Natural Resources PS Margaret Mwakima during the Cites Cop 17
stakeholders meeting at Panafric Hotel in Nairobi on August 29, 2016.
PHOTO | FILE
By JAMES KARIUKI, jkariuki@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
Kenya has kicked off a fresh campaign for a total ban
on ivory trade as officials seek to rally on improved diplomatic
relations with Japan.
Kenya is lobbying other countries to defend a clause banning
ivory trade in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species (CITES), a call backed for far by 28 African states.
Signs of improved diplomatic relations with Japan
were on display at the weekend when the Asian nation, led by its Premier
Shinzo Abe, held its sixth Tokyo International Conference on African
Development in Nairobi.
Mr Abe and President Uhuru Kenyatta co-chaired the event that also attracted 34 other African heads of state.
“We have resolved that Kenya shall without delay
directly engage the Japanese government at the highest possible level to
discourage trade in ivory as it creates a reason to kill elephants to
satiate the Japanese market now buoyed by Chinese tourist arrivals who
mainly target ivory products,” said Kenya Wildlife Service deputy
director Patrick Omondi.
Asian states, among them Japan, have been accused
of fuelling the trade in illegal ivory and slowing down efforts to
protect Africa’s elephants.
Japan is a signatory of the 1989 convention that
bans global trade in ivory but allows to register tusks from countries
where the trade is legal for one-off sales. Civil society groups have
blamed the one-off sales for creating loopholes that poachers exploit.
At a meeting held in Nairobi on Monday to prepare
for 17th meeting of conference of parties to the CITES to be held in
Johannesburg from September 24 to October 5, participants led by
Environment secretary Judi Wakhungu resolved to start sending emissaries
to Japan.
“I was with Kenya’s First Lady on Sunday as
Japanese First lady Akie Abe shed tears when she fed a baby elephant.
She urged the world to take all measures possible to safeguard the
elephants from further harm,” said Dr Paula Kahumbu, director at the
Wild Direct, a conservation organisation.
The meeting of the Kenyan CITES technical committee
said lobbying Japan was aimed at stifling ivory market in Africa,
denying dealers a source and an exit point for legally or illegally
harvested tusks.
Mr Omondi, who doubles as Kenya’s CITES
representative, said the country intends to lobby Japan to gradually end
ivory business within its territory just like China and the US did last
year.
Kenya, however, expects opposition from South
Africa, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia and Swaziland that have strongly
rejected a total ban from 1990.
“A split decision that allows countries in southern
Africa to sell ivory while their neighbours are not allowed creates a
loophole for trade to thrive,” he said.
On Monday’s sitting also resolved to have Kenya’s
government directly lobby European as well as Asian countries that buy
ivory saying elephants should be granted Appendix one listing on the
CITES’ platform thereby outlawing trade in ivory.
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