Elephant Ivory Auction Feedback
Gerhard R Damm
The auctions of over 100 metric tons of legal ivory to China and Japan were recently held in southern Africa. The long-delayed sales of stockpiled ivory in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe were being conducted over two weeks under close supervision of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The four countries are home to 312,000 elephants, and their stocks of tusks came from natural deaths or the culling of herds to keep the population under control. Namibia opened the bidding on 28 October, Botswana sold its 43 tons on 30th October, while South Africa, with the largest sale of 47 tons, and Zimbabwe, 4 tons, followed suit on 6th and 2nd November respectively. In total, a whooping 100 tons of ivory will enter the market.
CITES approved the export of the ivory stockpiles of the four African countries because they have been able to establish that elephant populations are now under control and being monitored in an acceptable manner. Proceeds from the auctions are required to be used to fund future conservation initiatives targeting threatened elephant habitat, and community development projects in areas where elephant populations have been interfering with local farming.
The auctions were organized by the governments of the respective African countries and only authorized Chinese and Japanese merchants were permitted to bid. Under the agreement, the ivory is not permitted to be re-exported, even after processing. CITES says it will be working with governments, Interpol and several NGOs to ensure this is the case.
CITES calls the exceptional sale “an African solution to an African problem,” in reference to the problems associated with conservation initiatives that do not take the unique circumstances in different parts of the world into account. “While richer countries can often afford to promote conservation through strict protection, many poorer nations must do so in ways that benefit local communities and bring in much-needed cash for conservation,” CITES Secretary-General Willem Wijnstekers has said in the past.
Critics fear that the exclusive auction to Japan and China, two of the world’s largest ivory markets, has the potential to trigger a bidding war between the two countries. This frenzy, they argue, could inadvertently drive up black market prices and thus create more incentive for poaching. Yet – the predicted “frenzy” did not happen! Other critics point out that the legal sales could boost poaching and illegal trade by making it difficult to distinguish between legal and illegal ivory in the marketplace and drawing attention to the fact that there is still demand for the controversial good.
But CITES representatives disagree with the critics. They say that their close monitoring of elephant numbers in the four countries, combined with the potential for increased wildlife protection provided by the proceeds of the auctions will, in fact, decrease poaching. “Some NGOs are saying that this will increase poaching because demand will be stimulated,” says Juan-Carlos Vasquez of CITES. “But we don’t have any evidence to indicate that this is the case.” Moreover, data collected by the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC shows that seizures of illegal ivory fell in the years following the last legal sale in 1999.
