Every crisis has that vital moment where a problem can no longer be ignored, and in regard to global warming, the moment is now.
Say what you will about global warming, but July 2012 was another warmer-and drier-than-average month perhaps the warmest and 28th driest July on record, based on data back to 1895 when weather conditions were averaged across not only in the United States, but the world at large.
It’s now official, globally the month of July ranked as the fourth warmest July since people began keeping records in 1880.
According to the US National Climatic Data Centre (NCDC): “The Northern Hemisphere land surface temperature for July 2012 was the all-time warmest July on record, at 2,14°F above average
. . . the fourth month in a row that the Northern Hemisphere has set a new monthly land temperature record.”
A strong high pressure system reportedly kept its stranglehold over much of the world for most of July, resulting in persistent warm anomalies, disease outbreaks and droughts dominating globally.Indeed, the month of July was the hottest month on record for continental US, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Take it or leave it, yes, not one of the hottest, or the hottest since — but THE hottest. Previously, critics of human-caused global warming had been able to point out record-setting heat waves from many decades past, indicating that if global warming were true, you would be seeing all the record-breaking heat in the present and not the past. But now it has happened. The present holds the record and the record is only the culmination of a growing trend over the last several seasons.
It could not have been possible to ignore the changing climatic conditions especially as it pertained to the month of July as there were so many signs to contend with.
Towards the end of July, I spent a week feeling dizzy, and it bloomed into a bout of cold. I consulted a medical doctor, who treated me, but the cold refused to completely vanish. I had not in many years been treated for cold, surprisingly (and) when I visited the doctor, he told me that I had to be inoculated “because this kind of cold strain” is different from that which Zimbabweans are accustomed to.
Just in time, the World Health Organisation research of climate factors which influence tropical diseases was commissioned to understand the impact of climate change in sub-Saharan Africa on people's susceptibility to diseases carried by mosquitoes, flies, and snails.
The conclusion was that “extreme” warm temperatures coupled with stagnant waters lingering in flooded areas in Africa and Asia yielded favourable conditions as breeding ground for mosquitoes. In fact mosquitoes had multiplied in dozens that month. It was reported that 2 000 cases of dengue fever with 23 deaths had occurred between January and July 2012 and reflected an increase of 16% compared to the same period of 2011.
While other countries are up to date, Zimbabwe among others is still struggling to establish what could be the cause of the excessive cold outbreaks across the nation. The doctor I have alluded to above believes “it’s something in the family of dengue fever”.
Perhaps or perhaps not, he is an alarmist, I don’t know, but dengue fever is a disease caused by a family of viruses that are transmitted by mosquitoes. It is an acute illness of sudden onset that usually follows a benign course with symptoms such as headache, fever, exhaustion, severe muscle and joint pain, swollen glands and rash. The presence of fever, rash and headache (and other pains) is particularly characteristic of dengue. Other signs of dengue fever include bleeding gums, severe pain behind the eyes, and red palms and soles.
But how could that be, I queried, and was directed to the NCDC report that stated dust from Africa's Sahara Desert was observed to be traversing eastward across the Atlantic Ocean and reached the US during July. Evidence suggests that heavy dust transport has coincided with Caribbean coral declines in the past.
Dry riverbed sediments from Sahara Desert blew western over the Red Sea during the following week. Dust plumes ascended over Latin America as a result of persistent dry conditions around the world. In South Africa there was snow all over, and temperatures fell to two degrees. Talk about global warming.
There is no doubt that rising ocean temperatures have significantly inflicted damage to the environment across the world. Overfishing and influxes of sediment and pollution were cited as contributing factors.
Likewise, another study released in July concluded that greenhouse gas emissions amplify effects of climate change’s influence on the collapse of environment. Deforestation occurring in Madagascar was cited within another study as adversely impacting corals in the western Indian Ocean due to resulting soil erosion.
Drought ravaged vast swaths of Zimbabwe as the record-setting temperatures were making things unbearably worse.
In Zimbabwe and elsewhere in Africa drought has become the default condition, making water rationing a necessity. The City of Kings, as Bulawayo is affectionately known, has been building a water pipeline to bring in crucial water from another town, Gwanda, some 126km away, even with which the water-rationing will continue.
For other dried-out cities and towns the capital Harare, Masvingo, Gweru, Kadoma, Chinhoyi, Gokwe that have not been as proactive as Bulawayo, the record-setting July heat and lack of rain should serve as an alarm.
Drought conditions need to be prepared for, and fast. No municipalities in drought-stricken regions can afford to stick their heads in the sand any longer. Contingency plans must be drawn up. Food for thought!
*millenniumzimbabwe@gmail.com/millenniumzimbabwe@yahoo.com
Friday, 31 August 2012
E-waste – Africa’s biggest undoing?
Zimbabwe faces a rising tide of e-waste generated by domestic consumption of new and used electrical and electronic equipment.
The rate at which cheap electronic gadgets for retail are flooding the local market could be viewed by some as development. In most parts of Zimbabwe as in most African states’ urban settlements, there are mushrooming satellite receivers, a move that has helped connect both the urban/rural folk with the rest of the world - making the remotest areas part of the global village.
Whether these listen/watch (to) the so-called pirate radio stations/television or whatever, a new United Nations report has concluded that domestic consumption makes up the majority (up to 85%) of waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE) produced in especially in West Africa.
This according to a study, Where are WEEE in Africa? Sadly, the situation is the same in most of Africa including Zimbabwe. The e-waste problem is further exacerbated by an ongoing stream of used equipment from industrialised countries, significant volumes of which prove unsuitable for re-use and contribute further to the amount of e-waste generated locally.
In the five countries studied in the UN report (Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, and Nigeria), between 650 000 and 1 million tonnes of domestic e-waste are generated each year, which need to be managed to protect human health and the environment in the region.
Where are WEEE in Africa? sheds light on current recycling practices and on socio-economic characteristics of the e-waste sector in West Africa. It also provides the quantitative data on the use, import and disposal of electronic and electrical equipment in the region.
The report draws on the findings of national e-waste assessments carried out in the five countries from 2009 to 2011. It concluded that effective management of the growing amount of e-waste generated in Africa and other parts of the world is an important part of the transition towards a low-carbon, resource-efficient green economy.
UN Environment Programme executive director Achim Steiner said: “We can grow Africa’s economies, generate decent employment and safeguard the environment by supporting sustainable e-waste management and recovering the valuable metals and other resources locked inside products that end up as e-waste.”
This report shows how measures such as improved collection strategies, and establishing more formal recycling structures, can limit environmental damage and provide economic opportunities. But, what are the risks and opportunities of e-waste?
The use of electrical and electronic equipment is still low in Africa compared to other regions of the world, but it is growing at a staggering pace. The penetration rate of personal computers in Africa, for example, has increased by a factor of 10 in the last decade, while the number of mobile phone subscribers has increased by a factor of 100.
It is therefore everybody’s hope that e-waste will not be dumped to countries such as Zimbabwe through “supersonic” Information Communication Technology minister Nelson Chamisa or President Robert Mugabe’s schools computerisation programmes across the country.
The reason being that electrical and electronic equipment can contain hazardous substances (eg, heavy metals such as mercury and lead, and endocrine disrupting substances such as brominated flame retardants).
These hazardous substances are released during various dismantling and disposal operations and are particularly severe during the burning of cables to liberate copper and of plastics to reduce waste volumes. Open burning of cables especially as normally happens in Mbare’s Magaba and Gazaland, Highfield, both in Harare is a major source of dioxin emissions, a persistent organic pollutant that travels over long distances that bio-accumulates in organisms up through the global food chain.
Electrical and electronic equipment also contains materials of strategic value such as indium and palladium and precious metals such as gold, copper and silver. These can be recovered and recycled, thereby serving as a valuable source of secondary raw materials, reducing pressure on scarce natural resources, as well as minimising the overall environmental footprint.
The report, by the Secretariat of the Basel Convention and partners, also documents the economic and environmental potential of building a sound resource recovery and waste management system for e-waste, along with the risks of continuing on the present course.
According to executive secretary of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions Jim Willis, e-waste is the fastest-growing waste stream worldwide and a key waste stream under the Basel Convention.
Clearly dealing with electronic and electrical equipment properly presents a serious environmental and health challenge for many countries, yet also offers a potentially significant opportunity to create green businesses and green jobs.
The exposure to hazardous substances in and around dismantling sites also causes manifold health and safety risks for collectors, recyclers and neighbouring communities. Children’s health in particular may be at risk. Child labour is common in other of Africa’s scrap metal business, it has been found.
Collection and dismantling activities are carried out by children from the age of 12, however younger children from the age of five are sometimes engaged in light work, including dismantling of small parts and sorting of materials.
In contrast to the informal recycling sector, where collection and recycling of e-waste is almost exclusively carried out by individuals largely consisting of migrant labourers who are often stigmatised in African societies as “scavengers”, refurbishment is viewed as a relatively attractive economic opportunity for an increasingly well-educated, semi-professional labour force.
In Accra (Ghana) and Lagos (Nigeria), the refurbishing sector provides income to more than 30 000 people. So, sustainable solutions for e-waste management in Africa require measures aimed at imports and exports control, collection and recycling, policy and legislation that incorporate extended producer responsibility, recognise the important role of the informal sector, promote awareness raising and education, as well as compliance monitoring and enforcement.
Appropriate health and safety measures for those involved in recycling, as well as environmentally sound practices, should be ensured.
Therefore, Zimbabwe and its counterparts should enhance their capacities to tackle the growing problem of e-waste to protect the health of citizens, particularly children, while providing economic opportunities.
*millenniumzimbabwe@gmail.com/millenniumzimbabwe@yahoo.com
The rate at which cheap electronic gadgets for retail are flooding the local market could be viewed by some as development. In most parts of Zimbabwe as in most African states’ urban settlements, there are mushrooming satellite receivers, a move that has helped connect both the urban/rural folk with the rest of the world - making the remotest areas part of the global village.
Whether these listen/watch (to) the so-called pirate radio stations/television or whatever, a new United Nations report has concluded that domestic consumption makes up the majority (up to 85%) of waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE) produced in especially in West Africa.
This according to a study, Where are WEEE in Africa? Sadly, the situation is the same in most of Africa including Zimbabwe. The e-waste problem is further exacerbated by an ongoing stream of used equipment from industrialised countries, significant volumes of which prove unsuitable for re-use and contribute further to the amount of e-waste generated locally.
In the five countries studied in the UN report (Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Liberia, and Nigeria), between 650 000 and 1 million tonnes of domestic e-waste are generated each year, which need to be managed to protect human health and the environment in the region.
Where are WEEE in Africa? sheds light on current recycling practices and on socio-economic characteristics of the e-waste sector in West Africa. It also provides the quantitative data on the use, import and disposal of electronic and electrical equipment in the region.
The report draws on the findings of national e-waste assessments carried out in the five countries from 2009 to 2011. It concluded that effective management of the growing amount of e-waste generated in Africa and other parts of the world is an important part of the transition towards a low-carbon, resource-efficient green economy.
UN Environment Programme executive director Achim Steiner said: “We can grow Africa’s economies, generate decent employment and safeguard the environment by supporting sustainable e-waste management and recovering the valuable metals and other resources locked inside products that end up as e-waste.”
This report shows how measures such as improved collection strategies, and establishing more formal recycling structures, can limit environmental damage and provide economic opportunities. But, what are the risks and opportunities of e-waste?
The use of electrical and electronic equipment is still low in Africa compared to other regions of the world, but it is growing at a staggering pace. The penetration rate of personal computers in Africa, for example, has increased by a factor of 10 in the last decade, while the number of mobile phone subscribers has increased by a factor of 100.
It is therefore everybody’s hope that e-waste will not be dumped to countries such as Zimbabwe through “supersonic” Information Communication Technology minister Nelson Chamisa or President Robert Mugabe’s schools computerisation programmes across the country.
The reason being that electrical and electronic equipment can contain hazardous substances (eg, heavy metals such as mercury and lead, and endocrine disrupting substances such as brominated flame retardants).
These hazardous substances are released during various dismantling and disposal operations and are particularly severe during the burning of cables to liberate copper and of plastics to reduce waste volumes. Open burning of cables especially as normally happens in Mbare’s Magaba and Gazaland, Highfield, both in Harare is a major source of dioxin emissions, a persistent organic pollutant that travels over long distances that bio-accumulates in organisms up through the global food chain.
Electrical and electronic equipment also contains materials of strategic value such as indium and palladium and precious metals such as gold, copper and silver. These can be recovered and recycled, thereby serving as a valuable source of secondary raw materials, reducing pressure on scarce natural resources, as well as minimising the overall environmental footprint.
The report, by the Secretariat of the Basel Convention and partners, also documents the economic and environmental potential of building a sound resource recovery and waste management system for e-waste, along with the risks of continuing on the present course.
According to executive secretary of the Basel, Rotterdam and Stockholm Conventions Jim Willis, e-waste is the fastest-growing waste stream worldwide and a key waste stream under the Basel Convention.
Clearly dealing with electronic and electrical equipment properly presents a serious environmental and health challenge for many countries, yet also offers a potentially significant opportunity to create green businesses and green jobs.
The exposure to hazardous substances in and around dismantling sites also causes manifold health and safety risks for collectors, recyclers and neighbouring communities. Children’s health in particular may be at risk. Child labour is common in other of Africa’s scrap metal business, it has been found.
Collection and dismantling activities are carried out by children from the age of 12, however younger children from the age of five are sometimes engaged in light work, including dismantling of small parts and sorting of materials.
In contrast to the informal recycling sector, where collection and recycling of e-waste is almost exclusively carried out by individuals largely consisting of migrant labourers who are often stigmatised in African societies as “scavengers”, refurbishment is viewed as a relatively attractive economic opportunity for an increasingly well-educated, semi-professional labour force.
In Accra (Ghana) and Lagos (Nigeria), the refurbishing sector provides income to more than 30 000 people. So, sustainable solutions for e-waste management in Africa require measures aimed at imports and exports control, collection and recycling, policy and legislation that incorporate extended producer responsibility, recognise the important role of the informal sector, promote awareness raising and education, as well as compliance monitoring and enforcement.
Appropriate health and safety measures for those involved in recycling, as well as environmentally sound practices, should be ensured.
Therefore, Zimbabwe and its counterparts should enhance their capacities to tackle the growing problem of e-waste to protect the health of citizens, particularly children, while providing economic opportunities.
*millenniumzimbabwe@gmail.com/millenniumzimbabwe@yahoo.com
Mourning the elephants
Horrific footage showing elephants that have been hacked to death for their ivory tusks reveals the terrifying toll that mass poaching is taking on Africa's dwindling elephant population.
After having focused my last two installments on the African elephant, I was forced to take another look once again on the fate of the jumbos given the fact that Zimbabwe and Botswana are the only two countries with the remaining largest population in the world, over 100 000 apiece.
The recent disturbing video, released by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), shows mutilated elephants after a mass slaughter in Bouba N'Djida National Park in Cameroon, where poaching has hit record levels.
Between January and March this year, heavily armed foreign poachers killed 350 elephants in the national park. Authorities said the poachers targeting Bouba N'Djida national park were well-organised and worked in groups of 50.
Poachers killed an entire school of elephants in helicopter attacks, raining bullets down on adult and baby elephants alike. After the slaughter, poachers set about removing their tusks and genitals before smuggling them through South Sudan or Uganda.
The killing represents a significant percentage of Africa’s remaining elephant population. Nearly 500 elephants were killed in the same park during 2010. Since 1996, 120 park rangers have lost their lives trying to protect the elephants, and each month a significant number of Zimbabwe Parks rangers are killed battling marauding poachers along the Zambezi Valley.
Tens of thousands of the majestic jumbos are killed each year for their ivory tusks, which are mostly trafficked to Asia.
I could not agree more with WWF Cameroon project manager Philip Forboseh’s conclusions that the poaching crisis was a world heritage issue, not just an issue for Cameroon.
"When I looked at those elephants on the ground it was horrendous, I wished I didn't see it," he said. “I'm sad that it has taken hundreds of elephants to be slaughtered for the authorities to act."
We know there are some elephants left, how many we don't know. Zimbabwe is still to conduct its elephant count in as many years, but at the last count we had about 100 000. And estimates are that the figure has gone up significantly, although affected by poaching in the elephant range areas along the Zambezi Valley.
Since the mass slaughter earlier this year in Cameroon and elsewhere, other African countries have boosted security in their protected areas.
This horrendous footage came at a time the 62nd meeting of the Standing Committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), adopted crucial measures to halt the escalation of ivory and rhino horn smuggling.
The meeting in Geneva came a month after the Rio+20 Conference recognised the important role of Cites in its outcome document The Future We Want.
Cites Secretary-General John E Scanlon said the committee decided unanimously to take urgent measures to tackle the current poaching and smuggling crisis threatening elephant and rhino populations.
But a proposal to legalise the ivory trade by African range States including Zimbabwe and its neighbours as a way to combat rampant elephant poaching, sparked fierce debate at the meeting. This prompted Cites to meet again in October to fine tune the plan, which would then be considered for final approval at the March 2013 Cites CoP 16 conference in Bangkok, Thailand.
It is undisputable that an estimated 38000 African elephants are killed each year for their tusks. But the arguments were that reversing the ivory trade ban would have a devastating effect on elephants by triggering an increase in demand and sending even more illegal ivory into uncontrolled markets.
Some scientists believe that if poaching and the ivory trade was not brought under control, most populations of elephants could face extinction by 2020. The real solution therefore, is to better protect elephants in their home ranges and to pressure those nations participating in illegal trade to do more to combat ivory smuggling and sales.
A campaign is already at full throttle elsewhere to pressure the West not to support any proposals that would open the door to the bloody ivory trade.
The Cites thus also analysed the drivers behind the exploding demand in rhino horn and requested VietNam to report by next month on its actions to combat illegal trade in rhino horn.
Among other decisions taken by the committee, nine are total wildlife trade suspensions for lack of legislation to penalize illegal wildlife trade (the Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Paraguay and Rwanda) or for failing to report trade in Cites-protected species (Guinea-Bissau, Nepal, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands and the Syrian Arab Republic).
Guinea was also warned to take a clear set of minimum actions to improve the issuance and monitoring of Cites permits and operations and to reduce illegal wildlife trade.
This being the case poor countries like Zimbabwe should mobilise to count their flagship species in preparation for the next Cites. Also to ensure that when the ivory moratorium collapses in 2017 the country would be better prepared for any eventuality.
After having focused my last two installments on the African elephant, I was forced to take another look once again on the fate of the jumbos given the fact that Zimbabwe and Botswana are the only two countries with the remaining largest population in the world, over 100 000 apiece.
The recent disturbing video, released by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), shows mutilated elephants after a mass slaughter in Bouba N'Djida National Park in Cameroon, where poaching has hit record levels.
Between January and March this year, heavily armed foreign poachers killed 350 elephants in the national park. Authorities said the poachers targeting Bouba N'Djida national park were well-organised and worked in groups of 50.
Poachers killed an entire school of elephants in helicopter attacks, raining bullets down on adult and baby elephants alike. After the slaughter, poachers set about removing their tusks and genitals before smuggling them through South Sudan or Uganda.
The killing represents a significant percentage of Africa’s remaining elephant population. Nearly 500 elephants were killed in the same park during 2010. Since 1996, 120 park rangers have lost their lives trying to protect the elephants, and each month a significant number of Zimbabwe Parks rangers are killed battling marauding poachers along the Zambezi Valley.
Tens of thousands of the majestic jumbos are killed each year for their ivory tusks, which are mostly trafficked to Asia.
I could not agree more with WWF Cameroon project manager Philip Forboseh’s conclusions that the poaching crisis was a world heritage issue, not just an issue for Cameroon.
"When I looked at those elephants on the ground it was horrendous, I wished I didn't see it," he said. “I'm sad that it has taken hundreds of elephants to be slaughtered for the authorities to act."
We know there are some elephants left, how many we don't know. Zimbabwe is still to conduct its elephant count in as many years, but at the last count we had about 100 000. And estimates are that the figure has gone up significantly, although affected by poaching in the elephant range areas along the Zambezi Valley.
Since the mass slaughter earlier this year in Cameroon and elsewhere, other African countries have boosted security in their protected areas.
This horrendous footage came at a time the 62nd meeting of the Standing Committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites), adopted crucial measures to halt the escalation of ivory and rhino horn smuggling.
The meeting in Geneva came a month after the Rio+20 Conference recognised the important role of Cites in its outcome document The Future We Want.
Cites Secretary-General John E Scanlon said the committee decided unanimously to take urgent measures to tackle the current poaching and smuggling crisis threatening elephant and rhino populations.
But a proposal to legalise the ivory trade by African range States including Zimbabwe and its neighbours as a way to combat rampant elephant poaching, sparked fierce debate at the meeting. This prompted Cites to meet again in October to fine tune the plan, which would then be considered for final approval at the March 2013 Cites CoP 16 conference in Bangkok, Thailand.
It is undisputable that an estimated 38000 African elephants are killed each year for their tusks. But the arguments were that reversing the ivory trade ban would have a devastating effect on elephants by triggering an increase in demand and sending even more illegal ivory into uncontrolled markets.
Some scientists believe that if poaching and the ivory trade was not brought under control, most populations of elephants could face extinction by 2020. The real solution therefore, is to better protect elephants in their home ranges and to pressure those nations participating in illegal trade to do more to combat ivory smuggling and sales.
A campaign is already at full throttle elsewhere to pressure the West not to support any proposals that would open the door to the bloody ivory trade.
The Cites thus also analysed the drivers behind the exploding demand in rhino horn and requested VietNam to report by next month on its actions to combat illegal trade in rhino horn.
Among other decisions taken by the committee, nine are total wildlife trade suspensions for lack of legislation to penalize illegal wildlife trade (the Comoros, Guinea-Bissau, Paraguay and Rwanda) or for failing to report trade in Cites-protected species (Guinea-Bissau, Nepal, Rwanda, the Solomon Islands and the Syrian Arab Republic).
Guinea was also warned to take a clear set of minimum actions to improve the issuance and monitoring of Cites permits and operations and to reduce illegal wildlife trade.
This being the case poor countries like Zimbabwe should mobilise to count their flagship species in preparation for the next Cites. Also to ensure that when the ivory moratorium collapses in 2017 the country would be better prepared for any eventuality.
Are Ivory Bonfires worth anything?
In last week’s instalment I pointed out that Gabon President Ali Bongo had set a pyre of ivory aflame on June 27 in a symbolic warning to poachers: “We will fight to protect our elephants”.
The public burning served a dual purpose, according to conservationists — both demonstrating Gabon’s zero-tolerance policy for wildlife crime, and curtailing the temptation to sell the government-seized stockpile on the black market. Zambia “lost” about three tons from its government stock hold recently.
Bongo’s bonfire emulated a July 2011 Kenyan bonfire. Activists in Kenya were galvanised last year by the killing of a matriarch elephant named Khaija, who poachers slaughtered near Kenya’s Samburu National reserve.
Khaija had been treated just two weeks earlier for a bullet wound from a different attack. With her death, Khaija left behind eight orphan elephants.
That July, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki burned five tons of confiscated ivory. The ivory in Kenya had been selling on the black market for $1 500 per kg, according to Kibaki.
True the African elephant population is in serious trouble. Despite the ban in international trade of ivory under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), an international trade agreement to protect wildlife from exploitation, in 1989, trade has been flourishing.
Investigators have seized 24,3 tons of illegally harvested ivory this year alone taken from an estimated 2 500 elephants, according to the same report — twice the amount of ivory seized in 2010 and more than the United Nations has ever seized since it started keeping records in 1990.
Inconceivable, isn’t it? And elephants’ futures look no brighter in 2012 with Zimbabwe currently holding 52 000kg of raw ivory. Much of the ivory makes its way through Cairo, Egypt or Nairobi, Kenya direct to Malaysia and of course Asia, where it is popular in China, Vietnam, Thailand and Japan.
The wildlife trade-monitoring network, Traffic, estimates ivory sales have doubled in China since 2004.
The same Traffic report found that only one tenth of the shops they surveyed selling ivory in China had licenses to do so.
But, problems in Africa are largely due to inadequate law enforcement capacity and training; inadequate laws and/or policies; insufficient resource management capacity; a lack of efficient co-operation at national and sub-regional levels between agencies (particularly enforcement and customs officers); and lack of collaboration between exporting, transit countries and their counterparts in China.
So, it is essential to involve all the players along the wildlife trade chain, including the private sector, to ensure their operations are in compliance with international Conventions such as Cites and the Convention on Biological Diversity, and with national environmental and social laws and regulations in China and Africa.
Specific support to encourage sustainable trade and eliminate illegal trade should become a key element of China’s aid policy in Africa. Greater resources are needed for monitoring and enforcement measures, such as cargo inspection.
Currently less than 2% of cargo traffic from Africa is inspected, enabling criminals to conceal the true origin, ownership and content of container cargo.
Chinese based in Africa in general, and Zimbabwe in particular, need to be made aware of environmental laws and policies, while China should develop and implement well researched demand reduction campaigns to influence consumer behaviour with a view to reducing demand for products of illegal origin.
David Newton, Head of Traffic East Southern Africa argued there has never been a greater urgency for China and Africa to put into action their commitments towards environmental sustainability and to direct significant resources towards addressing rising concerns over the levels of illegal and unsustainable trade in wildlife.
There is no doubt China is Africa’s largest trading partner, with overall trade values estimated to be over one trillion Yuan (US$160 billion) per annum.
The rising influence of China within Africa creates multiple opportunities for growth in trade between key Africa and China, including within the wildlife trade sector—the trade of wild fauna and flora products, including timber and fisheries.
Hence, sustainable utilisation of Africa’s wildlife resources can lead to positive development and growth for trading partners, while unsustainable wildlife trade depletes Africa of its natural wealth, and illegal trade inevitably leads to a growth in organised criminal activities, with the potential to create political instability.
Although the rapid growth in Chinese investment and aid in Africa has largely been welcomed, there have always been concerns over the levels of unregulated trade in natural resources, including those involving timber and fisheries, while poaching of Africa’s elephants is running at record levels.
It is hoped, however, that the recent 5th Ministerial Conference of Forum on China-Africa Co-operation provided an opportunity for countries to transform the wildlife trade dynamics from Africa to China, leading to a significant reduction in illegal trade and supporting the sustainable trade in Africa’s wild plants and animals.
In this regard, should Africa burn its ivory stockpiles as a statement of intent against rising elephant poaching? “WWF supports Gabon’s decision and sees the move as an indication of the country’s commitment to curbing elephant poaching and the illegal ivory trade,” said Stefanie Conrad, WWF Central Africa Regional Programme Office Representative.
The decisions taken at last week’s Cites Standing committee could perhaps ratchet up pressure on a number of countries to be held accountable over their failure to deal with rampant poaching and illegal trade, but no sanctions or punitive measures were agreed.
Perhaps with elephant poaching and illegal trade in ivory reaching new heights, we should not be shy about using Cites trade suspensions as an international tool to prevent a full-blown elephant crisis.
* millenniunzimbabwe@gmail.com/millenniumzimbabwe@yahoo.com
The public burning served a dual purpose, according to conservationists — both demonstrating Gabon’s zero-tolerance policy for wildlife crime, and curtailing the temptation to sell the government-seized stockpile on the black market. Zambia “lost” about three tons from its government stock hold recently.
Bongo’s bonfire emulated a July 2011 Kenyan bonfire. Activists in Kenya were galvanised last year by the killing of a matriarch elephant named Khaija, who poachers slaughtered near Kenya’s Samburu National reserve.
Khaija had been treated just two weeks earlier for a bullet wound from a different attack. With her death, Khaija left behind eight orphan elephants.
That July, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki burned five tons of confiscated ivory. The ivory in Kenya had been selling on the black market for $1 500 per kg, according to Kibaki.
True the African elephant population is in serious trouble. Despite the ban in international trade of ivory under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites), an international trade agreement to protect wildlife from exploitation, in 1989, trade has been flourishing.
Investigators have seized 24,3 tons of illegally harvested ivory this year alone taken from an estimated 2 500 elephants, according to the same report — twice the amount of ivory seized in 2010 and more than the United Nations has ever seized since it started keeping records in 1990.
Inconceivable, isn’t it? And elephants’ futures look no brighter in 2012 with Zimbabwe currently holding 52 000kg of raw ivory. Much of the ivory makes its way through Cairo, Egypt or Nairobi, Kenya direct to Malaysia and of course Asia, where it is popular in China, Vietnam, Thailand and Japan.
The wildlife trade-monitoring network, Traffic, estimates ivory sales have doubled in China since 2004.
The same Traffic report found that only one tenth of the shops they surveyed selling ivory in China had licenses to do so.
But, problems in Africa are largely due to inadequate law enforcement capacity and training; inadequate laws and/or policies; insufficient resource management capacity; a lack of efficient co-operation at national and sub-regional levels between agencies (particularly enforcement and customs officers); and lack of collaboration between exporting, transit countries and their counterparts in China.
So, it is essential to involve all the players along the wildlife trade chain, including the private sector, to ensure their operations are in compliance with international Conventions such as Cites and the Convention on Biological Diversity, and with national environmental and social laws and regulations in China and Africa.
Specific support to encourage sustainable trade and eliminate illegal trade should become a key element of China’s aid policy in Africa. Greater resources are needed for monitoring and enforcement measures, such as cargo inspection.
Currently less than 2% of cargo traffic from Africa is inspected, enabling criminals to conceal the true origin, ownership and content of container cargo.
Chinese based in Africa in general, and Zimbabwe in particular, need to be made aware of environmental laws and policies, while China should develop and implement well researched demand reduction campaigns to influence consumer behaviour with a view to reducing demand for products of illegal origin.
David Newton, Head of Traffic East Southern Africa argued there has never been a greater urgency for China and Africa to put into action their commitments towards environmental sustainability and to direct significant resources towards addressing rising concerns over the levels of illegal and unsustainable trade in wildlife.
There is no doubt China is Africa’s largest trading partner, with overall trade values estimated to be over one trillion Yuan (US$160 billion) per annum.
The rising influence of China within Africa creates multiple opportunities for growth in trade between key Africa and China, including within the wildlife trade sector—the trade of wild fauna and flora products, including timber and fisheries.
Hence, sustainable utilisation of Africa’s wildlife resources can lead to positive development and growth for trading partners, while unsustainable wildlife trade depletes Africa of its natural wealth, and illegal trade inevitably leads to a growth in organised criminal activities, with the potential to create political instability.
Although the rapid growth in Chinese investment and aid in Africa has largely been welcomed, there have always been concerns over the levels of unregulated trade in natural resources, including those involving timber and fisheries, while poaching of Africa’s elephants is running at record levels.
It is hoped, however, that the recent 5th Ministerial Conference of Forum on China-Africa Co-operation provided an opportunity for countries to transform the wildlife trade dynamics from Africa to China, leading to a significant reduction in illegal trade and supporting the sustainable trade in Africa’s wild plants and animals.
In this regard, should Africa burn its ivory stockpiles as a statement of intent against rising elephant poaching? “WWF supports Gabon’s decision and sees the move as an indication of the country’s commitment to curbing elephant poaching and the illegal ivory trade,” said Stefanie Conrad, WWF Central Africa Regional Programme Office Representative.
The decisions taken at last week’s Cites Standing committee could perhaps ratchet up pressure on a number of countries to be held accountable over their failure to deal with rampant poaching and illegal trade, but no sanctions or punitive measures were agreed.
Perhaps with elephant poaching and illegal trade in ivory reaching new heights, we should not be shy about using Cites trade suspensions as an international tool to prevent a full-blown elephant crisis.
* millenniunzimbabwe@gmail.com/millenniumzimbabwe@yahoo.com
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