Cites is just a hindrance to Africa, says lobbyist
AFRICA would be “better off” without Cites, says a controversial former game ranger and big game hunter, who hopes to see the day when its countries “recover their sovereign rights to manage their wildlife affairs as they see fit”.
Ron Thomson is president of The True Green Alliance, which “rejects the animal rights doctrine”, and says African countries should regain control of their international wildlife product markets.
“Whether the species on the agenda is the African elephant, the Javan rhino, the Arctic walrus, the green sea turtle of the Caribbean, or the orangutans of Sumatra and Borneo, more than 90 percent of (Cites) delegates hail from non-range states,” he told Zimbabwe’s Environment Minister, Oprah Machinguri-Kashiri, at discussions earlier this month about approaches to Cites.
“Most have never seen the species concerned... They don’t have any understanding of their management needs.”
Adam Welz, the South African representative of WildAid, says Thomson didn’t “appreciate how profoundly global ideas about elephants and other wildlife are changing, and how massive an industry wildlife viewing has become. There are many ways for communities to profit from wild animals without killing them.”
An article in Nature has said overexploitation, which includes hunting, is the biggest cause of wild species being pushed closer to extinction.
At Cites CoP17, which gets under way in Joburg today, the Minister of Environmental Affairs, Edna Molewa, will tell delegates how the sustainable use of wildlife – the doctrine “if it pays, it stays” – has contributed to the socioeconomic development of poor and rural communities.
“Game farming, the hunting industry, ecotourism and bioprospecting play a significant role.”
Wiaan van der Linde, the president of Wildlife Ranching SA, has “appealed” to CoP17 delegates to remain true to Cites’ original aim of ensuring the sustainable use of species and ecosystems, which he says support millions of rural communities as well as major industries.
“Sustainable utilisation is a policy that has allowed southern Africa’s rural communities to benefit from wildlife and has allowed people and wild animals to live together.”
Ted Reilly, the chief executive of Swaziland’s Big Game Parks, and who composed its controversial last-minute proposal to Cites that trade in rhino horn be permitted, agrees.
“There’s not a single conservation agency in Africa that is not understaffed and cashstrapped. It’s not necessary… when it’s custodian to the most valuable self-renewing natural resource on earth.
“When elephants and rhinos are gone and are no longer an issue, the hype of activists will descend down the line and end up with impala and they, too, will go once their food value is banned.
“Goats and cattle will go when their consumptive use is banned. Then only will it be the end of animal rights activists.”
Tharia Unwin, chief executive of the Professional Hunters’ Association of SA, says sustainable use is integral to management.