Save The Elephants

Tanzania: Reasons Why Nation Failed to Sell Stockpiles of Ivory
Tanzania Daily News
24 March 2010

Dar es Salaam — The government’s failure to consult stakeholders and other experts on the sale of ivory has been outlined as one of key reasons which made Tanzania fail to sell the stockpiles of ivory.
Speaking in Dar es Salaam today after the news that a United Nations conservation meeting in Doha has rejected the proposal, a tourism stakeholder identified as Mr Juma Kasano from Arusha said the government did not involve them fully.

“No consultation with any stakeholder has been carried out, even though there was clear opposition to this proposal and we only manage to get a hard hit on the country with very bad publicity as a country that even though is not capable of protecting its wildlife resources where funds are highly available from tourism industry is instead presenting itself as a greedy country”, he said.

Mr Kasamo also said Kenya has beaten Tanzania once again, they got all the good publicity of being the good boys against us as bad boys.

He said that if the government had consulted experts in the private sector it could have helped the government to come up with solid reasons as to why they would want to sell the ivory.

This should be an example and a lesson to the government to make sure that they involve the private sector experts and stakeholders whenever they make such crucial decisions, said Mr Kasamo.

Ms Memory Laizer told the Daily News that the move had tarnished the reputation of the country and that would also affect the tourism sector in the country which was recovering from the world economic crisis.

“We did urge the government that the sale would damage the image of the country but they did not want to listen to us,” she said.

Conservationists from United States, European Union and several African countries including Kenya claimed that Tanzania did not do enough to fight poaching.

Tanzania requested that it would be able to lift the ban on the sale of ivory from its elephants and dispose of some 200,000 pounds (90,000 kilograms) of ivory.

It noted in its proposal that its elephant population has risen from about 55,000 in 1989 to almost 137,000, according to a 2007 study.

Countries around the world met in Doha, Qatar, this week to discuss a one-time sale of ivory.

Tanzania and Zambia want to sell the stockpiles of ivory they have built up over the past few decades.

They have as much as 90,000 kilograms of elephant tusks. Neighbouring Kenya is against any relaxing of the ban on the ivory trade.

It says such action could increase the illegal trade, which would be a serious threat to elephant numbers.

The Kenyan Wildlife Service’s Patrick Omondi said: “We totally believe that any experiments to allow partial lifting of (the) international ban in ivory trade stimulates elephant poaching .Indeed there has been an increase in poaching across the entire continent, with some countries losing their entire population.”

Article at the following link:
http://allafrica.com/stories/201003250838.html
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Disclaimer:
Please note that we cannot guarantee the accuracy of any news story. In addition, we do not endorse any of the views expressed therein. We simply try to represent fairly what is in the media on elephants. If a reader finds inaccuracies in an article, we are happy to circulate corrections, if these can be verified.
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NEWS IN FROM DOHA: BOTH TANZANIA AND ZAMBIA HAVE FAILED, YET AGAIN, TO GARNER ENOUGH VOTES TO PASS THEIR PROPOSALS TO DOWNLIST THEIR ELEPHANTS TO APPENDIX II!!! IT IS INDEED VICTORY FOR THE ELEPHANTS! THIS IS HOW THE VOTES WENT:

Tanzania final vote:
For Down listing elephants to Appendix II: 55
Against: 55
Abstain: 34

Zambia Final vote:
For Down listing elephants to Appendix II: 59
Against: 47
Abstain: 38

More update to follow!!!

Group Rejects Tanzanian Bid for One-Off Ivory Sale
ALAN COWELL, New York Times
March 22, 2010

PARIS — With elephant poaching  on the rise, a United Nations-sponsored conservation group on Monday rejected a bid by Tanzania to ease a ban on international ivory sales to permit a one-off sale of some 90 tons of its stocks. A separate effort by Zambia to secure a future relaxation of the prohibition was also turned down.

Conservationists in the United States, Europe and other parts of Africa had argued that Tanzania had not combated poaching of elephants and the illegal ivory trade, but Tanzanian officials said the elephant population in their country had more than doubled in recent years to 137,000 in 2006 from 55,000 in 1989.

The sale would have been worth some $20 million.

Zambia had also been seeking permission to hold a  sale of more than 21 tons of  its ivory stocks, arguing that its elephant population of 27,000 was “steadily increasing.” But after the Tanzanian bid was rejected, Zambia withdrew its proposal, The Associated Press reported, in hopes of winning approval for eventual sales in the future.

Despite support from the United States and some European countries, the Zambian plan was opposed by most African nations, The A.P. said.

The illegal ivory trade is a fraught issue among conservationists. Since 1989, the international trade has been outlawed by the 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, known  by its acronym, Cites, which is meeting in Doha, Qatar, to debate an array of animal conservation issues related to endangered species.

The rejection of the Tanzanian and Zambian proposals represented a rare victory for conservationists at the Doha meeting. Last week, delegates soundly defeated American-supported plans to ban international trade in bluefin tuna and to protect polar bears. Since 1989, Cites, based in Geneva, has permitted occasional one-off sales of stocks of tusks captured from poachers or taken from animals that died of natural causes.

Some African countries, including Kenya and Mali, have maintained that any legalization of the ivory trade leads to renewed poaching by organized gangs who sell illicit ivory goods principally in China. International conservation groups have also opposed an easing of the ban.

“To permit any step towards further trade in ivory makes no sense whatsoever,” said Jason Bell-Leask of the International Fund for Animal Welfare, in a statement before the Doha meeting. “It flies in the face of every basic conservation principle.”

Southern Tanzania, the International Fund for Animal Welfare said, “has been a poaching hot spot for the past few years.”

Carlos Drew, a spokesman for the World Wildlife Fund, said after Monday’s decision: “Governments made the right decision by rejecting Tanzania’s proposals. It is not the right time to be approving ivory sales due to increased elephant poaching in central and western Africa,” The A.P. reported.

But other groups maintain there is no evidence of a link between one-off sales and poaching.

In its proposal for an easing of the ban, Tanzania said its plan “aims at promoting sustainable conservation of the elephant population” by reinvestment of profits from a one-off sale in wildlife conservation and in support for “development activities of communities living within the elephant ecosystems.”

“Rural people do not tolerate the presence of elephants unless the costs of living with elephants can be offset by economic benefits derived from elephants,” the proposal said.

The Zambian proposal echoed the Tanzanian argument, saying “the primary risk to the long-term survival of the elephant in Zambia is not international trade but increasing conflicts with legitimate human interests such as agriculture as shown by the rising number of human-elephant conflicts.”

“The Zambian government by law owes it to the rural communities to conserve and to benefit from wildlife resources in a serious partnership,” the proposal said. “Situations where human beings rise against the elephant due to rising incidences of crop damage, injury and worse still loss of human life cannot be tolerated in an era where various sustainable use options for intervention exist” in other southern African countries.

Article at the following link:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/23/world/africa/23ivory.html
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Disclaimer:
Please note that we cannot guarantee the accuracy of any news story. In addition, we do not endorse any of the views expressed therein. We simply try to represent fairly what is in the media on elephants. If a reader finds inaccuracies in an article, we are happy to circulate corrections, if these can be verified.
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We have received the following email from Lucy King who is on the team representing STE and Kenya at the ongoing CoP15 CITES Conference in Doha, Qatar. We cannot express enough our joy at hearing that Tanzania and Zambia’s proposal have been defeated….!!

HUGE SUCCESS AT CITES!!!  We are delighted to email you from the conference center in Doha to spread the news that both the Zambian and Tanzania elephant proposals to downlist their elephants from Appendix I to Appendix II and to sell their ivory have been DEFEATED at CITES CoP15 with important support from many countries from around the world. The tension in the room was incredible and there was some seriously upset delegates who were not allowed to talk etc etc but in the end the vote has gone our way and we are all elated. I was literally shaking from head to foot after the Tanzania vote, the high significance of the vote was not lost on anyone and I almost felt physically sick that we were about to see the opening of the ivory trade once and for all. The Kenya delegation has worked so hard and for many, many months to get this result and they should all be applauded for their efforts.  The Kenya amended proposition to try to change the CoP14 wording of the agreement to stop any more proposals being submitted to down list was, however, rejected. This is a small disappointment as it means we could well be back here in 3 years with another down-listing proposal to battle but for now, it is a something that we are able to live with knowing that the ivory trade has not been opened again. We hope that the African Range States will follow the spirit of the agreement and remain with the 9 year proposed moratorium but I’m afraid that may be too much to hope for.  Special credit must go to Iain, Joyce Poole and Sam Wasser who gave a very well attended presentation yesterday lunchtime to 350 delegates explaining the data problems behind the proposals, the consequence of poaching on elephant society and the DNA proof that Zambia and Tanzania were heavily implicated in multiple ivory seizures from around the world. This talk from such well respected scientists was an eye opener to many delegates who had not yet made up their mind on the vote. This should be seen as a major achievement by Save the Elephants to contribute science and years of data to the discussion within the largest international forum that there is for the trade and conservation of the African Elephant. Well done to all members of STE who have contributed to the data that Iain was able to present so clearly to the world.  Best wishes from Qatar,  Lucy