Project update - April 2005

The Wildlife Trade - Trading the last of the game
Report from Dr. Rosalind Reeve, DSWF CITES Representative

There was a time when the hunter killed only for his life and food…. Only 50 years ago man had to be protected from the beasts; today the beasts must somehow be protected from man. (The End of the Game, Peter Beard, 1963)

Peter Beard's words of warning are truer today than they were over forty years ago. Wildlife needs protection from man's voracious appetite and nowhere is this more evident than in the wildlife trade business. Demand by consumers, whether for exotic pets, ivory name seals or powdered rhino horn, and the considerable profits to be gained are driving unscrupulous traders to bend or break the law - any way they can.

The birth of CITES

The battle to bring the trade under control is as old as Beard's warning. The same year his book was published - 1963 - the IUCN General Assembly called for an international convention to regulate trade in endangered species. Twelve years of negotiations led to the birth of CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, when the Convention was signed in1973. One of the first species listed on Appendix I, banning its trade, was the rhino. Initially the ban was considered a failure. Lack of enforcement saw poaching escalate and populations plunge, until the 1990s when, as a result of tough lobbying by NGOs (among them DSWF), CITES acted to enforce the ban. Threats of trade sanctions against consumer countries and high level political talks, combined with strengthened security on the ground, worked. Consumer countries passed tough laws and acted to enforce them. Rhino populations began to stabilize and even increase.

Failure to stop export quotas result in Rhino death

Today, however, the situation remains precarious, especially for vulnerable populations such as the northern white rhino; following a poaching onslaught, less than 10 are thought to remain in the wild in Garamba National Park on the border with southern Sudan. Nevertheless, in the face of strong opposition at home and abroad, South Africa and Namibia applied last year to CITES for approval of export quotas for black rhino horns from trophy hunting. Concerned that reopening trade in black rhino horn would send the wrong signal to poachers, DSWF joined other NGOs campaigning against the quotas at the CITES conference in Bangkok in October 2004. But despite support from African states such as Chad, Mali and Kenya, their efforts failed and export quotas for 10 horns, five from Namibia and five from South Africa, were approved. The very next day a female rhino named Fungai was hunted down and killed in the Midlands Black Rhino Conservancy in Zimbabwe, the first such incident since the Conservancy was established in 1986.

Strong opposition by DSWF to CITES export quota

It fell to me as DSWF's CITES representative to break the news of the export quota's approval to Save the Rhino Trust in Namibia. SRT has fought for 20 years to bring the black rhino back from the brink of extinction. Risking the disapproval of Namibian authorities, SRT went public in its opposition to the CITES decision declaring that "the black rhino can by no means be considered to be out of danger when Namibia has only just reached 1000 plus animals". The tourism industry joined in, prompting the Namibian government to postpone the auction of hunting concessions planned for December. DSWF and SRT will continue to fight against this decision.

Kenya fails to obtain 20 year moratorium on ivory trade

The black rhino quotas were not the only disappointment of October's CITES meeting. Kenya had put forward a bold proposal for a twenty year moratorium on ivory trade, to come into effect after the forthcoming one-off sale of government ivory stocks from Botswana, Namibia and South Africa. Kenya's proposal included tough new measures on ivory trade controls and enforcement, backed by a state of the art verification system to check that all countries wanting to trade in ivory had actually put the new measures into effect. They were designed to crack down on illegal trade and enable tracking of legal ivory from the exporting country to the end buyer, lessening the chance for laundering illegal ivory into legal stocks once it is considered safe to lift the moratorium. Several Central and West African countries were vocal in their support of Kenya's proposal. Southern African countries, however, led by Namibia, were strongly opposed. A week of behind the scenes talks brokered by the EU whittled the proposed moratorium down to six years. On the floor of the meeting the EU moved the goal posts yet again and proposed a "sufficient period" when parties should "refrain" from trading ivory until it is known whether the up-coming one-off sale has resulted in detrimental impacts to elephants. The move caused confusion among delegates and undoubtedly contributed to the defeat of Kenya's proposal when it came to a vote. The disappointment of Kenya's failure was compounded by Namibia's success in gaining permission to begin non-commercial exports of specialized ivory jewellery known as ekipas (this means that ekipas sold as souvenirs can be taken home by tourists). Another proposal by Namibia to begin annual exports of 2 tonnes of raw ivory met resounding opposition, leaving a glimmer of hope that the 15 year ban on ivory trade may still be saved.

Wildlife crime national enforcement action plans approved

The disappointments for elephants and rhinos were offset by a breakthrough in Bangkok on enforcement to combat wildlife crime. DSWF has long campaigned for stronger CITES enforcement but for ten years has been frustrated by apathy and lack of political will on the part of many governments. Wildlife crime fails to attract the same attention or resources to fight it as drug smuggling or terrorism. But the political support in Bangkok for a Kenyan proposal to boost CITES enforcement efforts, following hard lobbying by DSWF and its partner organisations such as IFAW and WildAid, has provided hope for the future. Among the recommendations approved are national enforcement action plans, training and enhanced status for wildlife law enforcement officers, and the development of regional mechanisms for cross-border cooperation to combat wildlife crime such as the Lusaka Agreement. Their unanimous approval is undoubtedly a breakthrough, but the real test is yet to come. We have the words on paper but they need to be turned into action by national governments and the CITES Secretariat.

DSWF will continue its fight to ensure this happens. We cannot stand by and watch CITES trade away the last of the game.

Every little contribution helps wildlife and remember 100% of your donation will go in full to the project - thank you!

You can also help by becoming a member of DSWF. Click here for more information

top of page