TL: MEDIA BRIEFING - ALLOWING SOME IVORY TRADE WILL THREATEN ALL ELEPHANTS SO: GREENPEACE INTERNATIONAL, (GP) DT: JUNE, 1997 Legalising the ivory trade at this stage, even among a limited number of countries, will most certainly lead to an increase in poaching throughout Africa and elsewhere, as control in both exporting and importing countries is seriously inadequate. What is special about African elephants? Apart from their size, African elephants' main feature and, in a sense, weakness are their ivory tusks, carried by both males and females. Ivory has long been in strong demand, mainly for decorative purposes. Ivory carving is an ancient craft. Nowadays, Japan is the leading consumer, using it mostly for the production of name seals (hanko). Why were they listed on Appendix I? The African elephant once occurred in most of the continent, except for islands and desert areas. Counted in millions at the turn of the century, they now number 600,000 at most. Soaring demand for ivory in the early 1970s led to large-scale poaching and smuggling. Intense control efforts to stop the illegal hunters were fruitless, as were attempts by CITES to regulate the trade. In the course of the 1980s, the struggle between poachers and game wardens turned increasingly violent. The plummeting of elephant populations was not checked, and in some places reversed, until CITES imposed a ban on all ivory trade in 1989, which came into force in 1990. BOX African elephants in figures 1900 over 10 million (estimate) 1970 under 2 million (estimate) 1987 765,000 (estimate) 1996 285,000 (definitely) 390,000 (probably) 545,000 (possibly) 580,000 (hopefully) END OF BOX What will be discussed in Harare? Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe have proposed to shift elephants from Appendix I to Appendix II ('downlisting'), so as to allow the export of some tonnes of ivory to Japan. They argue that their elephant populations are not at risk. Also, they claim they are capable of effectively controlling illegal trade. In their proposal, ivory exports by any other country than themselves to any other country than Japan remain illegal. Can the illegal ivory trade be checked? There are three major reasons to believe that allowing ivory trade between some countries will render it impossible to stop ivory smuggling. First, there are the lessons of the past: after years of fruitless regulating and controlling, only the 1990 ban made a real difference. Second, the CITES Panel of Experts and other independent sources, including even the Zimbabwean parliament, have cast very grave doubt on the three proponent states' ability to prevent smuggling. Illegal exports have actually continued ever since 1990, albeit at a much reduced level. Third, Japan's control over the ivory trade is extremely poor, as is evidenced by the doubling of the country's ivory stockpiles since 1990. What will happen if the proposals are accepted? Poaching will resume. Indeed, the very existence of the proposals has led to increased poaching, both in the three southern African nations and elsewhere - even in India and Vietnam. It was reported that poachers and traders take the proposals as a sign that the ban will not last much longer, and are therefore stockpiling ivory in anticipation. It confirms the wisdom of the Bangui Resolution, adopted by eleven west and central African nations in 1994, which calls for the ivory trade ban not even to be discussed until CITES's fifteenth Conference of Parties - to be held in 2009. Greenpeace believes the proposals to be extremely premature. Acceptance would prove disastrous for the African elephant. Also, it would go against the CITES listing criteria, which state that 'listing of a species in more than one appendix should be avoided in general in view of the enforcement problem it creates'. For further details see the official Greenpeace submission to the CITES conference.