China Wins UN Approval for Bagging Africa’s Ivory, and Attempts to Gag Activists’ Furore

Certainly it may not have helped in the furore that followed a UN CITES decision to allow Chinese access to Africa’s ivory that two Chinese women were caught in Kenya, a country opposed to the deal, trying to smuggle more that 36 pieces of ivory worth millions of dollars.

Stinking or controversial as it may have been, China now has the wonderful opportunity to stock “legally obtained” African ivory in the mix of those acquired illegally in a superbly coordinated international ring that continues to deplete Africa of its wildlife resources.

Chinese nationals have been implicated in illegal ivory seizures in more than 20 African nations in the last few years.

What’s worse, the Convention for International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), a 173-nation agreement charged with ensuring a sustainable international trade in wild animals and plants, has sanctioned it all.

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If one may put into perspective the swift perfection with which international poaching syndicates and organized crime gangs operate, that China (world’s largest ivory market) can also buy in the open market presents a nightmare to poorly resourced wildlife enforcement agencies in Africa, as African animal rights groups have opined.

But how much does the 108 tons of ivory at stake in this latest agreement mean in real numerical terms? Well, this represents the death of an estimated 7,699 South African elephants (1.8 tusks per elephant and 3.68kg per tusk).

More than 20,000 elephants a year are killed illegally in Africa and Asia for the ivory black market. As per the terms of the agreement, Namibia was permitted to sell 9 209 kg of ivory, Botswana 43 682 kg, South Africa 51 121 kg and Zimbabwe 3 755 kg.

Wildlife activists and Environmental Investigation Agency, a non-governmental organization that monitors the illegal wildlife trade say China’s government lost track of 121 tons of elephant ivory between 1991 and 2002 that probably was sold on illegal markets, according to a previously undisclosed Chinese report to U.N. regulatory officials.

Ivory trade was banned globally in 1989, but reviving elephant populations allowed African countries to make a one-time sale a decade later to Japan, the only country which had previously won the right to import.

Last year, CITES authorized Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe to make a second sale of 108 tons of government stocks.

But Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Liu Jianchao, trashed the activists’ furore saying Beijing has passed a series of laws and strictly cracked down on ivory smugglers and illegal traders and urged the international press, at the same time, to report facts more objectively. In other words, you can go to hell if you care.

South Africa only recently lifted a moratorium on elephant culling after a 13-year ban saw a sharp rise in population numbers. But the real losers are Africa’s elephants who are faced with commercial exploitation now more than any other time in history.

Image credit: Lenny Montana at Flickr under a Creative Commons license

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