Wyndham Hartley

Parliamentary Editor

CAPE TOWN — China, one of the centres of trade in illicit ivory, is on the list as a customer for the 30 tons of legal ivory which SA has permission to sell on world markets.

Despite being a signatory to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites ) trade in illegal ivory has flourished in China. Its emerging middle class has such an appetite for ivory carvings and jewellery that in 2005 Richard Leakey, the renowned anthropologist, warned that the enormous economic growth in China posed a huge threat to African elephants.

While some in southern Africa think that allowing restricted trade in legal ivory will reduce the amount taken from poached animals, others think that legal trade fuels the illegal trade. They point to increased elephant poaching in central Africa in recent years.

In 2005 the International Fund for Animal Welfare (Ifaw ) said: “China continues to be a prime location of illicit trade in ivory. Moreover, the first phase of a survey by Ifaw investigators confirms that China’s efforts to regulate its internal ivory trade are failing.

“Despite introducing a registration and certification system, illicit ivory trade continues to flourish, nourished and hidden by China’s legal ivory market.”

Environment Minister Marthinus van Schalkwyk yesterday confirmed, in reply to a parliamentary question from Democratic Alliance MP Isaac Julies, that China was a potential destination for legal South African ivory if China was approved as a trading partner at a Cites meeting in July.

Van Schalkwyk said China was a member of Cites “in good standing” and stressed that SA was allowed to trade only with countries verified by Cites, in order to prevent the ivory being re-exported.

He said registered raw ivory could only be traded if it came from government stocks. This excluded ivory that had been seized or was of unknown origin. At the 12th Cites conference it was agreed SA could sell 30 tons of ivory, Namibia 10tons and Botswana 20 tons. Extra ivory could be sold if it was registered with Cites before January 30 last year.

Van Schalkwyk said the proceeds were “used exclusively for elephant conservation and community conservation and development programmes within or adjacent to the elephant range”.

Once the ivory approved for sale in southern African countries had been traded, a nine- year moratorium on any ivory sales would come into force.

Last year 23000 elephants were poached in Africa as a whole — levels not seen since the original ban in trade of elephant products in 1989.

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