Dar in new bid to sell Sh89 billion ivory stock

The Citizen Reporters Dar es Salaam/Nairobi. Tanzania has once again applied for a go-ahead to sell over 101,005kg of its ivory stockpile valued at over $55.5million (about Sh88.8billion) with a pledge that the money, if availed, would be used for anti-poaching operations. The deputy minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Mr Lazaro Nyalandu noted yesterday in a telephone interview: “Poaching of elephants is currently very alarming; we have to use every resource we have at our disposal to fight poaching.” He confirmed that the government has reapplied to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) for the sale of its ivory stockpile. Tanzania’s total ivory stockpile, he said, stood at 137,229.20kg, out of which 101,005kg are saleable. The minister noted further that current international auction price of ivory was $550 per kilogramme. Asked whether Tanzania wasn’t expecting opposition as it had been the case in the past, Mr Nyalandu said: “Of course, we do expect some opposition.” However, he pointed out that this time around, Tanzania would be more focused in its arguments vis-à-vis those of its likely opponents including Kenya. “Unlike in the past, we want to get absolute support from neighbouring Kenya,” said Mr Nyalandu who rejected the notion held in many quarters that any sale of the ivory would escalate poaching. The minister said Tanzania needed resources, including money to be accrued from the sale of the ivory stockpiles, for its anti-poaching crusade. However, industry sources say Tanzania’s reapplication is likely to re-ignite a standoff with other East African Community member states. Tanzania is also asking the world agency working for the protection of endangered wildlife to scale down the protection for its jumbo population so as to be permitted to undertake trade in tusks as hunting trophies. Reports in the UK on Tuesday confirmed that the country formally wrote to the CITES asking to offload into the market some 101,005kg of ivory stocks held by the government for many years now. This is the second time in two years Tanzanian authorities are attempting to win support of the international community to sell its ivory, ostensibly to raise funds for elephant conservation and development of communities living in elephant ranges. In 2010, it unsuccessfully applied to be allowed to sell 90kg of its stockpile, then valued at $20million.  In its latest request, Tanzania is proposing that the ivory to be sold would exclude that which was seized from poachers and any whose origin is questionable. Furthermore, it proposals that the stocks would be sold only to countries with a robust domestic legislation and enforcement, in order to prevent the ivory from being re-exported. All other African states, including Zambia and South Africa, that were initially for the idea, later backed down. Zambia teamed up with Tanzania in 2010 to push for a one-off ivory stockpile sale but their push was quashed at last year’s CITES meeting in Qatar. Kenya, which put up a spirited campaign to shoot down the Tanzania/Zambia request in 2010, is this year agitating for wider controls, submitting a request to stop South Africa and Swaziland from issuing any export permits for hunting trophies over the next five years.  According to the Treaty, for a proposal to be passed by CITES, it must garner a two-thirds majority support of the 176 member states.  On Tuesday, the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) called the Tanzanian proposal “ludicrous” for “it is coming at a time when ivory poaching is escalating.” The agency also pointed out that the CITES ivory-trading mechanism itself was increasingly being called into question. “The very system CITES uses to permit so-called one-off auctions is profoundly flawed and, we believe, a major driver of poaching and the illegal international trade in ivory,” EIA executive director and Elephant Campaign head Mary Rice said in a media statement. She said dumping of the huge consignment into the market would confuse consumers as to the legal status of ivory and stimulate fresh demand, spurring the black market and leading to more poaching. “Parties to CITES need to regain control of the destructive world ivory markets and end the damage done to undermine the 1989 ivory trade ban by firmly vetoing all proposals for ivory sales. They can start by emphatically rejecting Tanzania’s proposal in March, sending out an unequivocal message that all ivory is blood ivory,” she said. However, Tanzania has pledged it would stop the sale it was asking for, if CITES can prove there are inadequate controls on the sale of the ivory either by it or the purchasing countries. EAI was instrumental in the rejection of Tanzania’s case in 2010 after carrying out an undercover investigation in the country that year unearthing a flourishing trade in illegal ivory at both domestic and international levels, exacerbated by poor enforcement and facilitated by official corruption. According to the EAI investigation, Tanzanian authorities “appeared unwilling, or unable, to exercise control of poaching and ivory trafficking.” “It seems very little has changed and, if anything, the situation has worsened,” said Ms Rice who added that last July a meeting of the CITES standing committee and expert groups expressed concern that Tanzania remains a key exit point for illegal consignments of ivory.  “More large-scale ivory seizures are currently being directed to Asian destinations through Indian Ocean seaports in Kenya and Tanzania than any other trade route from Africa,” a report from the committee noted. Parties to the Treaty would meet in Bangkok, Thailand, from 3 to 14 March 2013 for a COP16 general assembly to coincide with the 40th anniversary of CITES. Reported by Lucas Liganga and Tom Mosoba