YOUR recent article ‘Nasco Backs CITES Ivory Plea’ (The Namibia 9th September 2004), only tells your readers a small part of the story.
The Namibian proposal to CITES does not simply seek permission for an annual raw ivory trade quota of 2,000 kilos, although this, in itself, is worrying enough. It is important to recall that the 10,000 kilos of Namibian ivory approved for sale at the last CITES conference in 2002 has yet to receive final clearance from the CITES Standing Committee and so has not yet been actually sold.What your correspondent crucially fails to mention that this latest proposal also asks for permission to sell unlimited quantities of carved ivory for commercial purposes – a green light to poachers and ivory dealers in other parts of Africa if ever there was one.Dr Malan Lindeque from the Department of Environment and Tourism is quoted as saying that the proposal is “based on scientific information”.There is nothing scientific about allowing carved ivory back into trade in the way Namibia is proposing.Such a move brings back memories of the really bad old days of the ivory trade when for every ‘legal’ kilo of ivory sold up to 4 kilos of illegal ivory were able to infiltrate the system.While this may not be the case in Namibia, many of Africa’s elephant populations are under extreme pressure and anything that could stimulate demand, encourage poaching or increase illegal trade could spell widespread death and destruction.For the sake of Africa as a whole, I would urge Namibia to withdraw its proposal.Finally, I should draw your attention to the fact that your article reports that Botswana, South Africa and Swaziland are petitioning CITES for permission to trade in ivory once every year.This is not the case.There are no such requests on the agenda and Namibia is alone in seeking to trade ivory at this CITES meeting.Will Travers CEO Born Free Foundation Chair Elephant Working Group Species Survival Network (SSN)It is important to recall that the 10,000 kilos of Namibian ivory approved for sale at the last CITES conference in 2002 has yet to receive final clearance from the CITES Standing Committee and so has not yet been actually sold.What your correspondent crucially fails to mention that this latest proposal also asks for permission to sell unlimited quantities of carved ivory for commercial purposes – a green light to poachers and ivory dealers in other parts of Africa if ever there was one.Dr Malan Lindeque from the Department of Environment and Tourism is quoted as saying that the proposal is “based on scientific information”.There is nothing scientific about allowing carved ivory back into trade in the way Namibia is proposing.Such a move brings back memories of the really bad old days of the ivory trade when for every ‘legal’ kilo of ivory sold up to 4 kilos of illegal ivory were able to infiltrate the system.While this may not be the case in Namibia, many of Africa’s elephant populations are under extreme pressure and anything that could stimulate demand, encourage poaching or increase illegal trade could spell widespread death and destruction.For the sake of Africa as a whole, I would urge Namibia to withdraw its proposal.Finally, I should draw your attention to the fact that your article reports that Botswana, South Africa and Swaziland are petitioning CITES for permission to trade in ivory once every year.This is not the case.There are no such requests on the agenda and Namibia is alone in seeking to trade ivory at this CITES meeting.Will Travers CEO Born Free Foundation Chair Elephant Working Group Species Survival Network (SSN)
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