§ Mr. LidingtonTo ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the Government's policy is on the CITES agreement reached in November on the sale of stocks of ivory. [81822]
§ Margaret Beckett[holding answer 19 November 2002]The agreement provides South Africa, Botswana and Namibia with the prospect of a one-off sale of legal stocks of raw ivory after May 2004 provided that a number of strict conditions have first been met. These include verification of trading partners by the CITES Secretariat (to prevent illegal ivory entering legal markets), a requirement that baseline data on population and poaching levels is available from the MIKE system (Monitoring of Illegal Killing of Elephants) and any funds raised must be used for elephant conservation. If any of the conditions are not met, the sale will not take place.
The Government believe that the agreement strikes the right balance between meeting the legitimate expectations of the southern African states that they should be able to engage in sustainable utilisation of their natural resources, whilst establishing strict controls to secure the conservation of wider elephant populations.