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habitats. The revenue from the legal sale of ivory and hide provides a source of funds both for wildlife conservation programmes and for rural populations (who therefore have an interest in the management and conservation of the elephants). Botswana and Zimbabwe are consequently vociferous opponents of a worldwide ban on trade in ivory: they support Appendix I listing but with exceptions for their own, carefully managed, elephant populations.
6. The Cameroon representative was appointed to find common ground. between the opposing African states, but does not appear to have made any worthwhile progress in advance of the Conference. The risk is that if no compromise proposal acceptable to both sides is reached before or during the Conference, and the delegates vote for
a ban by the required two-thirds majority, it is likely that the Southern African countries would consider entering a reservation on
Appendix I listing for the African elephant. This would mean that they would not be considered parties to the Convention for that species. If a consumer country such as Japan, which has the largest market for ivory, were also to enter a reservation then trade would continue irrespective of any CITES decision, and without the strict monitoring we and others are seeking, thereby leaving a loophole through which illegal ivory could enter the market.
7.
Conservation groups are divided between those who see a complete ban on trade in ivory as the only hope for the African elephant, and those who believe that successful management programmes in Southern
African countries, which include legal trade in elephant products,
are the only way to ensure the security of the elephant there. We
believe that countries like Botswana and Zimbabwe have a good case
and we should be prepared to support some degree of carefully monitored trade in ivory from these countries. We particularly wish to avoid a damaging split between the African countries which would lead to the entering of reservations. The detail of our voting would obviously depend on the form of any compromise proposal, but
the DOE line is one we can support.
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