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Limited clearance for big African ivory sale

CITES approves a compromise formula

— File Photo: AP

TUSK TUSSLES: African elephants in the Amboseli National Park, Kenya.

THE HAGUE: After an 18-year ban, four African states will make a one-time sale of their ivory stocks as part of a hard-fought compromise reached early on Thursday with other Africans who tried to block the sale.

The 171-member Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, approved the deal by consensus, in what the European Union hailed as a milestone for the wildlife trade organisation.

The arrangement allows South Africa, Namibia, Botswana and Zimbabwe to empty government inventories in a single sale to Japan — the only country authorised to purchase. Future sales will be frozen for nine years after the sale goes through.

Critics of the sale came to the conference demanding a 20-year moratorium on reopening the ivory ban for discussion.

The dispute over the sale consumed the energies of the two-week conference by CITES, which sets the rules for wildlife commerce and regulates the trade in tens of thousands of plants and animals. CITES, a 1975 treaty, lists more than 7,000 animals and 32,000 plants that are subject to trade regulations and require export permits. About 800 of them are banned.

Cautious reaction

Conservationists gave the agreement a cautious welcome, saying it provided a nine-year reprieve for elephants but could stimulate poaching and an already lively illegal market. "It will excite a demand that can never be supplied by legal sources. It will encourage the illegal market, and that's what kills elephants," said Michael Wamithi, the Kenya-based elephant expert for the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

The United States objected to the inclusion of Zimbabwe, accusing its government of complicity in the illegal ivory trade and charging that more than 900 poaching camps had been found on its territory — six times more than were found in 2001. But chief U.S. delegate Todd Willens said the U.S. would not try to amend or block the compromise.

However, TRAFFIC, an independent group monitoring the movement of wildlife products, said it looked into the claims of Zimbabwe's complicity and found none.

Last week, CITES cleared the way for Botswana, Namibia and South Africa to sell 60 tonnes, as agreed in principle at the last conference in 2004. But the three countries, joined by Zimbabwe, came to this year's conference with a proposal that would scrap the ban on ivory sales imposed in 1989 — at a point in time when Africa's elephant herds were being killed for their tusks and were at risk of extinction.

Kenya and Mali countered with a proposal for a 20-year moratorium.

Negotiations on a compromise document lasted until nearly 3 a.m. on Thursday after CITES repeatedly postponed votes on the competing proposals.

A welcome

"This is really a great day for the elephants," said Germany's chief delegate Jochen Flasbarth. "When I came here I never expected such a super response." Mr. Flasbarth, who led the mediation, told the conference the compromise was "a milestone for the Convention" in what he said was its act of peacemaking between rival states.

The final document did not specify how much ivory would be released. But in a key compromise by the southern Africans, it said the four countries could sell their inventories as verified by CITES as of January 31, 2007. The quantity will be far less than the 200 tonnes proposed in an earlier draft by the EU.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare estimated the total amount held by three countries was 60 tonnes. Zimbabwe said it held about 10 tonnes. — Agencies

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