TNAG-2130-FCO40-3045-Hong-Kong-and-the-ivory-trade-1990 — Page 75

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VISIT BY HRH THE PRINCE OF WALES TO USA, 16-23 FEBRUARY 1990

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BACKGROUND BRIEF: HONG KONG AND THE IVORY TRADE

The 7th Conference of the Contracting Parties to the Convention

on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) took place in

Lausanne from 9-20 October 1989. The main issue was a series of

1.

proposals to re-list the African elephant from Appendix II of CITES,

on which it had been listed in 1977, to Appendix I. The proponents of these proposals maintained that without a worldwide ban the elephant would face extinction. Opposing them were Southern African countries, led by Zimbabwe and Botswana, which maintained that the

solution to the elephant problem was elephant management and controlled culling, together with more effective control of poaching. They pointed to the increase in the number of their elephants as evidence that this approach and not a ban which would hit rural communities and conservation programmes which depended on

revenue from legal ivory was the right one. However, since the Southern African states insisted that countries such as Angola and Mozambique would be included in this Appendix II block this was unacceptable to the Conference (which we believe might have accepted a proposal for Appendix II listing for Zimbabwe, Botswana, Malawi and South Africa on their own). Conference Parties eventually adopted a Somali proposal, by 76 votes to 11 with 4 abstentions. The Somali proposal provided for Appendix I listing of the African elephant but set up a group of experts which would look at elephant populations in any country which so requested it, and report to the next Conference in 1991/92 on whether the elephant population was capable of controlled exploitation. If so, a recommendation for a down-listing to Appendix II for that particular country would be put forward. The UK, together with our EC partners, voted in favour of

the Somali proposal.

2.

The second major issue at the Conference was a series of proposals to allow continued trade in existing ivory stocks. The existing rule was that if a species was moved from Appendix II to Appendix I then a ban on trade covered existing stocks of ivory as well as new ivory. A number of proposals were put to Conference to

This was of immense allow for continued trade in existing stocks.

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