SA TO BLAME IN RHINO HORN TRADE – CONSERVATIONISTS

MBABANE – Swaziland conservation authorities have accused South Africa of reneging on an agreement to propose the legalisation of rhino horn trade, which draws into question South Africa’s real intentions on the issue.

These are the latest following the now controversial proposal by the Kingdom to CITES for trade in rhino horn.  CITES is an acronym for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna, a body that regulates the wildlife trade.

In formal documents submitted to CITES Swaziland said eleven SADC (Southern African Development Community) nations, including South Africa, agreed on April 6 to support a proposal to trade in rhino horn.

The Conservation Action Trust (CAT) in their websites, reports that a week after this commitment was made the South African Cabinet decided (at their April 13 meeting) that it did not support submitting a pro-trade proposal to CITES.

The Cabinet decision was informed by the findings of a Committee of Inquiry, convened by the Department of Environmental Affairs (DEA).

“Swaziland was expecting South Africa to submit a rhino horn trade proposal to CoP17 and was ready to support it,” the formal Swazi submission to CITES states. “… with the exception of only one country (Botswana), there was a consensus in favour of rhino horn trade and in support of a trade proposal to CoP 17,” (the CITES Congress of Parties 17, which is due to be held in Johannesburg later this year).

“These claims are very alarming – how could South Africa make a commitment to supporting trade proposals to CoP 17 when at that stage they must have known the recommendations of their own Committee of Inquiry which were before Cabinet,” Michele Pickover of the EMS Foundation said.

The Kingdom of Swaziland says South Africa’s change of heart forced it to make ‘an eleventh hour’ proposal to CITES requesting permission to sell 330 kilogrammes of stockpiled rhino horn. In a written response to questions the Department of Environmental Affairs, the CAT further reports, would not confirm or deny Swaziland’s claims that it had supported a joint SADC position in recommending trade in rhino horn.

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