adminPatrick Chitumba Senior Reporter
ZIMBABWE is sitting on 7,1 tonnes of ivory worth more than $1,4 million but cannot dispose of them due to the ban on international trade in ivory amid indications the country was running out of storage space.Environment, Water and Climate Minister Saviour Kasukuwere on Monday said the country also has stockpiles of about 4,9 tonnes of rhino horns.
“We cannot trade in these because of some international obligations under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (Cities),” he said.
Cities put a long moratorium on ivory trade following failure by some countries to curb poaching of elephants. Zimbabwe is incurring huge costs keeping the tusks and ivory, which could be used to meet other obligations such as animal conservation.
“The country needs to sell the ivory and horns secured in our strong rooms from wildlife to get financial resources for conservation,” Minster Kasukuwere said.
“This is one area where as a nation we should stand together and lobby the world, through platforms such as the Cites on the need to sell these stocks to support our conservation efforts.”
Minister Kasukuwere said government was looking at ways in which ivory could be used to carve artifacts to generate employment and income for the country.
Meanwhile, the minister commissioned state-of-the-art solar pump equipment to pump water at Mlauzo water point, Sikumi Forest in Hwange worth R75,000. Grundfos Company of South Africa donated the equipment to the Forestry Commission.
Minister Kasukuwere said the donation was in recognition of the presidential elephant herd created to enforce conservation of the African elephant.
He said sufficient water was needed in the national parks for preservation of wildlife species.
Minister Kasukuwere had visited Hwange Main Camp where he was guest of honour during the inaugural World Wildlife Day and the Africa Environment Day commemorations. In 1997, Cities gave elephants the highest level of protection, which effectively banned the international trade in ivory.
The move was a response to the alarming slaughter of elephants in Africa in the 1980s when the jumbo population dropped from about 1,2 million to about 450,000 in 10 years.
In 1999, Cities member states allowed Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe to sell 50 tonnes of ivory to trading partners in Japan in an experimental one-time stockpile sale.
Individual ivory sellers and buyers made a killing out of the sale than governments of the source countries.
Online Reporter