FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, June 19, 1997
CONTACT:
Christine Wolf, 011-263-4-780-793, ChrisW@fund.org (Zimbabwe)
Heidi Prescott, 301-585-2591, Heidi@fund.org (United States)
HARARE, ZIMBABWE -- Today, in a giant leap backwards that destroyed hard-won protection for elephants, parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) approved three proposals to reopen the trade in African elephant ivory. Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe submitted proposals to downlist the elephant populations in their countries from Appendix I, which prohibits trade in elephant parts, to Appendix II, which allows trade.
Says Christine Wolf, director of government affairs for The Fund for Animals, on location in Zimbabwe, "The approval of these proposals will effectively return us to the days when poachers and ivory traders slaughtered these majestic elephants indiscriminately, simply for their tusks, and left elephant carcasses strewn across the African savannah."
In 1989, CITES parties listed the African elephant on Appendix I after decades of poaching had reduced the continent-wide population from 1.3 million to fewer than 500,000. Prior to this year's convention, a CITES panel of experts conducted research in Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe to evaluate their ability to control the trade in ivory. The report issued by the panel illuminated serious flaws in each nation's enforcement capabilities.
The U.S. delegation to CITES firmly opposed the proposals. Donald Barry of the Department of the Interior said on the convention floor, "A vote in favor of these proposals is a vote to return to the ivory trade. For the sake of the elephant, that is too great a risk to take."
Besides reopening the ivory trade, the downlisting of African elephants to Appendix II will also entitle countries to export live elephants for zoos and other "non-commercial purposes," and will make is easier for American trophy hunters to kill African elephants and bring home the trophies.
Adds Cleveland Amory, founder and president of The Fund for Animals and best-selling author, "The world fought hard to protect our elephants, and with one sweeping vote those protections were eliminated. If we won't protect one of the most beautiful creatures in all the world, I can't imagine what chance the homely animals will ever have."
