Ivory income ‘to fund conservation’
Zimbabwe has opened vaults containing 135 tonnes of ivory and rhino horn, as it calls for the stockpile to be sold to fund the conservation of its growing and ‘‘dangerous’’ elephant population.
A ‘‘one-off sale’’ of the cache, seized from smugglers and poachers, and harvested from carcasses found in the country’s national parks, would raise NZ$977m, and all the proceeds would go towards wildlife management, the government said.
The sale of ivory has been banned since 1989 by Cites, the international body that monitors endangered species.
The Zimbabwean government has warned that it may resort to culling its 100,000-strong elephant population, which it claims is double the capacity of its overwhelmed national parks.
Fulton Mangwanya, head of the parks and wildlife agency, said lockdowns during the Covid19 pandemic and bans on international travel had hammered Zimbabwe’s tourism industry, leaving little money for antipoaching costs and supporting communities ‘‘bearing the brunt’’ of living near destructive elephants.
‘‘These elephants are multiplying at a dangerous rate: 5% per annum,’’ Mangwanya said. Each adult elephant ate about 140kg of fruit, grasses and bark a day, and the burgeoning population was making it harder for other animals to find food.
Zimbabwe will host an ‘‘elephant summit’’ for officials from 14 African countries, as well as China and Japan, this month to discuss strategies to manage wildlife and to lobby for continental support to make money from ivory stocks.
Its neighbour Botswana, where elephant tusk trophy hunters were recently allowed to return, has also argued that it is overpopulated with elephants, and that selling its ivory stocks is necessary for conservation. The two countries are home to 230,000 elephants – more than half of Africa’s total population.
Despite the bans, the illegal trade in ivory and rhino horn continues, mostly driven by demand in Asia, where tusks are turned into trinkets and rhino horn is used in a range of remedies.
The criminal trade is responsible for the slaughter of an estimated 50 elephants a day. Rising poverty and a loss of tourism jobs and income has made it easier for international smuggling gangs to recruit local poachers, conservationists say.
– The Times