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Attempt to trade in ivory fails at CoP17

Xinhua, October 4, 2016 Adjust font size:

An attempt by Zimbabwe and Namibia to allow trade in ivory was rejected on Monday at the 17th Conference of the Parties (Cop17) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), taking place in Johannesburg.

During the discussion chaired by the CITES Committee, Zimbabwe's Environment Minister Oppah Muchinguri-Kashiri argued that her country has 90 tonnes of ivory stockpile that could fetch up to 50 million U.S dollars at the market.

"Effective and sustainable conservation of Zimbabwe's elephants, is dependent on establishing regular open market sales of elephant ivory to fund management and law enforcement," Muchinguri-Kashiri said.

"It will also address rural communities livelihood. Ivory trade ban has been a failure and it should be seen as part of the problem," she argued.

Nambian Environment Minister Pohamba Shifeka added that allowing these countries to trade in ivory will ensure that communities get direct benefits from the elephants in their surroundings.

He said the sale will generate funds needed for conservation.

"The generation of revenue from the sale of elephant products, will finance elephant conservation projects, including the management of protected areas and combating of illegal killing and trade," Shifeka said.

However, the Unites States, the European Union and some other Western countries rejected the proposal.

Nevertheless, there was celebration at the conference when Southern African countries garnered enough support to block an attempt by Western countries to up-list all elephant populations from appendix II to appendix I.

Listing the elephant under appendix I would have meant that no one will be allowed to trade in live elephant or their parts.

The elephants are currently under appendix II where trade is allowed with the permission of CITES but ivory trade still remained banned.

Both these matters and others adopted at this conference will now be referred to the entire CITES delegates for either adoption or rejection.

Zimbabwe has an estimated 85,000 elephants while Namibia has up to 20,000. Endit