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COP 11:
A Win for Sustainable Conservation of Elephants & the Patience of Southern African Nations. Actions taken Monday, April 18, on proposals related to the sustainable use of the abundant elephant stocks in four southern African nations were victories for the future of the animals and testament to the wisdom and patience of the people of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. 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. 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." The outcome of deliberations on elephant proposals showed the wisdom and patience of the southern African people. Some believe their work produced a crack in relationship between Kenya and non-use nations and NGOs. Given the economic plight of their nation and depleted resources of their conservation program, Kenya may well begin a shift from its absolute protectionist stand on wildlife management to one of "sustainable use" by the next meeting of the CITES Parties. Praise is deserved by the CITES Secretariat for publicly rejecting the animal extremist groups’ illogical claims that poaching and illegal trade is precipitated by legal trade in wildlife products. Namibia said it best when that nation’s delegation told delegates during Committee I debates on the elephant proposals that the ‘no-trade’ stand of protectionist groups and nations forced developing nations with abundant wildlife "to be beggars." The potential hard currency revenues represented by trade in ivory from elephants that die from natural causes each year is fantastic. 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. The willingness of the COP 11 delegates to acknowledge the potential economic, environmental, and social benefits to be derived from the use of elephant products, including ivory, was a true sign of the cooperative spirit and political wisdom among the African nations. Now the rest of the world needs to support Africa and promote sustainable trade in Africa’s resources. With trade, the hungry people of today, are the healthy, peaceful conservators of tomorrow." |
