JTEF's View to ivory trade proposal for CITES CoP15
Proposal 4: Request one-off sale of ivory from Tanzanian elephants
Proponent: Tanzania
Transfer the African elephant population of Tanzania from Appendix I to Appendix II, trade in raw ivory of 89,848.74 kg from registered government-owned stocks in a one-off sale, and trade in the other body parts and live animals under certain conditions.
JTEF's position: OPPOSE
Proposal 5: Request one-off sale of ivory from Zambian elephants
Proponent: Zambia
Transfer of the African elephant population of Zambia from Appendix I to Appendix II, trade in raw ivory of 21,692.23 kg from registered government-owned stocks in a one-off sale, and trade in the other body parts and live animals under certain conditions.
JTEF's position: OPPOSE
Proposal 6: Request 20 years moratorium of ivory trade
Proponent: Congo, Ghana, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Rwanda and Sierra Leone
Change the annotation to the Appendix regarding African elephant to prohibit all the Parties from submitting proposals concerning trade in African elephant ivory, including proposals for downlist elephant populations from Appendix I to Appendix II for the period from CoP14 and ending twenty years from the date of the single sale of ivory that took place in November 2008, and to prohibit Namibia and Zimbabwe from trading in certain ivory products.
JTEF's position: SUPPORT
JTEF's view
The elephant population of Zakouma National Park in Tchad had reduced from 3,885 elephants in 2005, to just 617 elephants in 2009, due to poaching for ivory. In Kenya, the number of elephants killed by poachers rose from 47 in 2007 to 214 in 2009. Experts alarmed that more than 38,000 African elephants were killed for ivory in 2006 alone.
The official resumption of international ivory trade cannot be justified under the ongoing upsurge of elephants poaching and ivory smuggling.
Reducing demand for ivory in consuming countries is as important as strengthening anti-poaching activity in the Range states. The only measure for reducing the demand is to scale down the market in consuming countries. Expansion of legal trade in order to give them a new supply will discourage implementation of the measure.
Japan should oppose to resume official international trade in ivory at CITES CoP 15 and also be responsible for reducing demand for ivory in its domestic ivory market.