Issued by: Ministry of Environmental Affairs and Tourism
1 November 1996
The Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism, Dr Z Pallo Jordan on 31 October 1996 participated in a meeting of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Wildlife Ministers in Lilongwe, Malawi. The main focus of this meeting was the formulation of a SADC consensus position on international trade in African elephants and elephant products.
The meeting was called in response to a directive of the SADC Heads of State Summit in Lesotho on 24 August 1996, and in preparation for the 10th meeting of the Conference of the Paries to the Convention on International Trade in Wild Fauna and Flora Species (CITES). The South African Cabinet decided that the status quo of no international trade in ivory and elephant products of South African origin would be maintained. Hence, no proposal affecting the Appendix 1 listing of the South African elephant population will be submitted to the forthcoming CITES Conference of the Parties, due to take place in Harare in June 1997.
At their meeting the SADC Ministers resolved to support proposals for the transfer of the elephant populations of Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe from CITES Appendix I to II. This consensus position will be maintained at the meeting of the African Elephant Range States in Dakar, Senegal during November 1996, and at the CITES Conference.
This consensus was reached in recognition of the rights of SADC member states to derive socio-economic benefit from the conservation and sustainable use of their natural resources through controlled international trade in wildlife specimens and products. The Ministers highlighted the need to promote sustainable development in the SADC region, which will contribute to the alleviation of poverty. In this regard recognition was also given to the rights of rural communities to access and use of wildlife resources as a complementary or alternative form of land use. Allowing international trade in ivory would go a long way towards firmly establishing this principle.
It was noted that a number of SADC member states have growing elephant populations as a result of effective wildlife management programmes and will be able to implement effective trade controls. However, the consensus also accommodates the position that other SADC elephant range states may not have adequate wildlife management in place, or may not wish to initiate the downlisting of their elephant populations, nor trade in elephant products.
The Ministers further acknowledged the problems experienced with ivory stocks. Over the years a considerable amount of raw ivory has accumulated in SADC countries, due to natural elephant mortalities, Ivory seizures and confiscations and essential culling programmes. These stocks represent a real economic asset, but also pose certain security and management problems with concomitant cost implications. Hence the Ministers adopted guidelines for the disposal of such stocks, based on the principle that opportunities be created to convert ivory stocks into operational capital which will be committed to elephant conservation and community development.
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