Refusal to allow Zambia market ivory may influence poaching – TCZ

TOURISM Council of Zambia (TCZ) chairman Mark O’Donnell yesterday observed that the refusal to allow Zambia to market her legal ivory may lead to higher levels of poaching since there is lack of resources.

Commenting on the decision by the United Nations’ Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES)’s decision to reject Tanzania and Zambia’s plans to sell stockpiled ivory, O’Donnell said the development was good but it did not take into account that Zambia Wildlife Authority (ZAWA) needs money to operate efficiently.

He said there was need to urgently address the revenue needs of ZAWA for it to perform better.

“This is all well and good but does not take into account the facts and does not address the needs of ZAWA to obtain revenue. ZAWA needs revenue to enable good conservation programmes to be put into place so that wildlife management improves. With better management animal populations will increase and our ability to attract visitors to Zambia will improve,” O’Donnell said. “It is unfortunate that those countries that do not support Zambia are not offering alternatives to us. Where is the money going to come from to run better conservation programmes? The refusal to allow Zambia to market her legal ivory may indeed lead to higher levels of poaching as there is simply a lack of resources.”

He said many people do not understand the facts about ZAWA.

“ZAWA has an area of 250,000 square kilometres to manage. This is larger than many countries in Europe. ZAWA only has a limited number of personnel to do this. There is a lack of equipment, logistics and support to enable this to be done,” said O’Donnell. “I find it very frustrating that delegates to meetings such as CITES do not fully appreciate the problems associated with wildlife management and conservation in Zambia and chose to sit and pass judgement against Zambia without offering credible alternatives. I think this is a very shortsighted approach. Rather than just be negative towards Zambia's proposals, it would have been far more useful to come forward with money and ideas that would have enabled us to do a better job in this area.  Indeed if those delegates are as concerned as they say they are, why are not offering money to ZAWA to enable ZAWA to do a better job?”