Calls for tougher CITES action on Zim

the southern African was guilty of widespread enforcement failures threatening to decimate its rhino population.

As 175 countries prepare to meet to for the 15th conference of the Parties to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES CoP 15) in Doha on March 13, the increased poaching of rhinos and trade in rhino horns in Zimbabwe is threatening to undermine conservation efforts.

Most rhinos are listed in the conventions Appendix I, which bans trade in their parts for commercial purposes.

Countries participating in the CITES convention have been tasked with combating illegal trade in rhino horn.

The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and TRAFFIC are leading a campaign to have punitive action taken against Zimbabwe for what they see as the chronic lack of political will to enact enforcement efforts required to save this endangered species.

Poachers bailed

A Zimbabwean court last week granted bail to six men arrested at Bubye Valley Conservancy, home to Zimbabwes largest remaining rhino population, in connection with rhino poaching.

Charges against the poachers included illegal possession of firearms and illegal possession of a rhino horn.

The incident, part of a surge in rhino poaching in Zimbabwe and South Africa, is made worse by a lack of enforcement support in Zimbabwe in particular.

Zimbabwes failure to live up to its obligations to CITES is unacceptable and has caused its already endangered rhino population to decline, said Colman OCriodain, wildlife trade analyst at WWF International.

The poachers, also alleged to have been involved in a number of armed robberies and arrested with several illegal firearms, were initially denied bail and it was reported that the four had received lengthy jail sentences.

WWF said it has however been reliably informed by authorities that the poachers were subsequently granted bail, were freed and immediately absconded.

OCriodain added: The time has come for the CITES Parties collectively to decide how to address this failure.

WWF noted that, coming so soon after Zimbabwe was specifically urged by the CITES secretariat to tighten up its law enforcement to protect rhinos, the release on bail of the poachers, would reduce the country’s ability to defend its wildlife management policies at the forthcoming CITES conference.

Rhino poachers are currently operating in an environment where they are allowed to break the law without appropriate consequences, TRAFFIC executive director Steven Broad said last week.

Broad condemned the ineffective law enforcement in Zimbabwe and to some extent South Africa for undermining the success of more than a decade’s work of bringing rhinoceros populations in southern Africa back up to healthy levels.

Rampant poaching

Rampant poaching allegedly being spearheaded by senior government and army officers has caused both black and white rhino populations to decline in Zimbabwe.

Zimbabwe is under tight scrutiny by CITES, as a recent finding revealed that high-ranking government officials are suspected to be behind the countrys unacceptable rate of rhino poaching.

A December 2009 report by TRAFFIC and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) showed that since 2006, 95 percent of the poaching in Africa has occurred in Zimbabwe and South Africa.

The report also showed that the conviction rate for rhino crimes in Zimbabwe is only three percent.

Most rhino horns leaving southern Africa are destined for medicinal markets in southeast and east Asia, especially Vietnam, where demand has escalated in recent years.

The demand for rhino horn is driven by an insatiable appetite in China and Vietnam where superstitions attribute medicinal properties to rhino horn.

Chinas recent economic upswing has enabled an unprecedented number of citizens to afford remedies made from rhino horn, and from other endangered species.