Elephant conservation news 23 January - 29 January 2010
The UK must lead European opposition to proposals that would relax the international ban on ivory trading, according to conservation group Born Free.
Despite a pledge from the Government that the UK will vote against Tanzanian and Zambian proposals - submitted to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) - to sell their stockpiled ivory, the charity is calling for the UK to take the European Union (EU) lead to ensure that the majority of member states do not vote yes.
A 'yes' vote would see the UK obliged to follow the EU in allowing Tanzania and Zambia to offload their more-than 110 tonne reserves.
The call comes after a summit in Brussels, which resulted in 16 out of 23 countries expressing support for Kenya's protests against the plans of neighbouring Tanzania, Kenya's Business Daily reports. The event, organised by a coalition of African elephant interest groups, prefigures the major CITES 15th Conference of the Parties which takes place in Doha in March.
Born Free says that in a meeting this week at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), Government representatives referred to the importance of sending out the correct signals to other countries. The charity says that the UK should go further, and explicitly oppose the full programme of the proposals.
This would include taking a stand against downgrading Tanzanian and Zambian elephant populations from the CITES Appendix 1 list - which allows no trade whatsoever - to its more lenient Appendix 2, which allows controlled trade.
According to the charity, the danger of relaxing the ban - even for a short period - is that pressure would inevitably be stepped up on elephant populations within Africa, and even the world over.
It points to the lesson from Sierra Leone, where the entire remaining elephant population had been poached for its ivory within a year of the 2008 CITES-approved sale of ivory to China and Japan - supported at the time by the UK Government.
Will Travers, CEO of Born Free, said that Hilary Benn, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, had so far "barely dipped his toe into the water of this issue". Travers called for him to "plunge in" and prove to the British public his commitment.
"Many, including Born Free, believe that any legal trade risks stimulating an increase in demand for ivory, provides opportunities for illegal laundering of ivory, and ultimately puts elephant populations across the continent at in peril," Travers told elephant.co.uk prior to the Defra meeting.
"Born Free believes that the UK is at least partly responsible for the current dire state of affairs."
Meanwhile shadow environment secretary Nick Herbert said this week in the Independent that the Government has a unique opportunity to make a stand.
He added: "we must choke the demand for ivory, not stoke it".
