Plight of rhino is discussed in Botswana

KASANE – On Wednesday governments from around the world met in Kasane, Botswana, for a follow-up after the London Conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade a year ago. Forty-six countries were represented at this conference, and although the South African Government was not at the 2014 conference, the office of the minister of the department of environmental affairs (DEA), Ms Edna Molewa, confirmed to Lowvelder that she would attend the Kasane conference on 25 March 2015.

The declaration issued after the London conference outlines the steps that need to be taken to stop animal poaching, which governments have agreed needs to be treated as a serious crime. They had also decided to have a follow-up meeting a year later to assess progress.

ACTIONS FROM THE LONDON CONFERENCE INCLUDE:
• Treat wildlife trade as a serious crime within the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organised Crime
• Address problems of corruption and money laundering related to wildlife crime with legislation – a zero-tolerance policy
• Strengthen legal frameworks and help law enforcement
• Better cross-agency mechanisms to deal with wildlife crime
• Endorse governments which are destroying wildlife products
• This crisis will be addressed at all points of the supply chain – where the animal is killed, where the parts are trafficked, and where the products are purchased and renounce governments which use products from species threatened with extinction.

The illegal trade in wildlife is worth about US$19 billion dollars a year. Many conservationists, environmentalists and activists have seen the London Declaration as a pivotal moment for wildlife, where the illegal animal trade has been pushed from the conservation agenda to the political one.
Conservationists urge that there’s no time to spare as the survival of key species is on the line.
The bulk of poaching takes place in Africa, but much of the demand comes from Asia, where animal products, such as rhino horn, are used in traditional medicine or are bought by the rich as trophies.

The London conference heard from four African presidents, namely Botswana, Chad, Gabon and Tanzania.
These governments agreed on a moratorium on the ivory trade for at least 10 years, as part of an elephant protection initiative.
In essence, by issuing a 10-year moratorium, the four African states are saying they will uphold the ban, and not ask for permission from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to sell any of their ivory or rhino horn.
While trade has been banned under CITES since 1989, some states have been granted permission to sell their ivory stocks in the past.
In 1999, CITES authorised a “one-off” sale of stockpiled ivory from Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to Japan, and in 2008 Namibia, Botswana, South Africa and Zimbabwe sold their stocks to buyers in China and Japan.
But the South African Government was not present at this conference and many conservationists and environmental organisations worldwide condemned this. Its non-participation in London has been widely criticised as a sign of the government’s lack of political will to address the scourge of rhino poaching.

South Africa is at present bearing the brunt of this scourge with a whopping 1 215 rhino poached during 2014.