Zimbabwe will this month host the African Elephant Conservation Conference whose main output is expected to be a ministerial declaration on how the continent can benefit from the delicate balance between conservation and ivory trade.
Information Minister Monica Mutsvangwa said late Tuesday that the conference, scheduled for Hwange National Park from May 23-26, would bring together ministers and conservationists from Africa to discuss efforts to conserve elephants on the continent and how overstocked countries could sustainably engage in ivory trade.
“Cabinet wishes to further highlight that the Elephant Conference programme involves a two-day meeting of technical officials from 23 to 24 May 2022, followed by a one-day Ministerial Meeting on 26 May 2022,” Mutsvangwa told journalists after the weekly cabinet meeting.
She added: “The key output of the Conference will be a Ministerial Declaration on African Elephant Conservation in Africa that is to be referred to as the Hwange Elephant Declaration.”
Zimbabwe and fellow Southern African Development Community countries – Botswana and Namibia – are lobbying for the lifting of a ban on ivory trade ahead of the 19th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora set for November.
The three countries had their joint proposal to be allowed to sell stockpiled ivory shot down at the last CITES meeting held in Switzerland in 2019.
According to the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority, the country has holding capacity for 45,000 elephants but now sits on over 90,000 across the country.
This means that the elephant herd has to be regularly culled in order to minimise huma-animal conflict.
JN/APA