CITES Parties fail to agree on stricter measures to protect elephants

Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) on Sunday failed to agree on stricter measures to protect elephants.

CITES' 17th Conference of Parties (Cop17), being held in Johannesburg, watered down the proposals by 10 African elephant range states to destroy ivory stockpiles and close domestic markets.

Falling short of approving the proposals, Parties decided to develop guidelines for the management of stockpiles including disposal, instead of robust encouragement of parties to destroy their ivory stockpiles.

As for domestic markets, the adopted document only encourages countries to close those markets that contribute to poaching and illegal trade.

Proposals on the destruction of ivory stockpiles and closure of domestic markets were merged into a single resolution, leaving each much weaker, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) said.

The decision would leave the animals exposed to the menace of poaching for illegal ivory trade, said the IFAW.

"Given that stockpiles represent a security risk and are a target for criminals to steal and leak ivory into commercial markets, there really should be no question that stockpiles of confiscated ivory should be destroyed with as little impediment as possible," said Grace Gabriel, Asia Regional Director for IFAW.

It's a pity that countries with existing legal domestic ivory markets ignored the risks legal markets may bring to elephant populations and local communities due to the opportunities they creates for the laundering of illegal ivory under the guise of legality, Gabriel said. Enditem