The Japan Times - Zimbabwe rallies allies to push for legal ivory trade

EUR -
AED 3.823403
AFN 79.112634
ALL 98.10997
AMD 415.0708
ANG 1.876424
AOA 950.914404
ARS 1090.13111
AUD 1.659265
AWG 1.876324
AZN 1.780543
BAM 1.949902
BBD 2.102152
BDT 126.965967
BGN 1.955843
BHD 0.392336
BIF 3034.387996
BMD 1.040956
BND 1.408845
BOB 7.194067
BRL 6.185046
BSD 1.041156
BTN 90.014168
BWP 14.400374
BYN 3.407211
BYR 20402.746043
BZD 2.091384
CAD 1.498212
CDF 2961.52069
CHF 0.943445
CLF 0.037397
CLP 1031.910761
CNY 7.570149
CNH 7.580276
COP 4435.515352
CRC 523.618731
CUC 1.040956
CUP 27.585345
CVE 110.670924
CZK 25.141905
DJF 184.998195
DKK 7.460743
DOP 63.925349
DZD 140.627973
EGP 52.378434
ERN 15.614346
ETB 131.212813
FJD 2.408562
FKP 0.857318
GBP 0.845132
GEL 2.976774
GGP 0.857318
GHS 15.832297
GIP 0.857318
GMD 75.989901
GNF 9010.518536
GTQ 8.047658
GYD 217.718333
HKD 8.106452
HNL 26.542023
HRK 7.681788
HTG 135.959418
HUF 410.896542
IDR 16942.710963
ILS 3.675877
IMP 0.857318
INR 90.014678
IQD 1363.652924
IRR 43824.26542
ISK 146.118712
JEP 0.857318
JMD 163.365869
JOD 0.738454
JPY 162.744156
KES 134.803819
KGS 91.031653
KHR 4196.095255
KMF 491.962147
KPW 936.860903
KRW 1496.551746
KWD 0.320917
KYD 0.867671
KZT 542.362128
LAK 22692.850134
LBP 93196.569507
LKR 310.911084
LRD 202.934565
LSL 19.247218
LTL 3.073674
LVL 0.629664
LYD 5.11628
MAD 10.40592
MDL 19.417176
MGA 4913.314063
MKD 61.532474
MMK 3380.985882
MNT 3537.170063
MOP 8.351798
MRU 41.513457
MUR 48.352199
MVR 16.041213
MWK 1807.618576
MXN 21.341379
MYR 4.624455
MZN 66.527331
NAD 19.247084
NGN 1620.768943
NIO 38.306805
NOK 11.742457
NPR 144.023067
NZD 1.8376
OMR 0.400687
PAB 1.041156
PEN 3.870797
PGK 4.166168
PHP 60.73249
PKR 290.062382
PLN 4.224599
PYG 8235.091411
QAR 3.79012
RON 4.975877
RSD 117.153392
RUB 103.312946
RWF 1449.011352
SAR 3.903939
SBD 8.821823
SCR 14.836374
SDG 625.615326
SEK 11.461935
SGD 1.410709
SHP 0.857318
SLE 23.62895
SLL 21828.335792
SOS 594.901562
SRD 36.51657
STD 21545.696434
SVC 9.110444
SYP 13534.515498
SZL 19.247678
THB 35.29727
TJS 11.39496
TMT 3.653757
TND 3.326376
TOP 2.438027
TRY 37.109758
TTD 7.072641
TWD 34.026804
TZS 2628.415263
UAH 43.728335
UGX 3831.429522
USD 1.040956
UYU 45.562189
UZS 13537.638308
VES 57.972478
VND 26117.596848
VUV 123.584438
WST 2.915539
XAF 653.982049
XAG 0.033826
XAU 0.000378
XCD 2.813236
XDR 0.802178
XOF 654.229378
XPF 119.331742
YER 259.250465
ZAR 19.26425
ZMK 9369.860898
ZMW 29.021522
ZWL 335.187546
  • RBGPF

    0.1600

    62.36

    +0.26%

  • BCC

    -1.2000

    127.92

    -0.94%

  • CMSD

    -0.0400

    23.96

    -0.17%

  • RYCEF

    0.1500

    7.42

    +2.02%

  • NGG

    -1.5400

    60.05

    -2.56%

  • GSK

    -0.3500

    33.43

    -1.05%

  • CMSC

    -0.0600

    23.49

    -0.26%

  • RIO

    -0.6100

    61.12

    -1%

  • RELX

    -0.2900

    49.26

    -0.59%

  • BTI

    -0.1600

    36.57

    -0.44%

  • SCS

    -0.2200

    11.58

    -1.9%

  • JRI

    -0.0400

    12.53

    -0.32%

  • BCE

    -0.2400

    23.15

    -1.04%

  • AZN

    0.2400

    68.2

    +0.35%

  • VOD

    -0.1700

    8.38

    -2.03%

  • BP

    -0.3900

    31.13

    -1.25%

Zimbabwe rallies allies to push for legal ivory trade
Zimbabwe rallies allies to push for legal ivory trade / Photo: Jekesai NJIKIZANA - AFP/File

Zimbabwe rallies allies to push for legal ivory trade

Zimbabwe will this week press a drive to legalise the ivory trade, inviting officials from 15 nations to meet in a national park that's a beacon of success in protecting elephants.

Text size:

Hwange National Park is overflowing with elephants, which now routinely wander outside the boundaries to feed, sometimes running into deadly conflicts with people living in the surrounds.

Zimbabwe and its neighbours in southern Africa have seen their elephant herds thrive in recent years and are now home to about 70 percent of the continent's elephants.

That's a markedly different story than in the rest of Africa, where poaching and habitat loss have seen numbers declining.

Zimbabwe, by contrast, is home to 100,000 elephants -- nearly double the number that conservationists say the country's parks can support.

Elephants require vast areas for feeding. Even Hwange, a park nearly half the size of Belgium, isn't big enough to support its population.

Zimbabwe and other countries with large herds say they're left protecting vast stockpiles of ivory they can't sell to raise funds for either conservation work or to support communities affected by the growing elephant numbers.

"These are pertinent issues that are difficult to address in a balanced manner," Tourism and Environment Minister Mangaliso Ndhlovu said in a statement.

Zimbabwe last week urged European ambassadors to allow a one-off sale of $600 million worth of elephant ivory, kept in a warehouse outside central Harare.

International trade in ivory and elephants has been banned since 1989 under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). One-off sales were allowed in 1999 and 2008, despite fierce opposition.

Countries in southern Africa say the ban prevents them even from supporting each other's conservation efforts, for example, by moving elephants from Zimbabwe to countries that want to repopulate.

The conference brings together countries likely to support a legalisation move, including China and Japan, where ivory is highly prized.

Kenya and Tanzania, which fear legalisation will encourage more poaching, were not invited. But the island nations of Seychelles and Madagascar, which have no elephants, are attending.

- Dangerous signal -

A collection of 50 anti-ivory trade organisations issued a statement warning that opening the ivory market would decimate the African herd, which in some regions is near extinction.

"The conference is sending a dangerous signal to poachers and criminal syndicates that elephants are mere commodities, and that ivory trade could be resumed heightening the threat to the species," they said.

But growing elephant herds pose real dangers to nearby communities.

Zimbabwe says 60 people have been killed by elephants so far this year, compared with 72 in all of last year.

"Governments of elephant range states are faced with social and political pressures on why elephants are prioritised over their own life and livelihoods," Ndhlovu said.

S.Fujimoto--JT