Posted on October, 02 2016

Africa's elephants received a huge boost in South Africa today when CITES countries voted to maintain the existing ban on international ivory trade.

Delegates at the world's largest wildlife trade conference overwhelmingly rejected proposals by Namibia and Zimbabwe to re-open trade in their ivory. Countries also narrowly rejected a proposal to uplist elephant populations in four southern African countries - Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe - to Appendix I.

“These decisions have closed all potential avenues to a resumption in international ivory trade, paving the way for the world to unite behind efforts to crack down on the illegal ivory trade," said Ginette Hemley, WWF Head of Delegation at CITES. "African elephants are in steep decline across much of the continent due to poaching for their ivory, and opening up any legal trade in ivory would have complicated efforts to conserve them."

The votes come a day after countries from around the world called for the closure of domestic ivory markets and backed the CITES-led National Ivory Action Plan (NIAP) process.

"Rather than vote to resume trade, countries here at CITES rightly chose to reinforce the existing global ban on ivory trade by calling for the closure of domestic ivory markets and strengthening the national ivory action plan process," said Hemley. "These are critical actions for securing the future of Africa's elephants."

On Sunday, CITES Parties called on nations where there is a legal domestic ivory market that is contributing to illegal trade to take all necessary legislative, regulatory and enforcement measures to close their markets as a matter of urgency.
 
“Countries have said loud and clear that legal ivory markets should no longer provide a cover for the massive illegal trade driving the decline of Africa’s elephants,” added Hemley. “Domestic ivory markets allow organized crime syndicates to launder poached ivory through legal trade, and perpetuate the consumer demand driving the elephant poaching crisis."
 
The non-binding decision recognizes that narrow exemptions for some ivory items may be warranted, but that such exemptions should not contribute to poaching or illegal trade.

Meanwhile, the conference also strengthened the NIAP process, which was initiated at the last CITES conference in Bangkok in 2013 and currently involves 19 countries most implicated in the illegal ivory trade chain, including 12 in Africa and 7 in Asia.

“After hours of grueling negotiations behind closed doors, WWF is very pleased to see that countries have now united behind a deal that strengthens the national ivory action plan process, which is absolutely central to the global fight against the illegal ivory trade,” said Dr Colman O Criodain, WWF Global Wildlife Policy Manager.

Under the process, these countries have had to develop and implement national ivory action plans to ramp up their efforts to tackle the illegal trade.
 
“Led by CITES, this process has recently begun to yield results and this agreement will ensure that countries build upon these successes and take more concrete steps to stop the poaching, trafficking and buying of illegal ivory,” added O Criodain.
 
It was critical that CoP17 in Johannesburg continued to focus attention on the NIAPs and act to strengthen the process. And they have – acknowledging the importance of the ivory action plans and backing revisions that will enhance the overall impact of the NIAP process.
 
In particular, all stages of the process to select countries for inclusion in the NIAP process, drafting of their action plans, implementation and exit from the process must now be evaluated by the Secretariat in consultation with independent experts, including ICCWC, which will make recommendations to the Standing Committee.
 
In future, the selection of countries will be based on data from the Elephant Trade Information System as the "first cut" but will also take into account other relevant data.
 
“The world has made its position clear on how to tackle the illegal ivory trade: backing the national ivory action plan process is the best way forward. The decisions taken here in Johannesburg will not immediately slow the slaughter of Africa’s elephants, but they will have a major impact in the years to come as countries all along the illegal trade chain implement their ivory action plans,” said O Criodain.

Critically, none of the Appendix proposals that the conference rejected would have offered elephant populations any greater protection from the poachers. Indeed, the proposal to uplist four southern African populations to Appendix I could well have opened a back door to legal international trade.

Namibia actually said during the debate that it would have no option but to enter a reservation if the proposal had been accepted. This would have exempted it from CITES regulations regarding elephants and allowed it to legally trade ivory without any CITES oversight.

"Namibia has a proud wildlife conservation record, but this would have been a deeply regrettable step," said Hemley. "Now that the debate over whether to trade or not to trade is over, countries around the world must turn the tough talk we have heard here in Johannesburg into tough measures on the ground."