UN rejects Tanzania's call to weaken ivory ban
March 23, 2010, Tuesday
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TANZANIA'S proposal to weaken the 21-year-old ban on ivory sales was rejected by a United Nations conservation meeting yesterday over fears the east African country has been failing to crack down on rising incidents of poaching and the illegal trade of the tusks.
A similar proposal from Zambia to sell off its ivory stocks will be considered later in the day at the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
Kenya and six other African countries, on the other hand, are proposing a halt in what limited international trade in ivory is currently allowed and a 20-year moratorium on any attempts to relax international trade controls on African elephant ivory.
The ruling was a rare victory for environmentalists at the two-week meeting who have endured defeats ranging from an export ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna to a shark conservation plan to a proposal to regulate red and pink corals.
Tanzania's proposal would have been the third such one-time, ivory sale following ones in 1999 and 2008.
Professor Samuel K. Wasser, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington, said there is a clear link between one-off sales and the rise in poaching. He said the sales revive dormant markets by sending consumers the message that it is okay to buy ivory and makes it difficult to differentiate between legal and illegal products.
"Governments made the right decision by rejecting Tanzania's proposals," said Carlos Drews of the World Wildlife Fund. "It is not the right time to be approving ivory sales due to increased elephant poaching and in central and western Africa."
Tanzania was asking to sell almost 90,000 kilograms of ivory that would have generated as much as US$20 million. It noted in its proposal that its elephant population has risen from about 55,000 in 1989 to almost 137,000, according to a 2007 study.
A similar proposal from Zambia to sell off its ivory stocks will be considered later in the day at the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
Kenya and six other African countries, on the other hand, are proposing a halt in what limited international trade in ivory is currently allowed and a 20-year moratorium on any attempts to relax international trade controls on African elephant ivory.
The ruling was a rare victory for environmentalists at the two-week meeting who have endured defeats ranging from an export ban on Atlantic bluefin tuna to a shark conservation plan to a proposal to regulate red and pink corals.
Tanzania's proposal would have been the third such one-time, ivory sale following ones in 1999 and 2008.
Professor Samuel K. Wasser, director of the Center for Conservation Biology at the University of Washington, said there is a clear link between one-off sales and the rise in poaching. He said the sales revive dormant markets by sending consumers the message that it is okay to buy ivory and makes it difficult to differentiate between legal and illegal products.
"Governments made the right decision by rejecting Tanzania's proposals," said Carlos Drews of the World Wildlife Fund. "It is not the right time to be approving ivory sales due to increased elephant poaching and in central and western Africa."
Tanzania was asking to sell almost 90,000 kilograms of ivory that would have generated as much as US$20 million. It noted in its proposal that its elephant population has risen from about 55,000 in 1989 to almost 137,000, according to a 2007 study.
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