COP17 of CITIES Calls for Closure of Domestic Ivory Markets

In force since 1975, CITES is a multilateral agreement that aims at protecting endangered animal and plant species by ensuring trade does not put their survival in jeopardy, while also ensuring opportunities for sustainable use where appropriate. As such, the Convention has become a key player in worldwide efforts to protect biodiversity and advance sustainable development opportunities.

In effect, the convention fulfils this role by classifying species in three different categories– Appendix I, II, and III, all of which have specific trade rules – according to the respective need for protection from over-exploitation.

As indicated in a press release issued on Tuesday by CITES, the conference, which represented the largest event of its kind ever held, took decisions on more than 60 specific proposals related to a total of 491 different species of wild animals and plants. More than 3500 participants attended the meeting.

“CoP17 adopted decisions that saw wildlife firmly embedded in the agendas of global enforcement, development and financing agencies that have the capacity and technical expertise to help ensure implementation of the Convention on the front lines, where it matters most – with the CITES management and scientific authorities, as well as customs officials, rural communities, businesses, police, prosecutors and park rangers,” continued Scanlon.

One of the most notable decisions taken at the COP17 was the adoption of a resolution calling for closing domestic ivory markets which contribute to poaching or illegal trade. Despite the non-binding nature of the resolution, various environmental and conservationist organisations have praised it as a landmark shift in the efforts to fight trafficking in raw and carved ivory.

Since 1989, international trade in ivory has been banned under CITES, except for a temporarily lift of the ban in 2008-2009, to allow for a one-off sale of stockpiles of seized ivory that had accumulated in some African countries. However, there has been growing concern among many stakeholders and experts that trade within legal domestic markets for ivory products has fuelled poaching and illicit trafficking.

The original proposal on the closure of domestic ivory markets, which was amended and finally adopted after long discussions within specific working groups, was submitted to the COP17 by a group of 10 African countries – Angola, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Côte d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kenya, Niger and Senegal.

The adopted text “recommends that all Parties and non-Parties in whose jurisdiction there is a legal domestic market for ivory that is contributing to poaching or illegal trade, take all necessary legislative, regulatory and enforcement measures to close their domestic markets for commercial trade in raw and worked ivory as a matter of urgency.”

It also includes a recognition that narrow exemptions could be justified in some particular cases for specific ivory items, provided that they do not fuel poaching or illicit trafficking.

“Countries have said loud and clear that legal ivory markets should no longer provide a cover for the massive illegal trade driving the decline of Africa’s elephants,” underlined Ginette Hemley, the head of the World Wildlife Fund’s (WWF) delegation at CITES.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the total population of African elephants has experienced its worst decline in 25 years, dropping by about 111,000 specimens since 2006. The organisation seized the opportunity offered by the COP17 to launch the new edition of its African Elephant Status Report (AESR), which contains those alarming numbers.

“The surge in poaching for ivory that began approximately a decade ago – the worst that Africa has experienced since the 1970s and 1980s – has been the main driver of the decline, while habitat loss poses an increasingly serious, long-term threat to the species,” indicates the IUCN in a press release.

Namibia and Zimbabwe for Opening of Elephant Trade

In other important decisions taken during the CITES conference, all three proposals aimed at changing the appendix listing of some African elephant populations were rejected by the parties. This means that the ban on international trade in ivory will be maintained and keep its current legal form.

Currently, most populations of African elephants and all elephant ivory are classified under Appendix I, which forbids trade in specimens taken from the wild. However, a few other populations, namely those of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, are currently listed under Appendix II – which allows for trade, provided the necessary permits have been obtained – with specific annotations indicating that elephant ivory from these populations are actually considered as Appendix I.

In two separate proposals, Namibia and Zimbabwe both sought a removal of these annotations in Appendix II in relation to their own population of elephants, which would have allowed them to resume international in ivory. In a press release issued after the COP17, the WCS welcomed the rejection of these two proposals.

World governments also refused, however, a proposal put forward by a coalition of 29 countries aiming in the opposite direction. If accepted, the resolution would have included all elephant’s populations under Appendix I.