Media Release: 18 April 2000

CITES: Win for Sustainable Conservation of Elephants & Patience of Southern African Nations. Change in Kenyan “Protectionist” Stand Predicted.

UNEP Headquarters, Gigiri, Kenya (April 17, 2000):  Actions taken Monday on proposals related to the sustainable use of abundant elephant stocks in four southern African nations were hailed as a victory for the future of the animals and a testament to the wisdom and patience of the people of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, according to IWMC World Conservation Trust as the delegates to the 11th Conference of the Parties (CoP 11) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) opened its second week in Gigiri, Kenya. 

“The delegates’ decision to maintain the southern African nations’ elephant stocks on Appendix II is an acknowledgement of and highly deserved reward for those nations’ excellent record of managing their wildlife resources,” said Eugene Lapointe, president of IWMC-World Conservation Trust and former CITES Secretary General (1982-1990).  “Appendix II is a sustainable management status that allows highly controlled trade in surplus wildlife products, an important source of hard currency that benefits the animals and people alike.”

Lapointe said the outcome of deliberations on elephant proposals showed the wisdom and patience of the southern African people and predicted that Kenya will shift from its absolute protectionist stand on wildlife management to one of “sustainable use” by the next meeting of the CITES Parties.  He also praised the CITES Secretariat for rejecting the animal extremist groups’ illogical claims that poaching and illegal trade is precipitated by legal trade in wildlife products.

“The representative of Namibia said it best when he told the delegates that the ‘no-trade’ stand of protectionist groups and nations forced developing nations with abundant wildlife ‘to be beggars,’” said Lapointe.  “Even Kenya is coming to recognize the immense wealth nature and the animals provide.”

The potential hard currency revenues represented by trade in ivory from elephants that die from natural causes each year is “fantastic,” said Lapointe.  Based on a formula conservative continent-wide elephant population of 500,000 animals and a natural mortality rate of 2-5%, the most conservative estimate of this ivory donated by the elephants is 150-200 tonnes per year.  That is tens of millions of U.S. dollars that can and should be used for the conservation of all of Africa’s wild resources and to help alleviate poverty, the prime cause of social unrest and environmental pollution worldwide.  Millions of more dollars can be generated by trade in hides.

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