By The Citizen Reporter and agencies

Tanzania was on its way to lose the battle to win international backing for a proposal to sell 90 tonnes of its ivory stockpiles worth about $15 million (Sh19.5 billion).

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Secretariat reportedly recommended yesterday to block Tanzania’s proposal.

The development revealed late afternoon by the United Arab Emirates (UAE)’s influential Gulf News, dents any remaining hope by the government to secure a temporary lifting of a ban in ivory trade to allow the disposal of the stocks that have accumulated over the years.

According to the reports, CITES relying on experts’ reports recommended that all of Tanzania’s proposals to be rejected, citing concerns about poaching and enforcement issues.

Along with Zambia, Tanzania forwarded a request to CITES to downgrade the listing of the elephant population from Appendix I to II.  If granted, it would mean its population was not threatened with extinction. 

The two countries also asked to be granted a window to sell respective stockpiles to raise funds for other important public expenditure, in a move that however drew furious and sometimes bitter opposition from other African countries and international environmental and conservation organisations.

The differences were due to culminate this week during the CITES conference of 175 member countries that was expected to make a decision on the Tanzania and Zambia cases.  The agency’s 15th general meeting in Doha, Qatar opened on Saturday and would end next Thursday.

But Gulf News reported that while rejecting Tanzania’s push to weaken international protection for African elephants and promote controlled trade in ivory, the same team suggested Zambia be allowed to go ahead with its planned sale of 22 tonnes and also down list its elephants to Appendix II.

The Appendix II of CITES includes species that are not threatened with extinction but may become threatened by international trade without strict monitoring and control.

Tanzania’s minister for Tourism and Natural Resources Ms Shamsa Mwangunga who was leading the country delegation to the conference could not be immediately reached to react on the news.

The minister indicated earlier before departing for Doha that the government would fight to the end to push its agenda through. She said the $15 million would be ploughed back in conservation anti-poaching efforts and also curtail huge expenses incurred in securing the ivory stockpile.

The government is said to spend $75,000 (Sh97.5 million) every year in storage and security for 12,131 tusks in Arusha and Dar es Salaam. Some $1.5 million (Sh1.9 billion) has been spent this way over the last 20 years. There were fears that if CITES rejected its plans, another $2 million (Sh2.6 billion) would be needed to expand storage capacity.

Gulf News said CITES Secretariat mainly expressed concern about enforcement and compliance in Tanzania while rejecting the proposal.

“Anti-poaching efforts in some parts of the country (Tanzania) seem inadequate, the ivory stocks cannot be fully verified, and controls of illegal trade in raw ivory originating from or transiting through Tanzania appear to be unsatisfactory,” the Secretariat said.

“Parties need to apply their own rigorous evaluations of the Panel of Experts reports as neither proposal meets the biological criteria for downlisting,” International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) Southern Africa director Jason Bell-Leask said.

Both populations have suffered significant declines over the past three decades and there is evidence to suggest that these populations are still recovering from intensive poaching in the 1980’s, he observed.

At the last CITES conference in 2007, a nine-year moratorium on any further trade in ivory was agreed upon.
Ms Shelley Waterland, programmes manager of the Born Free Foundation and chairwoman of the Species Survival Network’s Elephant Working Group, stated yesterday: 

“Institutional corruption, the loss of more than 30,000 elephants in just three years, inadequate security measures, and the impact that ivory trade would have on the security of elephants across the continent all justify rejection of the Tanzania proposal.”

The African Elephant Coalition of 23 African elephant range countries oppose the proposals for the downlistings and one-off sales, insisting that the nine-year resting period provides all African range states the opportunity to co-operatively secure elephants in their habitat.

Parties to the convention were expected later to receive, discuss and adopt the recommendations. It was not very clear if Tanzania could appeal before the matter brought to the plenary. But even though, the country would still face huge opposition judging from the big number of countries that were drumming for stricter enforcement of anti-poaching measures and extension of the ivory trade ban by another 20 years. 

Last Friday, a new report accused Tanzania of illegal trade in ivory in a move that could have impacted on yesterday’s decision.

The report exposing large-scale illegal ivory trade in Tanzania and Zambia was produced by Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), a non-profit group based in Washington, DC, and London.

The report, ‘Open Season; The Burgeoning Illegal Ivory Trade in Tanzania and Zambia’, accused the countries of seeking a lift on the ban on ivory trade despite intensive elephant poaching and illegal ivory trade within the same countries.

“EIA undercover investigators recently visited Tanzania and Zambia and returned with harrowing first-hand evidence documenting a flourishing trade in illegal ivory in both countries, often exacerbated by official corruption,' according to the report.

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