Zimbabwe believes that eradicating the international ban on ivory trade and allowing a controlled market system will enable it to raise funds to combat illicit poaching and fund conservation programs in the South African country.
Survival of “Zimbabwe’s elephants is wholly dependent on establishing regular open-market sales of elephant ivory to fund management and enforcement actions,” the government said in a paper that will be presented at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, scheduled for September in neighbouring South Africa to lobby for the lifting of international ban in ivory sales.
Zimbabwe has reported to have an excess of 42,000 elephants from the total population of 84,000 which is straining to feed with inadequate food and land in its National parks, which cover about 11 percent of Zimbabwe’s total land area.
“Between 2002 and 2014, Zimbabwe is estimated to have lost 439 metric tons of ivory worth $226 million to illegal hunting,” according to Zimbabwe’s CITES proposal seen by Bloomberg and confirmed by the nation’s Parks and Wildlife Management Authority. “Zimbabwe views this as a direct result of the ivory trade ban. The country’s current stockpile of ivory weighs about 70 tons and is worth an estimated $35 million. National parks, which cover about 11% of Zimbabwe’s total land area, are surrounded by “hostile people who are trying to recover their wasted investment in elephants,” according to the report.
Zimbabwe raised 1 million dollars after selling elephants to China in February this year.
