Will South Africa come to the party - #BanIvoryTrade #BanRhinoHornTrade

Today UNEP hosts a high level dialogue on wildlife crime at the UN Environmental Assembly (UNEA) which is taking place in Nairobi. The event expects leaders to discuss implementation of the UNEA-1 resolution, the UN GA resolution on illegal trade in wildlife and SDG 14’s target on illegal wildlife trade. Leaders are expected to announce particular initiatives they are taking forward.

WildifeDirect CEO Paula Kahumbu is attending the UNEA and is drawing attention to the organizations report on outcomes of wildlife trials in Kenyan courts during the last two years https://baraza.wildlifedirect.org/files/2016/05/WildlifeDirect-Courtroom-Monitoring-Report1.pdf
This report confirms that Kenya's investment in new legislation, strengthening anti-poaching effort on the ground and training investigators, prosecutors and judicial officers has paid off - more people are being jailed, courts are taking wildlife crimes seriously, and the government is arresting and prosecuting high level suspected wildlife traffickers like Feisal Mohamed Ali.

The deterrent effect of all this effort is clearly working - Poaching in Kenya has declined by 80% in just 3 years - it is the most spectacular demonstration of impact in any elephant range state.

But this success in Kenya cannot be sustained if demand for ivory and prices of ivory remains high in demand countries. Thankfully the global tide is changing, even China and USA, the worlds two largest markets for ivory have now declared that they will close domestic markets for ivory, and Save the Elephants reports that ivory prices in China have dropped by 50% in just 12 months. And across Africa, leaders are stepping up too. During the Giants Club Summit last month, four African leaders, Kenya, Botswana, Gabon and Uganda came together in an unlikely alliance to demonstrate leadership on this front, on the eve of the spectacular burn of 105 tons of ivory in Nairobi.

The success of the UNEA conference will include pulling two key outsiders to the party, South Africa, one of four countries that sold ivory to China in 2009 which triggered the poaching crisis, and where a court just announced an opening up of domestic rhino horn trade, and Swaziland which has put up a proposal to CITES CoP 17 for international trade in rhino horn.  The positions of these countries conflict with global opinions that markets must be closed down and sends confusing and conflicting messages to speculators and  buyers of ivory and rhino horn. Moreover, these two countries will not get support for their current positions which could lead to an embarassing outcome at CoP 17 for host South Africa later this year. South Africa and Swaziland however, could emerge as global heroes by changing their tune at UNEA today, by setting aside their national interests for the benefit of the worlds elephants and rhinos by putting ivory and rhino horn beyond economic use.