Bid to lift ivory, whale ban
2002-06-14 18:51
Geneva - Four African countries asked the United Nations' agency for endangered species to lift a total ban on trade in ivory, and Japan sought permission to buy whale products, officials said on Friday.
The two requests were among 54 proposals submitted to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) ahead of a meeting of its 158 signatory states in November.
South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe want to sell off their existing stocks of ivory, totalling some 70 tons, and be given annual quotas for selling elephant tusks.
Zambia also seeks to put its 17-ton stock on the market, although it has not asked for any future quota.
Cites, which outlaws trade in some species, such as the great apes and various big cats, and severely limits it in others, last waived its ban on ivory sales in 1997 to let Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe cut stockpiles in one-time sales.
Officials said there was no certainty that the African countries would win the necessary two-thirds majority needed to change the rules, particularly as India and Kenya were pressing for even tighter protection for the African elephant.
Whale meat
Japan wants to be able to buy some surplus whale meat and products built up by Norway under the two countries' partial exemption from the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) ban on commercial whaling.
Whaling is regulated by the IWC, but the trade in whale products is covered by the Swiss-based Cites.
Norway catches more whales than it can use, while Japan, which officially only kills whales for scientific research, wants to be able to buy more.
The Japanese request covered north Atlantic and north Pacific mink whales and the Pacific population of Bryde's whales, Cites said in a statement.
Among other requests presented to Cites by the June deadline was one from Cuba for the sale of 7.8 tons of hawksbill turtle shells from its existing legal stockpile.
Cites reviews the different categories of protection, the so-called appendices, every two-and-a-half years. The next will be carried out at a meeting set for November 3-15 in Santiago, Chile.
There are some 900 species listed in appendix one, which bars all trade. Another 4 000 are partially protected under appendix two, where trading requires a special permit.