Split Among African Nations Imperils Proposed Global Ban on Ivory Sales

A major row has erupted among African nations that jeopardizes a proposed worldwide ban on ivory sales intended to save the elephant from virtual extinction, African wildlife officials said Friday.

The split has emerged since the start Tuesday of a five-day conference, in the southern African state of Botswana, of wildlife and trade officials from 26 countries.

Southern African countries whose elephant populations have grown under strong law enforcement and conservation programs--funded in part through ivory sales--rejected a total ban. They accused East African nations of mobilizing world opinion against ivory to compensate for their own failed conservation efforts.

Richard Leakey, director of Kenyan Wildlife and chairman of the meeting, announced at the end of Friday’s session a possible compromise. If accepted, the compromise would allow continued trade in ivory by the southern African nations of Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana, Zambia and possibly Malawi in exchange for improved trade controls.

“If there is agreement on controls, then there is a probability that there will be a greatly reduced, but nonetheless continuing, legal trade in ivory emanating from some range states to the south,” Leakey said.

A ban on ivory imports has already been imposed by the United States, the European Community and other nations as an emergency step to end the wholesale slaughter of as many as 80,000 elephants a year by poachers.

A report by the Kenya-based Ivory Trade Review Group, the main lobby for a ban, says the elephant could be extinct in eastern Africa within seven years and elsewhere within 15 to 25 years.