CITES Convention for June 2007...

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CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN ENDANGERED SPECIES
OF WILD FAUNA AND FLORA
__________________________
Fourteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties
The Hague (Netherlands), 3-15 June 2007
Interpretation and implementation of the Convention
Conservation of elephants and trade in elephant specimens
ILLEGAL IVORY TRADE AND CONTROL OF INTERNAL MARKETS
1. This document has been prepared by Kenya and Mali.
Introduction
2. This document is intended to support CoP14 Prop. XX submitted by Kenya and Mali on the African elephant
and outlines proposed submissions to the 14th Conference of the Parties to CITES (CoP14) to assist with
control of the ivory trade. These include a 20 year moratorium on trade in raw and worked ivory and
strengthened CITES requirements for ivory trade controls through amendments to Resolution Conf. 10.10 (Rev.
CoP12). It is intended to support and strengthen the Action Plan for the Control of Trade in African Elephant
Ivory, which Kenya and Mali fully support.
3. The illegal trade in ivory and uncontrolled domestic markets for ivory around the world present a considerable
problem, not only for the long term survival of many elephant populations, but also for wildlife law enforcement
authorities in range States and consumer countries. Since the last Conference of the Parties to CITES, CoP13
in Bangkok in October 2004, there have been a significant number of large seizures of ivory. The estimated
total amount of ivory reported seized since CoP13 is 41,043 kg (see table in Annex 1). Note that this is higher
than the figure quoted in CoP14 Prop. XX because in the short time since preparing the proposal two more
large seizures have been reported, one in Vietnam and one in France. On the basis of these seizures it is
estimated that somewhere in the order of 20,000 or more elephants have been poached annually since Cop13
to supply illegal ivory markets (see below).
4. At the 54th CITES Standing Committee meeting (SC54) in October 2006, the Director of ETIS (Elephant Trade
Information System) confirmed an “upsurge of seizures” in the last year. He also emphasized an increase in
organized crime and reported that government stockpiles were disappearing in some countries; this is also
confirmed in the Central African Elephant Conservation Strategy1.
5. An investigation in China in May and June 2006 found that the price of ivory on the illegal market was
US$560-750 / kg, representing up to a three fold increase in two years2. In Sudan and Egypt there has been a
twofold to fourfold increase in recent years. Further rises in ivory prices will continue to increase the incentive
for those involved in poaching and the illegal sale of ivory.
6. Thus demand for ivory has increased significantly since CoP13. Continued debate in CITES about re-opening
trade serves to fuel this demand, bringing with it increased enforcement challenges, particularly for elephant
range States. Such challenges demand fresh approaches. One such approach is DNA profiling, which has been
used to analyse the 6.5 tonnes of ivory seized in Singapore in 2002 (the results indicating that the majority of
the ivory was from elephants in Zambia (SC54 Doc. 26.1 (Rev. 1)).
7. Meanwhile, an essential element of any system to control ivory trade is the ability to monitor the flow of ivory
and to trace worked ivory back to the tusk or original piece of raw ivory and the country from which it
originated. This will require each State, particularly those with elephant populations on Appendix II and those
designated as ivory importing countries, to introduce a computerised registration system, by which all tusks
and cut pieces are marked and recorded on a database that is compatible with the databases of other Parties.
8. A moratorium on ivory trade would allow time - free from effects of any further CITES decisions on ivory trade
- to bring illegal trade under control; to develop new methodology (e.g. using DNA profiling) to meet the
considerable enforcement challenges facing African (and Asian) elephant range States; to allow for the proper
development of a standardised computer-based registration and tracking system; to determine the effects of
1 Strategy for the Conservation of elephants in central Africa, 2005 (Anon). http://www.iucn.org/themes/ssc/sgs/afesg/tools/
2 Ivory Market in China: China Ivory Trade Survey Report, IFAW, Jun 2006.
CoP14 Doc. XX
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the one-off stockpile sale agreed to conditionally at CoP12; to determine and address the factors that are
driving the expanding illegal market; and to provide time to refine MIKE (the programme for Monitoring Illegal
Killing of Elephants) so that it can become an instrument more capable of detecting problems with poaching at
an early stage.
9. Meanwhile, Resolution Conf. 10.10 (Rev. CoP12) on trade in elephant specimens needs to be amended and
improved. Originally concluded at CoP10 in Harare, it is widely recognized that the Resolution is flawed. The
requirements it lays out for controlling internal trade in ivory are not adequate. Nevertheless these requirements
provide the measure for determining – under the Action Plan for the Control of Trade in African Elephant Ivory -
whether domestic ivory markets outside Africa comply with CITES.
Ivory seizures and poaching
10. The significant number of large seizures of ivory since CoP13 illustrates that demand for ivory has increased
substantially in the last two years. Clearly, many thousands of elephants are dying annually to supply the illegal
ivory markets. Among the most recent seizures are 3,000 kg in Osaka, Japan, in August 2006 and 1,500 kg in
France in November 2006, while over 5 tonnes were seized in two shipments in Taiwan in July 2006 (see
table in Annex 1 which summarizes information reported on these seizures at the time of writing). The ivory
seized totals 34,108.5 kg3 plus a further 155 tusks (of unspecified weight). A report distributed at SC54 in
October 2006 records another 5,639 kg and 197 tusks seized in many small seizures,4 bringing the total
reported in less than two years to 39,747.5 kg and 352 tusks, an estimated total of 41,043 kg.5 This is the
highest amount of ivory reported seized during any period between CITES conferences since African elephant
populations were listed on Appendix I in 1989. Using an average tusk weight of 3.68 kg6 and 1.88 tusks per
elephant,7 these seizures equate to 5,932 dead elephants. If enforcement authorities seize 15% of illegal
shipments of ivory (a generous estimate), the figures indicate that nearly 274 tonnes of ivory were in trade and
that approximately 39,550 elephants (or possibly more considering the need to supply the domestic markets)
have been poached since CoP13.
11. A report for CoP12 on data gathered by ETIS stated that 150 countries were implicated in the illegal ivory trade
(CoP12 Doc. 34.1). Analysis of ETIS ivory seizure data demonstrated that illicit ivory trade is most directly
correlated with the presence of large-scale, unregulated domestic ivory markets, which exhibit a poor degree of
enforcement effort. At CoP13, it was reported that illicit trade in ivory continued to be most directly related to
the presence of these markets in Asia and Africa (CoP13 Doc. 29.2). Furthermore, the ETIS report stated that
“to some extent, such markets have become more active since 1997” (notably, the year three populations of
African elephants were downlisted to Appendix II). The report concluded, inter alia, that “Cameroon, China, the
Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Nigeria and Thailand are most highly implicated in the illicit
trade in ivory, and have held this distinction since CoP12.”
12. At CoP12, ETIS data showed a declining trend in ivory seizures from 1989 to 1994, followed by a period of
stability from 1994 to 1998 and an increasing trend from 1998 to 2002. The report linked the increasing trend
with the emergence of demand for ivory in China rather than the one-off sale of ivory that took place in 1999.
This finding was contested by the Executive Director General of the CITES Management Authority of China
who stated that many Chinese people misunderstood the decision to allow a one-off sale of ivory, and that the
apparent legality of ivory on sale in some elephant range States gives the wrong signal to Chinese people
working or touring in those countries.8 At CoP13, based on more than 1,000 additional ivory seizures reported
since CoP12, analysis of the ETIS data showed a decline from 1989 to 1994 and then a gradual increase from
1995 to 2002 (data from 2003 was considered deficient). It “continue[d] to confirm the findings of the ETIS
analysis to CoP12 that identified China as the single most important country in the ivory trade today”. (CoP13
Doc. 29.2).
13. The increasing trend in illegal ivory trade presents a clear threat to elephant populations, particularly in areas
most vulnerable to poaching. Section 5 of CoP14 Prop. XX documents recent heavy poaching in DRC,
particularly Salonga, Kahuzi Biega, Virunga and Garamba National Parks and Okapi Fauna Reserve. Widespread
and uncontrolled poaching has been reported in and around Zakouma National Park in Chad, while a recent
census found no elephants in Nigeria’s Sambisa Game Reserve (a MIKE site), where elephants had been subject
to heavy poaching in the three years before the survey.
3 Note that further verification is merited as to whether the 7 tonnes reported in illegal trade in Zimbabwe in May 2006 has been seized.
4 Ivory Update, compiled by Born Free Foundation and SSN for SC54, 2-6 Oct 2006.
5 Using an average tusk weight of 3.68 kg (Hunter, N., Martin, E. and Milliken, T. Determining the number of elephants required to supply
current unregulated ivory markets in Africa and Asia, Pachyderm No.36, Jan-Jun 2004).
6 Ibid.
7 Parker, I.S.C., and Martin, E.B. How many elephants are killed for the ivory trade, Oryx 16 (3): 235-239, 1982.
8 Chen Jianwei. Letter to TRAFFIC, 14 Oct 2002.
CoP14 Doc. XX
14. At a symposium on elephant conservation in Accra, Ghana in August 2006,9 participants from wildlife
authorities reported that poaching was the main cause of decline for elephants in Central African Republic
(CAR), Cameroon and Ethiopia and a serious threat in Niokolo Koba National Park in Senegal, as well as in
Benin and Niger. Organised poaching syndicates also pose a challenge in Malawi. In Liberia, with the end of the
civil war, poachers were reported to have returned to the bush. Poaching was confirmed to be a problem in
Kakoum and Mole national parks in Ghana.
15. Poaching also presents an on-going threat in east Africa. In Kenya, despite an elaborate enforcement network,
a total of 212 elephants have been confirmed poached to obtain their ivory since CoP13: 91 in 2004, 68 in
2005, and 53 from January to November 2006. Between January 2004 and November 2006, a total of
2,180.65kg of ivory and 55 pieces have been seized in Kenya. In 2006 alone, up to September, there were 54
seizures of ivory totalling 907.1 kg and 18 pieces. Since 2002, there have been three major seizures of ivory
shipments originating from Tanzania: more than 5 tonnes in July 2006 in Taiwan; almost two tonnes in Hong
Kong in October 2003; and 3.2 tonnes recovered in Dar es Salaam in January 2002 (see Annex 2 Table B of
CoP14 Prop. XX).
16. Elephants in Zambia have come under heavy pressure from poaching. Six tonnes of ivory seized in the
Philippines in January 2006 is believed to have come from Zambia. The country has also been confirmed as the
source of 6.5 tonnes of ivory shipped from South Africa and seized in Singapore in 2002. The same route has
allegedly been used 19 times before, involving 123.5 tonnes of ivory between 1994 and 2002, possibly also
originating from Zambia.10