Conservationists Decry Namibia Exporting Wild Elephants
Namibian authorities have confirmed they are capturing scores of wild elephants that were sold at auction for export. Authorities would not say which countries they will be sent to, only that China is not one of them.
Wildlife conservationists have criticized the government's secrecy on the deals and the exporting of the animals.
Namibia's
minister of Environment, Forestry and Tourism this week defended the
government's capture of wild elephants for export, despite a veil of secrecy on
the buyers.
Pohamba
Shifeta said Namibia's growing elephant herds, numbering around 24,000, are
causing human-wildlife conflict.
"What
we have done is to auction animals that were earmarked because they were
causing conflict amongst communities," Shifeta said. "We identified
those herds to be auctioned. They were 170 altogether in different communities
because they were destroying properties in the community and even contributing
to the loss of human lives."
Shifeta
said Namibia is seeing a surge in human-wildlife conflict. But wildlife
conservationists dispute the value of exporting elephants to deal with the
issue.
Audrey
Delsink, wildlife director for Humane Society International, said the lack of
transparency on the elephants' buyers raises concerns that the sales could
violate the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild
Fauna and Flora, known as CITES.
"Elephants
do not belong in captivity, and we would welcome some transparency on this
issue and some evidence from the Ministry to that effect," Delsink said.
"There are humane solutions to mitigate both for human-elephant conflict
and for population control of elephants."
The ministry, in a February 15 press statement, said 20 of the 170 elephants sold were still to be captured, pending permits from CITES.
Shifeta
disputed speculation that the elephants would be sold into captivity.
"We
are signatories to CITES and we are aware of the international statutes, the
international law that governs CITES member states. Our law does not allow an
animal to be exported to a country where we know the environment is not
conducive for this animal," he said.
Namibia
auctioned off the elephants to three buyers last August, but authorities would
not say who purchased the wild animals.
The
environment ministry denied that China was one of the buyers, after concerns
were expressed about how animals exported to the Asian country were treated.
But
the ministry said the buyers would be required to meet certain criteria, such
as keeping the elephants in an area with game-proof fences.
Authorities
acknowledged the elephants were being rounded up for export after Namibian
journalist John Grobler was detained for recording images of the captured
animals.
"There
is going to be a CITES meeting in Lyon, France, early March where this issue
will be addressed but it is a highly contentious one to say the least,"
Grobler said. "You do not send wild caught elephants into another
continent to a zoo if you are really doing conservation."
TheCITES agreement for Namibia indicates live elephants should stay in African conservation programs but is also subject to interpretation by scientific authorities of importing countries.
Some information in this report came from Reuters.
VOA
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