SA IMPLICATED IN ILLEGAL TRADE OF HIPPO IVORY

South Africa is one of 48 countries implicated in the illegal trade in hippo ivory, according to a recently released report by wildlife trade specialists Traffic.

According to the Mail & Guardian newspaper, the report’s aim was to assess the legal and illegal international trade in semiaquatic mammals between 2009 and 2018. This was done by analysing data from the trade database of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), as well as from data from Traffic’s wildlife trade information system.

Evidence of 163 incidents of illegal trade in hippo ivory was uncovered, with law-enforcement authorities seizing an estimated 957 kg and 6 335 specimens of hippo ivory in that period.

The illicit trade, the report says, implicated many of the countries and territories that commonly imported or exported hippo ivory legally. Hippo teeth were the most-seized specimen, with carvings and skulls also seized in smaller quantities.

Uganda was responsible for about 27 % of the seizures, followed by Tanzania, with mainland China and Hong Kong collectively accounting for 31 %.

South Africa was involved as the country of export, or as a transit country, in eight seizures of hippo ivory, while being responsible for three seizures itself. Malawi, Cameroon, and Kenya made between five and ten seizures each.

The common hippo is listed as vulnerable on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature’s Red List of Threatened Species. The largest number of hippos are found in Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

Many countries and territories in which hippos are found allow permitted trophy hunting of hippos and the export of hippo ivory that comes from government stockpiles, including Ethiopia, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe, according to the report.

(Source: Mail & Guardian)