The Elephant Gets Nine Years at The Haque

THE HAGUE – It was a great day for the African elephant today morning after Kenya and Mali led other African countries in hammering out a compromise deal on ivory trade.

An elated Kenya Wildlife Service director Julius Kipng’etich described the breakthrough as “Africa’s finest hour, a proud moment for the continent, its people and the elephant.”

“At least CITES can now focus on other endangered species in the subsequent conference of parties as we put mechanisms in place to address the escalating illegal killing of elephants and trade in ivory across the elephant range both in Africa and Asia,” he said after the deal was struck at 2 am.

A bridge between the competing proposals from Kenya-Mali on suspension on trade in ivory and Namibia-Botswana for limited trade was reached after Kenya and Mali agreed to a nine-year ivory trade freeze.

Botswana and Namibia’s request to trade in raw ivory was subsequently rejected and will only be considered after the 9-year moratorium period.

Kenya led a formidable team of 21 “like-minded parties” including Mali, Ghana, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Niger, Togo, Sierra Leone, Rwanda, Burundi, Nigeria, Liberia, Comoros, Congo Brazzaville and Cote d’Ivoire in calling for the 20-year moratorium.

Chad and Zambia introduced and seconded the compromise proposal respectively on behalf of Africa this morning barely a day before the end of the 14th Conference of Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in The Hague.

The elephant range states agreed on the establishment of an African Elephant Fund to collectively address the long term issues of elephant conservation.

The fund would help to implement an action plan that includes accessing resources to strengthen the enforcement of laws against poaching and illegal trade in ivory, control of trade in ivory, enhance capacity building and manage elephant translocations.

The fund would also contribute to the resolution of human-elephant conflicts and enhance community conservation initiatives and development programmes within and adjacent to the elephant range.

Zimbabwean Environment and Tourism minister Francis Nhema who chaired the African elephant range negotiations noted that the compromise document was a classical win-win situation.

He said once CITES meeting approved the document, the world would have taken over from the African range states and “it will be a statement by the whole world on biodiversity”.

“Those who were not expecting a resolution must join us in this celebration. This resolution keeps humanity living side by side with our natural resources.”

Yesterday, the Dutch minister had told journalists that the divisive debate elephant was a “very important and delicate issue” and that it was best left to the African range states to agree among themselves on the way forward.

“It’s not a good thing to interfere with their negotiations,” she said at a press briefing on the inaugural inter-ministerial roundtable meeting attended by 50 ministers, including Tourism and Wildlife Minister Hon Morris Dzoro, who led the Kenyan delegation in the long drawn-out and consuming negotiations. The meeting was also attended by Tourism and Permanent Secretary Mrs Rebecca Nabutola.

The meeting has been running from June 3 and ends tomorrow, June 15th 2007

Kenya Wildlife Service Director Julius Kipng'etich (standing) addresses
African Elephant Range States Delegates during CITES negotiations that
brokered a deal that approved a nine-year freeze on sale in ivory in The
Hague on Thursday morning. In the foreground is Mr Patrick Omondi, the
Head of Species Conservation at the KWS.