Africa must benefit from its wildlife

From 3-7 May, Presidents Mnangagwa, Mogkweetsi Masisi (Botswana), Edgar Lungu (Zambia) and Hage Geingob (Namibia) agreed at Kasane to speak with one voice against restrictions in elephant and elephant products trade. 

The summit was informed by the fact that the four nations that make up the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (Kaza) are home to some 240 000 elephants which constitute over 60 percent of the world’s elephant population.  

The animals can be a huge asset for the economies of the four countries but because of the ban in the trade imposed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) in elephants and elephant products they have become a huge liability. 

It is becoming increasingly expensive to keep them without sustainably exploiting them. Elephants eat and drink a lot and when their population grows as it has in Kaza, they outcompete other animals in terms of water and forage consumption. 

By their nature, elephants eat in a way that “destroys” vegetation and if their population explodes as it has done, the environment suffers. Also, because of restrictions in the trade in elephant ivory, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia and Botswana have huge stockpiles of it. 

Instead of earning money through selling it and ploughing back the income in conservation programmes, the countries are ironically spending much money maintaining the stockpiles. As this happens conservation programmes suffer.

Therefore, President Mnangagwa and his counterparts agreed to vigorously campaign for the easing of the restrictions. 

They want to lobby Cites to agree to sustainable utilisation of wildlife resources. With the Cites conference set for Geneva, Switzerland in August, the countries have forged a united front and should be heard.

This week, they are meeting at a summit that has the backing of the African Union and the United Nations and the objective remains basically the same.

They are lobbying for sustainable management and utilisation of wildlife resources, not the restrictive one-size-fits-all that is being promoted by Cites, Western governments and non-governmental organisations that they fund. 

Representatives of more than 30 African countries are in Victoria Falls for the inaugural African Union-United Nations Wildlife Economy Summit to discuss ideas on the conservation of the continent’s natural environment. 

Key issues being deliberated on at the summit include unlocking investments and the power of wildlife economy, how to create an enabling environment for investment in an African wildlife economy, transformative potential of the wildlife economy, opportunity for Africa including economic and social justice benefits and how to move to scale the challenge.

Delegates are also discussing what should be done to unlock the power of communities as partners and exploration of key innovations that can unlock new economic benefits with public and private partnerships.

The summit is being held under the theme “Communities for Conservation, Harnessing Conservation Tourism, and Supporting Governments”.

Officially opening the summit yesterday, President Mnangagwa castigated the dictatorial tendencies that have emerged in Cites that have seen the institution consistently forbidding trade in wildlife products, resulting in the increase in the population of some species, poor to zero revenues accruing to nations and communities hosting the increasing animal populations, intense human-animal conflict and environmental damage.

“The conference is being held at a time when tourism in Zimbabwe is on a rebound as we are making concerted efforts to rejuvenate our tourism and hospitality industry so that it meaningfully contributes towards the attainment of our national vision to become a middle income economy by 2030,” he said. 

“To this end, achieving peaceful human-wildlife co-existence and sound conservation principles are a top priority to my government. Zimbabwe subscribes to the founding principles of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites) and we remain committed to the adherence of its protocols and rules. We are gravely concerned by the one-size-fits-all approach where banning of trade is creeping into Cites decision making process.  

“We call upon the institution to resist the temptation of being a policing institution and instead be a developmental one which promotes the intricate balance between conservation and sustainable utilisation of all wildlife resources. We continue to call for free trade in hunting products as these have a positive impact on the national and local economies of our countries. Currently Zimbabwe has about US$600 million worth of ivory and rhino horns stocks most of which is from natural attrition of those animals. If we are allowed to dispose of the same under agreed to parameters the revenue derived would suffice to finance our operational conservation efforts for the next 20 years.” 

Other leaders attending the summit, speaking during a discussion held after the official opening ceremony, reiterated the President’s message.

We are unsure how large the ivory stockpiles of Botswana, Zambia and Namibia are but we are sure that they are comparable to Zimbabwe’s in terms of tonnage and value.

Zimbabwe’s is worth US$600 million as the President indicated.  This is clear that the four countries appear to be under punishment for their sound conservation programmes that have seen wildlife populations increasing.  

Africa, Southern Africa in particular does not deserve this punishment but must be rewarded for its successes in growing its animal populations so that a true, sustainable wildlife economy emerges for the benefit of communities living side by side with the fauna and their governments.