Tanzania says No to Kenya’s ivory advice

The Citizen
By Lucas Liganga
May 7, 2010

In a move that clearly shows Tanzania is still determined to sell its 90-tonne ivory stockpile, the government yesterday rejected a suggestion by Kenya to burn the haul. Tanzania affirmed its desire to resume its push to be allowed to sell the ivory in response to Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga’s suggestion on Thursday that it should consider burning the ivory instead.

Mr Odinga argued that releasing the ivory to the market could rekindle massive elephant poaching in the East African region.

“I don’t want to dictate to Tanzania to burn its ivory stockpiles, but Kenya did so na huo ni mfano mzuri wa kuigwa,” Mr Odinga had said, with the last part of his remarks being Kiswahili, for “… and that’s a good thing which should be emulated.”

But in a quick rejoinder, the Minister for Natural Resources and Tourism, Ms Shamsa Mwangunga, said there was no way Tanzania could burn its ivory, valued at Sh20 billion.

“It doesn’t make any sense burning 90 tonnes of ivory,” she told The Citizen, when contacted for comment.

“We are making fresh proposals to Cites (Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species), so that it allows us to sell the ivory.”

Ms Mwangunga said the proposal would be submitted to the next Cites meeting to be held three years from now.

Addressing a press conference at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa that ended yesterday in Dar es Salaam, Mr Odinga denied that Kenya had sabotaged Tanzania’s bid to sell off its ivory stockpile. 

The Tanzania government says the proceeds from the sale will be spent on wildlife conservation, including stepping up the fight against poaching.

The Kenyan PM’s advice was in response to a question by The Citizen reporter, seeking his comment on recent accusations by some Tanzanian MPs that his country had betrayed its East African Community partner at the Doha Cites conference in March.

The politicians had charged that Kenya was not committed to the spirit of the EAC, citing the country’s Doha delegation’s role in “ensuring Tanzania’s request to sell its ivory stockpile flopped.”

But stressing that Kenya has nothing against Tanzania, Mr Odinga said: “We’re committed to the spirit of East African co-operation.” 

In the late 1980s, the then Kenyan President Daniel arap Moi torched tens of hundreds of tonnes of ivory tusks, whose value was then estimated at $1 million, in an official gesture of commitment to eradicating elephant poaching.

Tanzania had lobbied the Cites meeting to allow the country to sell off its ivory stockpiles, saying the money earned would be used to boost wildlife conservation.

However, Cites turned down the request at its 15th meeting in Doha, with Tanzania accusing Kenya “of spearheading propaganda against Dar’s worthy application.”

African elephants are classified in Cites Appendix I, in which ivory trade is prohibited.

Tanzania and Zambia have been lobbying for the elephant to be down-listed from Appendix I to Appendix II, which covers endangered species but in which limited international trade is allowed.

On Thursday, Mr Odinga called for similar conservation policies among the five EAC member states to avoid a situation such as what happened in Doha. The other EAC members are Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi.

He said Kenya’s elephant population had been dwindling as a result of poaching, adding: “When trade in ivory was banned the elephant population started rising.”

“We should not mess up with the privilege entrusted to us of hosting rare wildlife,” Mr Odinga said.

Wildlife stakeholders across the world argue that lifting the ban on ivory trade would send a signal to the syndicates involved in elephant poaching to intensify their activities.

They further argue that the proposal by Tanzania did not meet the criteria for amending relevant parts of the convention to allow the ban on ivory trade to be lifted temporarily for its immediate benefit.

The Cites regulations require that effective enforcement controls must be in place for such a proposal to be favourably considered and opponents of Tanzania’s application pointed out that the country lacked in that score.

Tanzania submitted its application against the backdrop of massive poaching in the Selous Game Reserve, one of the largest fauna reserves of the world, located in the south of the country.

In March, the government expressed its disappointment over the rejection of its plea to sell ivory.

The Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, Dr Ladislous Komba, said the government was planning to renew the request, blaming misinformation for the rejection of its application in Doha.

Article at:  http://thecitizen.co.tz/component/content/article/37-tanzania-top-news-story/1802-tanzania-no-to-kenyas-ivory-advice.html