The four countries, situated in western Africa, want the upcoming meeting of CITES scheduled for November in Panama to upgrade elephants in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe from Appendix II to Appendix I, the highest level category for endangered species where no trade is allowed.
Botswana resumed hunting activities, including elephants, in 2019, after a five-year moratorium.
CITES is an international body binding 183 states to agreements on the trade and protection of endangered plants and animals. The upcoming Conference of Parties (CoP) is CITES’ highest decision-making meeting held every three years where countries frequently clash over proposals to tighten or loosen trade in various animal and plants.
Information gathered by Mmegi on Thursday indicates that in 2019, the four countries were again part of a group that by then numbered eight, which unsuccessfully pushed for elephants in Botswana and her neighbours to be bumped up to Appendix I. By then, the group consisted of Nigeria, Mali, Niger, Senegal as well as Burkina Faso, Cote d’Ivoire, Gabon and Sudan.
A list of proposals to be tabled in Panama and seen by Mmegi indicates that the four states have been joined by Syria in their latest efforts.
“This proposal seeks to list all African elephant populations in Appendix I in order to offer maximum protection under CITES in the face of the ongoing threat posed by the high demand from the ivory trade, a reduction of more than 50% of the continental population in the past three generations that is understood to be continuing and likely irreversible, and the enforcement problems that current splitlisting creates,” reads the proposal. “Elephant populations in all regions of the species' range have experienced ongoing intense pressure from ivory poachers and depredations by criminal syndicates in recent years as evidenced by population declines and continued high annual levels of poaching and ivory seizure indices.”
The splitlisting by CITES, made in 1997, was in recognition of the fact that the savanna elephants found in Southern Africa continue to enjoy stable or rising populations of more than 200,000 while the forest elephants found in West Africa are in decline.
While those in favour of the proposal say elephants are mobile and should have a single listing, countries such as Botswana have said the current listing correctly recognises the differences in vulnerability of the continent’s elephant species, as well as the efforts governments have made in conservation.
An analysis of CoP proposals released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature this week found that there was little chance that the latest attempt to upgrade the listing of regional elephants would pass in Panama.
“The Loxodonta africana populations of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe are not small, nor do they have a restricted range and they are not undergoing a marked decline,” reads the report, co-authored by leading species trade NGO, TRAFFIC. “Therefore, these populations do not meet the biological criteria for inclusion in Appendix I.”
Local environment and tourism officials were unavailable by Press time to comment on the latest developments.
