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Africa Moyo Deputy News Editor
Communities must be fully engaged so as to tackle the poaching of endangered species, Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry Minister Mangaliso Ndlovu has said.
In his address at the ongoing 19th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Panama this week, Minister Ndlovu said transnational organised crime was threatening endangered species, and communities could be roped in to fight the challenge.
On July 30, 2015, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution on “Tackling illicit trafficking in wildlife”, in which it encouraged the full engagement of communities in, and adjacent to wildlife habitats, as active partners in conservation and sustainable use, enhancing the rights and capacity of members of such communities to manage and benefit from wildlife and habitat.
Further, on September 25, 2015, the UN General Assembly also adopted a resolution on “Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development”, which includes 17 goals and 169 associated targets.
One of the targets requests UN member States to enhance global support for efforts to combat poaching and trafficking of protected species, including by increasing the capacity of local communities to pursue sustainable livelihood opportunities.
Given the efforts by the UN to protect endangered species, Minister Ndlovu said CITES cannot continue to lag behind on community engagement in its decision-making processes.
“We need to respect, preserve, and maintain knowledge, innovations and practices of indigenous peoples and rural communities embodying traditional lifestyles relevant for the conservation and sustainable use of CITES-listed species,” said Minister Ndlovu.
“When decision-making mechanisms at the CITES level consider the needs of people sharing the land and obtaining their livelihoods from wildlife and acknowledging that rural communities are best placed to advocate their needs; then CITES becomes a progressive treaty.
“In the absence of full and meaningful involvement of indigenous peoples and local communities, CITES is less effective, if not counter-productive.” Minister Ndlovu said local communities determine how local action is pivotal in promoting sustainable development and addressing planetary crises.
The agenda of protecting individual species and reviving ecosystems must go hand-in-glove with the inclusion of local communities, he added.
In most parts of the world, including Zimbabwe, communities living near or within wildlife habitats have complained that people are killed, injured and crops destroyed, yet they don’t get anything out of the animals.
This has seen some of them working with poaching syndicates, so as to get some money for subsistence.
As a result, Minister Ndlovu wants local communities to be recognised, with their rights firmly prioritised.
“Social justice is crucial to the success of conservation efforts in the post-2020 global biodiversity framework currently being negotiated. This matter must get the attention it deserves under CITES,” he said.
“More participation by local communities and their representation in CITES decision processes, will result in greater compliance and strong local leadership which are all linked to better ecological and biodiversity outcomes.
“Local communities are at the heart of global efforts to sustain a healthy world where nature and human well-being are linked. In the era climate change and the opportunity to reimagine our global economic model, a renewed focus on community may be what we really need.”
Other presenters said the participation of indigenous people and rural communities in the CITES decision-making mechanisms has been neglected for long, but there is conviction that the narrative can be changed.
Minister Ndlovu said it was in the “best interest” of the CITES 19th COP to establish a cross-cutting Rural Communities Advisory Sub-Committee, which advises both the Plants and Animals Committee composed of Parties Rural Communities Organisations or IPLCs.
Involvement of communities will help in the achievement of Sustainable Development Goals worldwide and Vision 2030 of an upper middle-income society in Zimbabwe.
The CITES conference runs from November 14 to 25 and has attracted over 2 000 people from the 184 parties.
It will make decisions that will affect the future of over 600 species of animals and plants and put in place regulations that will shape the international trade in wildlife globally.
At the CoP19, also known as the World Wildlife Conference, 52 proposals have been put forward and will affect the regulations on international trade for elephants, reptiles, hippos, rhinos, 200 tree species, and others.
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