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Southern African Nations Say They May Quit Global Wildlife Pact

Southern African countries are reconsidering their participation in a global pact to protect endangered species.

Southern African Nations Say They May Quit Global Wildlife Pact
A white rhino with its horns removed as an anti-poaching mesure grazes on a ranch (Photographer: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg)  

(Bloomberg) -- Southern African nations, where the bulk of the continent’s wildlife lives, are reconsidering their participation in a global pact to protect endangered species.

The 16-member Southern African Development Community objects to rulings against applications made by its member states to ease restrictions on the trade of ivory and white rhinoceros products as well as the banning of exports of wild African elephants. The decisions were taken at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, or CITES, in Geneva.

“The time has come to seriously reconsider whether there are any meaningful benefits from our membership to CITES,” said George Simbachawene, Tanzania’s environment minister, in a statement released Wednesday on behalf of SADC.

The group argues in the letter that decisions approved by CITES are increasingly driven by “protectionist ideology” upheld by largely western non-government organizations rather than by conservation models based on science.

“Foremost amongst these motifs now dominating CITES is the unfounded belief that all trade fuels illegal, unsustainable trade, ignoring clear evidence to the contrary,” Simbachawene said.

Zimbabwe, which has the world’s second-largest population of elephants and will no longer be able to ship the pachyderms to China under new CITES rules, said earlier this year it was considering withdrawing its membership. Together with three other nations, the cash-strapped country had lobbied for the suspension of a ban on the ivory trade so that it could earn millions of dollars from the sale of its ivory stockpile.

Botswana, the southern African nation with the world’s largest elephant population, has also repeatedly expressed its frustration over what it sees as foreign interference with its domestic conservation policy. Amid an international outcry, the government this year reversed a ban on wildlife hunting because its elephants are destroying crops and often pose a danger to people.

In Geneva, CITES increased protection of giraffes and restricted trade in rhino products, banned the export of wild elephants outside of their natural habitat and refused to allow a once-off sale of ivory stockpiles. Many of the measures were praised by international conservation organizations, including Humane Society International.

“The populations of iconic African wildlife species in our region illustrates the effectiveness of our conservation models,” SADC said in the statement. “Those who bear no cost of protecting our wildlife, nor bear any consequence for decisions of CITES on our species, vote without any accountability against working conservation models in southern Africa.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Mbongeni Mguni in Botswana at mmguni@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin at asguazzin@bloomberg.net, Pauline Bax, Karl Maier

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