African nations clash over sales of ivory

Poaching is up in central Africa, but elephant herds are growing in the south. Nations are arguing over whether to lift the ban on ivory sales.

By Rob Crilly | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the June 13, 2007 edition

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Omdurman, Sudan - The bustling souk of Omdurman is crammed with any manner of curiosities – from Bakelite telephones and colonial-era pocket watches to baby crocodiles fashioned into ashtrays.

"You want ivory?" says one trader before sweeping away a collection of cow-bone necklaces to better display dozens of milky-white chopsticks. "Here, this is ivory."

Thousands of elephants are being slaughtered across Central Africa – in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Chad, and Sudan – to supply Khartoum's ivory market despite an international ban imposed in 1989, according to conservationists. One group claims that Darfur militiamen are funding their movement by killing the elephants for their tusks and selling the ivory to Chinese buyers.

Conservation groups are urging the 171 countries in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), meeting now in The Hague until June 16, not to lift restrictions on the ivory trade. CITES meets every two or three years to review trade rules on everything from orchids to the saw-tooth shark. Once again, the meeting has been dominated by the trade in ivory.

Southern African states, where elephant populations have rebounded, want regulations eased to allow them to supply lucrative Asian markets with ivory from animals that have died from natural causes.

But in a report presented to the CITES meeting, Traffic, a conservation group monitoring the illegal trade in wildlife, offered evidence that East Asian crime syndicates are fueling an increase in ivory trafficking.

The study shows that the size of ivory seizures is increasing, suggesting smuggling gangs are becoming more sophisticated and that domestic markets such as Sudan's are largely to blame.

Tom Milliken, director of Traffic's Africa program, acknowledges that the continent is split over the ivory trade.

"In southern Africa, even in Zimbabwe, which is facing a severe economic meltdown, we have an increasing elephant population," he says. "But it is central Africa that is seeing the biggest impact and it is really hemorrhaging ivory."

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