Staff Reporter
NAMIBIA has submitted a proposal calling for trade of Southern white rhinos to be permitted for conservation and trophy hunting purposes only.
The proposal will be evaluated at the 19th Meeting of the Conference of Parties (CoP19) to the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The meeting started on 14 November in Panama City, Panama, and will end on 25 November.
This was revealed by the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism’s spokesperson, Romeo Muyunda, who said that the meeting aims to review existing trade mechanisms and deliberate on new trade mechanisms for the regulation of international plant and animal trade.
Muyunda explained that Namibia, joined by Botswana, submitted a proposal to transfer Namibia’s population of Southern white rhinoceros from Appendix I to Appendix II of the CITES appendices.
Appendix I aims to protect species by imposing strict trade regulations to prevent endangering the species and to ensure further survival. Trade in Appendix II is less restrictive than Appendix I as trade for commercial reasons are permitted if it is not detrimental to the species survival.
Muyunda revealed that Namibia also intends to oppose the adoption of proposals to transfer elephant populations of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe from Appendix II to Appendix I as well as to transfer all populations of Hippopotamus from Appendix II to I.
“Those proposals have been prepared and submitted by Burkina Faso, Equatorial Guinea, Mali, Senegal and Syrian Arab Republic, amongst others and are not in favour of sustainable use. Additionally, the said populations being proposed for up listing do not meet the CITES Appendix I listing criteria,” Muyunda said.
He added that there are also a number of documents on the agenda regarding the conservation and management of lions, elephants, hippopotamus and rhinoceroses that are not in conformity with the country’s national policies. These documents, Muyunda said, will also not be supported by Namibia.
Muyunda said that Namibia also intends to support a proposal submitted by Zimbabwe to allow trade in raw ivory from the elephant populations of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe.
Furthermore, he added, Namibia, Eswatini and Zimbabwe have requested that mechanisms should be created to enable rural communities to participate in CITES decision-making processes. He said that this request is based on the rational that rural communities are custodians of wildlife, which is why they should be included in CITES decision-making processes.
Namibia is represented by government officials, led by the Executive Director (ED) of the ministry, Teofilus Nghitila, at CoP19 as well as by the Namibian Association of CBNRM Support Organisations (NACSO) and the hunting industry.
File photo for illustrative purposes only.
