pho Tebele in Gaborone and Sinikiwe Marodza in Harare
A decision by the recent meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to reject a proposal by some Southern African member states to resume sales on ivory stockpiles has renewed calls for Southern African Development Community (SADC) to quit the organisation.
Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe had submitted a proposal that they be permitted to sell tonnes of stockpiled ivory but the proposal was rejected at the just-ended CITES 18 Conference of Parties (COP18) meeting held in Switzerland. The proposal was rejected by 101 votes, with 23 in support and 18 abstentions.
Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa early this week indicated that his country was contemplating pulling out of the convention and that it would express reservations before taking action.
He added that clearing of the ivory stockpile would aid conservation efforts through procurement of equipment and fences for buffer zones to curtail human and wildlife conflict.
“We have our friends like Japan and China whom we can negotiate with to buy our ivory after we express our reservations with CITES,” said Mnangagwa.
“We are sitting on ivory stockpiles worth US$600 million. It’s a lot of money we can use for big projects. Our wild animals are being discussed in Geneva (at the on-going CITES summit), an irrelevant place to the animals. We now know what to do about the issue.”
Reports indicated that Botswana’s Minister Responsible for Tourism Kitso Mokaila said that Botswana and other SADC member states were considering quitting CITES. Communities in Ngamiland in northern Botswana, who are mostly affected by wildlife-human conflict, were quoted as saying that Botswana and other SADC member states should leave CITES so that they could engage in the sustainable use of wildlife resources.
Siyoka Simasuku, who is the CEO of Ngamiland Council of non-governmental organisations and part of the community contingent that attended CITES conference in Geneva, was quoted as saying that CITES elections are unfair and there is neither reason nor gain for Botswana and SADC to be part of CITES.
“We cannot be bullied by people who do not have elephants on what we should do with our elephants that we have protected,” he said.
Following the decision by CITES to shoot down the proposal by the four member states, Mokaila reportedly hinted at the possibility of SADC quitting CITES.
“We have 90 days to do something that’s got to be done and that is what to be done, then let’s consider it,” Mokaila was quoted as saying.
The minister was also quoted as saying: “I am clearly flabbergasted, disgusted, demoralised, incensed and we totally have no faith in CITES whatsoever.”
Namibian Minister of Environment and Tourism, Pohamba Shifeta, was also quoted as saying that Namibia would convene a meeting with other SADC member states to consider withdrawing from CITES.
“We had several submissions from SADC for downlisting our white rhino from Appendix I to Appendix II, but there are some who feel that Namibia’s population is still small and we contested that Namibia’s population is the second largest in the world,” Shifeta was quoted as saying.
Zimbabwe’s permanent secretary in the Ministry of Environment, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Munesu Munodawafa was quoted as saying that they knew CITES as an organisation where decisions were based on science, but the result on elephant overpopulated SADC countries suggests that CITES decisions are no longer based on science.
According to a report by local newspaper, Mmegi, former CITES secretary general, Eugene Lapointe, who served as CITES secretary general from 1982 to 1990, has advice for Botswana and her neighbours to literally stand up to the bullies in the West.
“If Africa is serious about balancing both conservation and development, it has to have the courage to do the right thing. So, it must cease being bossed around by Western-fuelled lobbies that are blind to reason. That requires Africa to stand up for itself on the world stage by speaking truth to Western powers,” he reportedly said.
“Of course, in reality every African country will do its own thing. The good news, though, is that the Southern African states are resisting the existing indignities that are doing so much harm to the cause of conservation and economic development.”
SADC countries have for the longest time been fighting for the ban to be lifted but to no avail. At the just-ended CITES COP18, they fought a good fight and despite the loss, they stood their grounds and poured their hearts out regarding the impact of the CITES’ so-called “international ivory trade ban to reverse a sharp decline in African elephant population”.
The votes at the Geneva COP18 meeting are legally-binding, meaning elephant range states will remain stuck with hundreds of tonnes of unsold ivory, the sale of which should have been a major source of funding for improving elephant welfare and protection.
Proposals that would have enabled Botswana, Namibia and South Africa to resume trade in ivory to CITES-approved countries were turned down by a vote of 101 to 23, with 18 abstentions.
Observers say pulling out of the convention can be a great way for SADC countries to come up with a solution towards the elephant over-population issue, as well as dealing with thousands of ivory stockpiles that are stuck in national reserves.
Source: The Southern times
https://southerntimesafrica.com/site/news/calls-intensify-for-sadc-to-quit-cites