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Ahead of UN-backed meeting, some African countries agree to regulated ivory trade

Ahead of UN-backed meeting, some African countries agree to regulated ivory trade

The African elephant range States have agreed to permit a strictly regulated form of raw ivory trade from four southern African countries, according to the United Nations-backed Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Kenya, another elephant range State, did not join in the agreement, which would permit countries to harvest ivory from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. Agreement on the proposal came during a meeting in Santiago, Chile, from 29 to 31 October in an effort to build an African consensus regarding ivory trade controls in advance of the meeting of 160 member States of CITES, which is supported by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP). CITES is expected to take the final decision on the agreement during its current meeting, which is scheduled to run through 15 November.

Last month, the range States reviewed proposals from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe for one-off sales of existing legal ivory stocks to be followed later by annual quotas. The income from these sales would be used to finance elephant conservation programmes and to benefit local communities.

According to UNEP, the discussions led Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe to amend their proposals and to subject the future export of a total stock of 70 tons of raw ivory to a series of very strict conditions. The agency said the countries' proposals for subsequent annual export quotas have also been modified so that such limits would be established only after the monitoring systems provide feedback and they have been authorized at a meeting of the African elephant range States.

Meanwhile, Kenya and India have submitted a proposal to the CITES meeting for a continuation of the ban on ivory trade. Kenya expressed concerns about the illegal killing of elephants and the illegal ivory trade, noting that two monitoring systems for tracking such activities are not yet fully operational.