U.S. President Bill Clinton says Africans should not benefit from Wildlife. Congressmen beg to differ.

17 April 2000: U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton issued a statement from the White House pledging his Administration's intention of blocking all attempts by African nations to derive economic benefit from their wildlife resources. The President's opposition to proposals to "reopen trade in elephant ivory" was issued as the first week of the 11th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) drew to a close at the UN Environmental Programme (UNEP) headquarters, Gigiri, Kenya.

"The President’s position flies in the face of a completely contradictory statement issued by six U.S. Congressman, the recent Cairo Plan of Action agreed to by the European Union and the heads of African states, and the earlier words of the President himself," said Eugene Lapointe, President of IWMC World Conservation Trust, and former Secretary General of CITES (1982-1990).

"I can’t believe President Clinton even saw such a statement," said Lapointe. "After all this is the man who so eloquently expressed the importance of African nations managing their wildlife resources during his visit to Botswana two or so years ago".

Six Members of the U.S. Congress expressed exactly the opposite point of view in a letter to Donald Barry, head of the U.S. Delegation to CITES COP 11. In the Congressional letter, dated April 4, 2000 and signed by Reps. Neil Abercrombie, Richard Pombo, Tom Campbell, Ed Royce, Gregory Meeks, and George Radanovich, the U.S. delegation to CITES was urged to support the elephant proposals by Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe seeking the sustainable use of elephant surplus and ivory stockpiles.

The Congressmen complimented the strides in conservation of Africa’s environment, its flora and fauna and its cultural heritage made by the nations in question and such community development programs as Zimbabwe’s CAMPFIRE.

Unlike the White House statement, the Congressional message compliments the recently agreed to Cairo Plan of Action issued by the European Union and the Organization of African Unions (OAU) April 3-4, 2000. The Cairo POA was signed to support "integrating Africa into the World economy," promoting human rights, the maintenance of civil order, and the alleviation of poverty, illiteracy, and disease through trade, and in particular, through the promotion of "the conservation of Africa’s rich heritage in biological diversity, which is a global asset, and promote its sustainable use for the benefit of local people".�