African nations home to more than half the world’s population of elephants on Monday called for an end to the ban on sales of ivory. Delegates from six countries attended a summit in Botswana this week where they discussed how to persuade the world to lift the 30-year-old ban imposed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, CITES. The attendees, which included heads of state from Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Namibia, stressed they want to be able to sell huge stockpiles of ivory to boost funds for conservation and anti-poaching. Mokweetsi Masisi, the president of Botswana, said on his arrival at Kusane that the summit’s theme was: “Towards a common vision for the management of our elephants.” He added: “This is meant to generate a better understanding of elephant management and its associated challenges… other heads of state and ministers from the Kavango-Zambezi Trans-Frontier Conservation Area, as well as experts from southern Africa will address the escalating human wildlife conflict that exits in the region,” he said. Fulton Mangwanya, director of Zimbabwe’s Parks and Wildlife Management Authority said as he left Harare for the summit: “We are fighting tooth and nail with our enemies so that we are allowed to trade in our wildlife resources. The main contention is the elephants which we (Zimbabwe) are not allowed to benefit from. These are the issues that we want to defend as a region.” The summit at a tourist lodge in northeast Botswana featured presentations on managing elephant populations in the face of… [Read full story]
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