The sale of a huge cache of ivory is due to be given the go-ahead this week, in only the second legal sale since CITES banned the trade in 1989.
At the time of going to press, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora was expected to approve the shipment of 60 tonnes of ivory from Botswana, Namibia and South Africa for sale in Geneva on Wednesday. CITES is confident it will be able to gauge whether the sale stimulates poaching, as its Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) programme β designed to analyse poaching levels in Africa and Asia β is now up and running.
Japan expects to be granted the right to buy the cache at the same meeting because it has set up stringent national regulations designed to quash any illegal trade in ivory. It is thought Chinaβs request will be turned down because it has yet to stamp out its illegal trade.
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Much of the ivory came from elephants that died of natural causes or in culls, or that was confiscated from poachers. βThe money they get back will have to be put into conservation,β says Peter Stephenson, who heads WWF Internationalβs Geneva-based Africa Programme. Also, because the sale is a one-off rather than a reopening of trade, Stephenson does not believe it will boost the incidence of poaching.
Any countries wishing to sell more ivory will have to put in a fresh application, and the sale will need to be done under the aegis of MIKE to show it did not encourage poaching.
