from the wrsa ceo’s desk
CITES CONFERENCE OF THE PARTIES: 2019
WRSA will be represented at the CITES Conference of the Parties (CoP) in
Sri Lanka during May 2019. Our organisation took note of various proposals
by other countries that could affect South Africa and gave the following input
to the South African Scientific Authority:
- South Africa should support ESWATINI’s WHITE RHINO POPULATION
PROPOSAL, allowing for regulated legal trade, including horn and derivatives.
Swaziland manages its rhino populations extremely well and has proven to mitigate losses
due to poaching outstandingly. Swaziland’s proposal includes detailed management
procedures. - South Africa should also support NAMIBIA’S PROPOSAL FOR WHITE RHINO
to be moved from Appendix I to Appendix II, with an annotation: Namibia’s proposal
qualifies in terms of CITES’ biological criteria, with a population that is not small and not in
decline. A precedent is already set by South Africa and Swaziland in this regard. Namibia’s
rhino population is substantially higher than that of Swaziland, which already has a similar
status. Namibia has a good management system in place and apply high standards of
security, including arrests and convictions of poachers. - There is no reason to support a proposal for giraffe to be listed on CITES
Appendix II. Giraffe is not a threatened species and the proposal does not qualify in terms
of the biological criteria. - There is also no reason to support the up-listing of elephant from Appendix II to
Appendix I. This proposal seeks for ALL African populations to be up-listed. It is important
to note that populations in countries where elephant is already listed on Appendix I are
declining, whereas it is a known fact that [only] the southern African countries have large
populations. The question remains how the up-listing to APP I will improve the fate of
elephants in countries where populations are already well-managed? - South Africa has no reason NOT to support Zambia’s proposal to down-list
elephant to APP II for sustainable utilisation, hides and products.
The proposal to down-list elephant in Zambia for the purpose of sustainable
utilisation does not threaten the survival of the species. The down-listing will
result in direct contributions to communities and address
human/wildlife conflict in a positive manner.
Photo © EcoPrint