CITES YIELDS TO INTENSE PRESSURE AND CONTINUES BAN ON IVORY TRADE
(Posted 17th January 2016)
The CITES Standing Committee has agreed not to advance any negotiations to legalize the global ivory trade at the recently concluded 66th meeting of the Standing Committee in Geneva.
The decision, some say taken somewhat reluctantly, came after a growing number of African countries, emboldened by the support from the EU, the United States, India and Israel, warned the organization that CITES – already under huge pressure for its perceived failures in both past and present – needed to send an unequivocal signal to the world against poaching and smuggling of blood ivory.
Several countries which backed the trade in ivory however objected to the ruling, claiming that no clear link has been established between a legal trade system and the current poaching crisis, but they were in the minority. This group was led by South Africa, which, considering her dismal record vis a vis rhino poaching in recent years and the upswing in elephant poaching over the past months, is now under threat to becoming the continents conservation pariah, taking over from Tanzania where the new government is finally cracking down hard and decisively on poaching.
Mr. Patrick Omondi, a member of the Kenyan delegation which chairs the African Elephant Coalition said reportedly said: ‘We are now looking forward to a total closure of all domestic markets and more protection measures in the coming COP [Conference of Parties] in South Africa. I believe this will push the market prices down thus leading to less pressure on elephants‘.
All populations of African elephants were listed on CITES Appendix I in 1989, which banned the international trade in ivory. This protection however was hollowed out in 1997 and 2000 when South Africa and others in cohorts with them bullied through a set of weakened regulations and attained permission to sell ivory stocks, following which poaching immediately escalated.
One Response
Thank God CITES is finally stepping up instead of being swayed by the almighty dollar. They are responsible for these animals to protect them and ensure their viable numbers. The selling of over 100 baby elephants to China should have been stopped since Zimbabwe will sell its animals into extinction. And no more zoos or circuses.