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Geneva, Switzerland—The 54th
meeting of the Standing Committee of the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) opens today in
Geneva, where government officials from across the globe will decide
the fate of numerous threatened or endangered species that are affected
by international trade. Among the most contentious discussions is the
reopening of trade in African elephant ivory
This Standing Committee meeting will
consider whether to allow the sale of some 60 tonnes of African
elephant ivory that was tentatively approved in 2002, subject to a
variety of specific conditions being met. “We remain
seriously
concerned that the basic conditions for resuming trade in ivory have
not been met,” warned SSN President Will Travers,
“and that
the reopening of ivory exports sends a dangerous message to poachers
and illegal ivory dealers that an unfettered international ivory trade
has resumed.”
In order for limited sales to
commence, CITES Parties insisted that a new field-based programme
called “MIKE” (Monitoring Illegal Killing of
Elephants) must report baseline information on the levels of illegal
killing of elephants, and that potential ivory importers such as China
or Japan are verified to have sufficient internal controls in place to
prevent illegal ivory sales and exports. “The conditions set
forth by CITES Parties have not been met in our opinion, and it would,
therefore, be irresponsible to risk worsening an already serious
situation by giving a green light to more ivory sales,”
Travers continued.
CITES established an international
ivory
trade ban in 1989 after ivory poachers decimated the African elephant
population by more than 50 percent in the 1970s and 80s, reducing the
continental population from 1.3 million to 600,000. Between 1989 and
1997 elephant poaching slowed significantly. However, in 1997 CITES
Parties for the first time approved a one-off (experimental) export of
ivory from three African elephant range States to Japan. Since then, an
increase in seizures of illegal ivory has been documented indicating
renewed demand. In 2002, CITES again approved a limited sale of ivory,
but made sale conditional on the provision of MIKE data on continental
trends in elephant poaching.
The MIKE programme has now for the
first time submitted baseline data, but SSN questions the quality and
usefulness of that data. Shelley Waterland of the Born Free Foundation
and Chair of the SSN Elephant Working Group expressed concern that
given the “recent large seizures involving many tonnes of
smuggled ivory, it is highly inappropriate to be releasing a further 60
tonnes of ivory into the market at this time.”
Waterland’s recent research on behalf of the Working Group
shows that, since 1998, there have been seizures of 151 tonnes of
illegal ivory, representing 24,380 poached elephants. “This
is only the tip of the tusk; most smuggling is undetected,”
she added.
Other major issues pending before the
Committee that could stimulate serious controversy include conservation
of tigers, rhinos, great apes, and protection of tropical timber
species such as bigleaf mahogany. Standing Committee members are in a
position this week to stop the unsustainable and illegal trade in
mahogany, particularly from Peru. It is estimated that 70-95% of all
bigleaf mahogany in Peru is taken illegally—much of it logged
from protected areas and indigenous territories. The major importers
are the USA and the Dominican Republic, followed by the European Union.
Over-exploitation has already led to commercial extinction of the
species in several countries and a logging ban in some nations. In
Peru, the range of Bigleaf Mahogany has shrunk by 50%, and, within a
decade, a further 28% will be logged out if no effective steps are
taken.
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