29 November 2013 - From
2 to 4 December 2013, the International
Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN)
and the Republic of Botswana will convene
the African Elephant Summit, as called for
in a Resolution adopted by the 2012 IUCN
World Conservation Congress.
The Summit, being held
in Botswana, is directed at securing commitment
at the highest political level to take urgent
measures along the illegal ivory value chain
by African elephant range States, ivory
transit States, and States that are major
consumers of ivory, to effectively protect
elephants and significantly reduce the illegal
trade in ivory.
Elephant poaching and
the illegal ivory trade are a major concern
across Africa and beyond, with serious security
(particularly in Central Africa) economic,
political and ecological ramifications as
these crimes increase in frequency and severity.
The poaching of elephants has also expanded
into previously secure elephant populations.
In September 2013, Zimbabwe
witnessed the killing of over 300 elephants
in the country’s biggest nature reserve,
three times the original estimate. Cyanide
was used to kill the pachyderms. This devastating
massacre occurred in Hwange, the country's
largest national park, and was revealed
by legitimate hunters who discovered what
conservationists have said was “the worst
single massacre in southern Africa for 25
years”.
With events such as
this in mind, the eleven (11) members of
the Steering Committee of the African Elephant
Fund had serious matters to take into consideration
at their Meeting which was convened from
25 to 27 September 2013 in Ouagadougou,
Burkina Faso, to allocate funding for critical
and innovative elephant conservation and
law enforcement projects.
Eleven (11) proposals
were submitted by countries in East, West
and Southern Africa for a total amount of
445,857 USD. A total of eight (8) projects
were approved ranging from constructing
fences in natural reserves to mitigating
human elephant conflict, to training park
rangers to combat ever more violent poachers,
and involving eleven (11) African elephant
range States. The Committee noted with regret
that no proposals were submitted by Central
African countries, acknowledging that this
sub-region is probably hardest hit by the
current African elephant poaching crisis.
“The Committee not only
recognizes the excellent quality of the
projects that it approved, but also strongly
believes that the actions will all make
an important difference on the ground,”
said Ms. Thea Carroll from South Africa,
chair of the Steering Committee. “The problem
that we are facing now is the urgent need
for replenishing the Fund as more and more
countries are knocking on our door with
requests to help them undertake priority
actions that promote the conservation of
elephants.”
Ms Carroll added that
the immediate implementation of the priority
activities in the Action Plan are considered
the best way to stem the current elephant
poaching crisis in Africa, and concluded:
“The African Elephant Action Plan and the
African Elephant Fund represent the internationally
recognized framework and mechanisms to channel
support for African elephant conservation.
African countries are ready to act decisively
and effectively. We urge the international
donor community to provide Africa with the
necessary resources to do so.”
While the Government
of Botswana and IUCN are aware that other
initiatives are aiming to address various
aspects of the illegal trade in ivory, including
the African Elephant Action Plan, Decisions
and Resolutions of the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and
Flora (CITES) and national strategies, amongst
others, we are convinced that, given the
magnitude of the problem, and the fact that
illegal trade is increasingly entrenched
in organized crime networks, the African
elephant crisis cannot be adequately addressed
by the actions of environment ministries
and wildlife authorities alone. Rather,
government commitment at the highest level
is required to secure viable elephant populations
across the continent and to halt the illegal
ivory trade at all points in the illegal
ivory value chain.
The African Elephant
Summit seeks to:
raise awareness at the
highest political level about the dimensions
of the poaching crisis and the dynamics
of the illegal ivory trade;
commit to urgent actions to be taken to
secure viable elephant populations across
the continent and to halt the illegal trade;
seek political, financial, and technical
support in implementing these urgent actions.
An output from the Summit will include an
emergency plan outlining commitment to a
targeted set of urgent measures by senior
government representatives from range, transit
and consumer States. This plan will draw
on the existing African Elephant Action
Plan, national strategies, as well as CITES
Decisions and Resolutions emanating from
CoP16.
These commitments will
include:
Prioritising (urgent
and country-specific) activities identified
from the African Elephant Action Plan to
address the recent upsurge in illegal killing
across the range of the African elephant
and in the global illegal ivory trade;
Tackling corrupt networks that support the
illegal killing of elephants, and the trafficking
of large amounts of illegal ivory currently
in traffic;
Outlining clear timelines for strengthening
national policy, legislation, law enforcement
and deterrent penalties needed to control
the illegal killing of African elephants
and the illegal trade and trafficking in
their ivory;
Recognition of the economic damage to communities
and States represented by the widespread
poaching of elephants;
Taking concrete steps to address national
security risks resulting from the illegal
killing of elephants where they exist; and
Securing increased funding pledges for elephant
conservation and management, including law
enforcement actions along the illegal ivory
value chain.
Background on the African Elephant Fund
The African Elephant
Fund was called for by CITES and created
by ranges States with the support of the
CITES Secretariat in 2010. The Fund was
formally established in 2010 as a multi-donor
technical trust fund under the auspices
of the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) to attract funding and direct resources
for the effective implementation of an ambitious
African Elephant Action Plan. This Action
Plan was developed and unanimously agreed
to by the 37 African elephant range States
in 2010. It seeks to address the real challenges
on the ground that African countries face
to effectively conserve their elephants.
The first strategic
objective of the African Elephant Action
Plan is to reduce the illegal killing of
elephants and illegal trade in elephant
products, which poses significant threats
to the African elephant, as witnessed in
recent years.
The Steering Committee
is composed of eight African countries where
African elephants occur, and three donor
countries.
The broad support throughout
Africa for the African Elephant Action Plan
and UNEP’s mandate to host the matching
African Elephant Fund makes these powerful
instruments to act decisively where African
elephants are in need of support.
“By approving these
projects, the Fund has shown it is willing
and capable of acting on the global political
outcry to stop poaching of elephants and
illegal trade of ivory.” commented Marcel
van Nijnatten from the Netherlands.
Members of the Steering
Committee of the African Elephant Fund committed
to be present at upcoming high-level meetings
on elephant issues in India and Botswana,
inter alia to call on donors to help implement
the African Elephant Action Plan.
