Mr. RobertsonTo ask the Secretary of State for the Environment, Transport and the Regions if he will make a statement regarding Government policy towards the ivory trade and elephant poaching, following the recent agreement of countries attending the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species meeting. [122141]
§ Mr. Meacher[holding answer 15 May 2000]: The Government support the co-operative arrangements for elephant conservation between the African range states which have developed at a series of special dialogue meetings over the last five years, sponsored by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the UN CITES Secretariat. The latest dialogue meeting took place in Nairobi immediately before the CITES Conference and was, like the previous meetings, partly funded by my Department. Senior UK officials attended the meeting. The Nairobi dialogue agreed arrangements for each African region to participate in two systems which underpin future elephant management and trade: the Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants (MIKE) and the Elephant Trade Information System (ETIS). The dialogue paved the way for the compromise reached at the CITES Conference itself.
The main features of the compromise are that the elephant populations of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, estimated at a total of 192,000 animals, are now listed on Appendix II of the Convention. This means that managed trade in elephant products of these four populations is agreed to be scientifically sustainable according to the criteria laid down under CITES. However there are still concerns among a number of African states—which we share—about resuming further commercial trade in raw ivory at present, particularly as we cannot yet assess the full impact of last year's experimental ivory auctions on elephant poaching levels, both in Africa and Asia. We therefore welcome the decision reached as part of the compromise which sets zero quotas for the export of ivory from southern Africa.
MIKE and ETIS are expected to provide comprehensive information to enable the next CITES Conference in 2002 to decide whether controlled ivory trade can safely be resumed, and whether the conservation benefits of such trade outweigh any remaining risks. The 89W European Union, with the support of the UK, is considering a grant of 4 million Euro to MIKE. The UK has already provided £60,000 towards the cost of ETIS
The Government appreciate the role played by responsible non-Government organisations, particularly the World Wide Fund for Nature and Fauna and Flora International, in obtaining such a successful outcome in Nairobi.