* Zimbabwe has one of Africa’s largest elephant populations
* Deadline to request sale in October
By MacDonald Dzirutwe
HARARE, Aug 22 (Reuters) – Zimbabwe has accumulated 50
tonnes of ivory and will ask the international body regulating
its trade for permission to auction its stocks to fund
conservation of the animals, the head of the country’s wildlife
agency said on Wednesday.
The ivory has been confiscated from poachers or recovered as
a result of natural deaths or government-sanctioned elephant
culls, officials said.
Zimbabwe says it needs to raise extra funds to deal with its
burgeoning elephant population, which at about 100,000 is one of
the largest in Africa.
Adult elephants consume about 100 to 300 kgs (220 to 660
pounds) of food a day, studies have shown, and officials say
their growing numbers are straining the impoverished country’s
resources and posing a threat to plant life.
Some $30 million is required each year for conservation of
the animals and anti-poaching in Zimbabwe, but Vitalis Chadenga,
director-general of the Parks and Wildlife Management Authority,
told Reuters the current budget was “very far from there”.
“There is a point where our elephant population can get so
much to a point where they self destruct and this is happening
in some of the parks,” he said.
In 2008, Zimbabwe was allowed to conduct a one-off sale of
3.9 tonnes of ivory by the Convention on International Trade in
Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the
international group that governs trade in plants and animals.
Plagued by corruption, Zimbabwe provided detailed documents
to CITES showing how the money raised from the sale went
directly into conservation.
Zimbabwe faces an October deadline to make its request to
CITES if it wants to quickly sell the tusks.
However, conservationists worry the sale could fuel demand
for ivory, especially in the fast-growing emerging economic
powers of Asia where it is often used in carved ornaments.
Although elephants are prolific in Zimbabwe, poaching and a
loss of habitat have made them a threatened species in large
parts of Africa.
A global ban on the ivory trade was imposed in 1989 and was
widely credited with stemming the relentless slaughter of
African elephants in countries such as Kenya.
Occasional auctions from African government stockpiles have
since been sanctioned.
Chadenga said the global ban was not working.
“We have not had a legitimate sale of ivory now but we
continue to have an upsurge in poaching,” he said.
(Reporting by MacDonald Dzirutwe; Additonal reporting by Jon
Herskovitz in Johannesburg; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
