy around the world.

quote:

Since then, the incidence poaching in Kenya has been on the up with 232 elephants being felled in 2009, 145 in 2008 and 47 in 2007.

There are approx. 32,000 elephants in Kenya and the great threat to the Kenyan people and their juggernaut economy is poaching taking less than 1% per year. Rhetoric trumps reality all too often.