CoP14 Prop. 4 [Botswana, Namibia] Maintenance of the populations of African Elephant Loxodonta africana of
Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe in Appendix, with the replacement of all existing annotations
with the following annotation:
“1) The establishment of annual export quotas for trade in raw ivory is determined in accordance with Resolution Conf.
10.10 (Rev. CoP12);
2) Trade in raw ivory is restricted to trading partners that have been certified by the Secretariat, in consultation with the
Standing Committee, to have sufficient national legislation and domestic trade controls to ensure that the imported ivory
will not be re-exported and will be managed in accordance with the requirements of Resolution Conf. 10.10 (Rev.
CoP12) concerning manufacturing and trade; and
3) The proceeds of the trade in raw ivory are to be used exclusively for elephant conservation and community
development programmes.”
1
Recommendation
This Proposal seeks to replace the current annotation governing trade in specimens of the four African Elephant
populations currently listed in Appendix II and seeks to establish annual commercial quotas for trade in raw ivory
subject to certain conditions. However, the Proposal fails to address the guidelines in Resolution Conf. 11.21 (Rev.
CoP13) which state: “for species transferred from Appendix I to II subject to an annotation that specifies the types of
specimen included in the Appendix, specimens that are not specifically included in the annotation shall be deemed to be
specimens of species included in Appendix I and the trade in them shall be regulated accordingly”. As a result, it
appears that the effect of this Proposal, if accepted, would be that other elephant specimens—including those currently
eligible for trade—would be regarded as specimens of species included in Appendix I. Amending the Proposal to
resolve this apparent impact would constitute an expansion of the scope, something disallowed under the CoP Rules of
Procedure.
It is premature to establish annual commercial export quotas for raw ivory, as called for in Resolution Conf. 10.10, since
the MIKE (Monitoring Illegal Killing of Elephants – one of the CITES elephant monitoring systems) baseline has not
yet been established. This was a key condition envisaged by the Parties when a one-off sale for specimens from three
elephant populations in Appendix II at CoP12 was agreed in 2002. Further analysis of ivory seizure data in ETIS
(Elephant Trade Information System – the other CITES monitoring system) will, for the third time, demonstrate an
increasing trend in illicit trade in ivory since the mid-1990s. This trend is most directly correlated to unregulated
domestic ivory markets and, so far, the CITES action plan to curtail such markets in Africa appears to have failed to
achieve any significant positive results so far.
REJECT
CoP14 Prop. 5 [Botswana] Amendment of the annotation to the population of African Elephant Loxodonta
africana of Botswana to read as follows:
“For the exclusive purpose of allowing in the case of the population of Botswana:
1) trade in hunting trophies for non-commercial purposes;
2) trade in hides for commercial purposes;
3) trade in leather goods for commercial purposes;
4) trade in live animals for commercial purposes to appropriate and acceptable destinations (and as determined by the
national legislation of the country of import);
5) trade annually in registered stocks of raw ivory (whole tusks and pieces of not more than 8 tonnes) of Botswana
origin owned by the Government of Botswana for commercial purposes only with trading partners that have been
certified by the Secretariat, in consultation with the Standing Committee, to have sufficient national legislation and
domestic trade controls to ensure that the imported ivory will not be re-exported and will be managed in accordance
with the requirements of Resolution Conf. 10.10 (Rev. CoP12) concerning manufacturing and trade; and
6) trade in registered stocks of raw ivory (whole tusks and pieces of not more than 40 tonnes) of Botswana origin owned
by the Government for commercial purposes on a one-off sale immediately after the adoption of the Proposal. Botswana
will trade only with trading partners that have been certified by the Secretariat, in consultation with the Standing
Committee, to have sufficient national legislation and domestic trade controls to ensure that the imported ivory will not
be re-exported and will be managed in accordance with the requirements of Resolution Conf. 10.10 (Rev. CoP12)
concerning manufacturing and trade.”
Recommendation
Botswana has at least a quarter of Africa’s elephant population, and an impressive conservation record. This Proposal
does not seek to change the current inclusion of Botswana’s elephant population in Appendix II with respect to hunting
trophies and trade in hides, but does seek to expand the scope of trade in leather goods and live animals to allow
transactions for commercial purposes, introduce annual quotas for raw ivory (in line with the requirements of
Resolution Conf. 10.10 (Rev. CoP12)) and provide for another one-off conditional sale of not more than 40 tonnes of
stockpiled raw ivory.
Trade in elephant hides and leather items is essentially a by-product of management action and sport hunting, and there
is no evidence to suggest that such trade drives the illegal killing of elephants. There is therefore no reason to oppose
trade in leather goods for commercial purposes. Trade in live animals is not a threat to the Botswana population, nor to
the species as a whole, but there are wider conservation concerns which need to be taken into consideration. Given
recent research developments on elephant genetics and taxonomy, including the possibility of recognizing two or more
elephant species in Africa, the IUCN/SSC African Elephant Specialist Group has agreed guidelines for governing the
translocation of elephants within their historical range to prevent genetic mixing and achieve long-term genetic
viability. Clarification is needed as to whether Botswana intends to follow such guidelines in future transactions of live
animals.
The establishment of annual export quotas for raw ivory is premature before a MIKE baseline is established and whilst
the ETIS analysis shows an escalating illegal ivory trade. However, an extension to the previously agreed conditional
2
one-off sale of a specified volume of recently stockpiled raw ivory from legal sources would not present a significant
risk provided such ivory was incorporated into the still-pending one-off sale agreed at CoP12.
ACCEPT, if the proponent:
- withdraws the request for an annual quota of raw ivory;
- specifies that any trade in live animals will be carried out with due regard to available international
conservation guidelines on translocation of African Elephants
- commits to undertaking the additional one-off sale of raw ivory in conjunction with the sale agreed at
CoP12.
CoP14 Prop. 6 [Kenya, Mali] Amendment of the annotation regarding the populations of African Elephant
Loxodonta africana of Botswana, Namibia and South Africa to:
a) include the following provision:
“No trade in raw or worked ivory shall be permitted for a period of 20 years except for:
1) raw ivory exported as hunting trophies for non-commercial purposes; and
2) ivory exported pursuant to the conditional sale of registered government-owned ivory stocks agreed at the 12th
meeting of the Conference of the Parties”; and
b) remove the following provision:
“6) trade in individually marked and certified ekipas incorporated in finished jewellery for non-commercial purposes for
Namibia.”
B. Amendment of the annotation regarding the population of Zimbabwe to read:
“For the exclusive purpose of allowing:
1) export of live animals to appropriate and acceptable destinations;
2) export of hides; and
3) export of leather goods for non-commercial purposes.
All other specimens shall be deemed to be specimens of species included in Appendix I and the trade in them shall be
regulated accordingly.
No trade in raw or worked ivory shall be permitted for a period of 20 years.
To ensure that where a) destinations for live animals are to be appropriate and acceptable and/or b) the purpose of the
import is to be non-commercial, export permits and re-export certificates may be issued only after the issuing
Management Authority has received, from the Management Authority of the State of import, a certification to the effect
that: in case a), in analogy to Article III, paragraph 3 (b) of the Convention, the holding facility has been reviewed by
the competent Scientific Authority, and the proposed recipient has been found to be suitably equipped to house and care
for the animals; and/or in case b), in analogy to Article III, paragraph 3 (c), the Management Authority is satisfied that
the specimens will not be used for primarily commercial purposes.”
Recommendation
This Proposal by Kenya and Mali aims to introduce a 20-year moratorium on trade in raw or worked ivory from the four
countries whose elephant populations are currently listed in Appendix II, with exceptions for the CoP12-approved oneoff
sale of raw ivory from Botswana, Namibia and South Africa (as well as hunting trophies from those three countries,
but not Zimbabwe). The Proposal also aims to repeal part of the current annotation which permits Namibia to export
ekipas (a type of traditional ivory carving) and Zimbabwe to export worked ivory products for non-commercial
purposes. The Convention permits any Party to propose amendments to the Appendices, enabling Parties to respond to
changing situations, hence TRAFFIC considers it neither appropriate nor legally tenable to limit the rights of Parties to
submit Proposals at subsequent meetings of the Conference of the Parties. Furthermore, the Proposal would result in
more stringent conditions being applied to elephant populations that do not meet the conditions for inclusion in
Appendix I than for those elephant populations that are presumably of higher conservation concern and listed in
Appendix I.
REJECT
CoP14 Prop. 7 [United Republic of Tanzania] Transfer of the population of African Elephant Loxodonta africana
of the United Republic of Tanzania from Appendix I to Appendix II with an annotation that reads as follows:
“For the exclusive purpose of allowing:
1) trade in registered stocks of raw ivory in whole tusks and pieces;
2) trade in live specimens for non-commercial purposes to appropriate and acceptable destinations;
and
3) trade in hunting trophies for non-commercial purposes.”
Outcome: Proposal has been withdrawn
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment