Botswana joins SADC countries in advocating for ivory sales
CITES conference underway in Zimbabwe Ivory offsets in Botswana currently kept in safe Proceeds could be re- directed towards funding conservation protection initiatives
Botswana will this weekend make a strong voice at an international conference held at Kangwe National Park in Zimbabwe, to develop policy formulated to ensure that southern Africa countries are allowed to carry out legal trade of ivory.
The Convention on International Trade on Endangered Species ( CITES) conference opened in Zimbabwe on Tuesday and the conference started off with deliberations geared at lobbying for support from the international community to allow for sale of ivory for economic benefit to countries and to also reduce ivory stockpiles that are piling up.
The conference is attended by 16 countries, as well as China and Japan, which are considered the Asian countries with the biggest market for ivory trade.
Zimbabwe has threatened to quit CITES if legal ivory sales is not allowed, and it is believed that other southern African countries, including Botswana, would follow suit. Zimbabwe, which forms part of the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area ( KAZA), which Botswana is part of, has argued that it’s elephant population is growing at a rate of five to eight percent, which is unsustainable, adding that proceeds from the sale would help to manage the fast growing population of the elephants, which if not controlled, could reach “dangerous proportions.”
A statement from 50 wildlife and animal rights organisations, which was released on Monday, ahead of the conference insists that eye- opening trade of ivory would encourage poaching, and perpetuates the notion that “elephants are mere commodities and that ivory trade could resume, which would spark a sharp escalation in poaching.”
CITES banned trade of ivory in 1989, in efforts to curb poaching.
At the Zimbabwe conference, opposition is from largely East and West Africa countries - they are part of the Africa Elephant Coalition- who maintain that opening the legal trade of ivory would encourage and increase poaching.
Botswana has a strong voice too, considering that it is home to the highest elephant population in the world, approximately 130, 000. Botswana and Zimbabwe are home to 50 percent of the world’s elephant population.
Speaking to this publication yesterday from the conference, director in the Department of Wildlife and National Parks, Kabelo Senyatso, noted that Botswana has a firm stand when it comes to ivory sales. “We stand in solidarity with SADC member states that hold loads of ivory in stockpiles which are not of any benefit to us. I must emphasise that Botswana does not intend to burn them; we prefer the opening of legal trade channels,” he said.
He explained that the ivory from the special elephant quote for example, are currently in safe custody as the country continues its campaign to lobby the opening of ivory trade.
He said that Botswana set up the Conservation
Trust Fund, which they hope would also benefit from proceeds from the legal ivory sales.
The Conservation Trust Fund was established to benefit communities in elephant range areas by offering grants of up to one million Pula directed at initiatives that bolster their livelihood, and to secondly, support initiatives geared at the conservation of elephants. The Conservation Trust Fund was established from proceeds from the 1999 once- off ivory sale.
Senyatso insisted that there is a market to sell the ivory stockpiles. “The fact that there is a huge market of illegal ivory trade is an indicator that there is a huge lucrative market. We want the sale of ivory to be legal and regulated. The proceeds from these sales would greatly benefit Government and contribute to funding initiatives aimed at improving the livelihoods of Batswana.”