HONOLULU—Members of an international environmental group were considering a proposal on Friday to urge leaders in every country to close domestic ivory markets that threaten elephants. Ivory trading is banned internationally, but domestic trade within countries is legal nearly everywhere.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) plans to vote on the plan at the World Conservation Congress in Honolulu. Some members of the global group of government and nonprofit representatives don’t want a ban, and the vote was delayed when they filed a complaint, saying their concerns had not been heard.
“Some governments just don’t see the reality of the crisis that the countries of central and East Africa are facing right now,” said Susan Lieberman, vice president for international conservation at the Wildlife Conservation Society. “This is about saying to all governments, ‘Make it, so people can’t buy ivory, because that’s the only thing that’s going to stop the organized criminals who are causing the poaching of elephants.’”
If the group passes the proposal, it won’t have the power to enforce it. Each country would have to enact laws individually, but the group’s policy experts could help countries craft laws.
“While the resolutions are not international law, in many cases, they are the genesis of international agreements,” said Enrique Lahmann, global director of IUCN. The number of savanna elephants in Africa is rapidly declining and the animals are in danger of being wiped out because of the ivory trade, according to a recent study, which said the population plummeted by about 30 percent from 2007 to 2014 and is declining at about 8 percent a year.
Microsoft Cofounder and philanthropist Paul Allen funded the aerial survey that covered 18 countries using dozens of airplanes and involved 90 scientists.
The United States announced a near-total ban on the domestic sale of African elephant ivory in June. “We’re talking about the extinction of elephants,” said Joseph Moravec, law student at Pace University and voting member of the conservation congress. “Ivory markets are going to close one way or the other, whether it’s us closing them when the elephant is still alive, or they’re going to close in a few years when these species are still extinct and there’s no more ivory left.”
Statistical analysis of the census findings showed that savanna elephant populations in 15 countries had declined by an average of 30 percent—equal to some 144,000 elephants—between 2007 and 2014. The rate of decline accelerated in that period and is currently running at an annual 8 percent “primarily due to poaching.” Those figures indicate poachers are slaughtering some 27,000 elephants a year
The aerial survey, carried out by spotters in low-flying planes, spanned nearly 350,000 square miles in 18 countries. The data, after statistical analysis, came up with a count of 352,271 elephants. Comparative data only existed for 15 countries. The spotters also counted carcasses that helped compile estimates on the percentage of illegally killed elephants. Forest elephants, more difficult to spot by air, are to have a separate census.
The sharpest declines were seen in Tanzania and northern Mozambique, while some areas showed slight increases or a stable population, including South Africa and parts of Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Kenya. Relatively high carcass ratios in Uganda and the W-Arli-Pendjari conservation complex spanning Benin, Niger and Burkina Faso suggested that numbers there had been swelled by elephants moving in from surrounding areas. Mike Chase, founder of Elephants without Borders, was the principal investigator for the census, which was funded at a cost of $7 million and by Vulcan Inc., created by Allen.
AP and IPS
Image credits: AP/Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi