Latest figures from the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species are encouraging – but African elephant populations continue to drop.

The CITES figures show elephant poaching down for the the fifth year.

Nevertheless illegal killings, land transformation and  rapid human expansion still gravely threaten elephant numbers.

Last year saw the highest number of large scale seizures of ivory. Authorities confiscated 40 tons of it – the most in 28 years.

CITES head John Scanlon says this is because of increased vigilance, scaled up enforcement and people holding ivory taking more risks to get rid of it because wagering on extinction of the species  has become a bad bet.

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Large mammal ecologist at the park Sam Ferreira says using war talk is counter-productive in the fight to stop poachers threatening the existence of elephants and other species.

It’s quite wrong to talk about declaring a war on poaching, Kruger National Park’s large mammal ecologist Sam Ferreira tells a side event at the conference of the parties to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species.

Only the president can declare war.

Bellicose language, he says,  is hurting efforts to engage local communities in the fight to save the elephant and other species.

“Be careful what you say. War talk is making things difficult for us, no matter how strongly you feel,” he says.

Ferreira says war talk drives the debate into a them and us situation with struggling local communities pitted against financially more comfortable conservationists.

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He was speaking on the eve of the meeting in Sandton where conservationists and policy makers from 182 countries consider the best way of saving 500 threatened species of fauna and flora.

Speaking at an event for the conservation charity TUSK, Prince William paints a bleak picture about the outlook for the savannah elephant.

“When I was born there were one million elephant roaming the wild in Africa. By the time my daughter Charlotte was born last year that number had fallen to 350 000,” the prince says.

“At the current rate of illegal poaching, but the time Charlotte is 25 the savannah elephant will have disappeared from the wild.”

He says he’s not prepared too explain to his children why his generation lost the battle for this iconic species when they had the tools to win it.

He says there’s momentum building from government, business, conservationists and the public to stop the killing.

The mistakes of the past cannot be undone.

But they can and must take moral responsibility for the decisions they take today.

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After three-days of hearing stakeholders’ submissions, experts appointed by the Department of Environmental Affairs, have resumed their consideration of whether or not South Africa should allow the sale of rhino horn.

They will make their recommendations to the inter-ministerial committee who will, in turn, pass it to Cabinet for a final decision.

Ideally South Africa would prefer African countries to take a unified position at the Conference On The International Trade In Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITIES) that it will be hosting next year.

In any event, as the country housing 80 percent of world’s remaining rhino population, South Africa’s position will carry enormous weight at that gathering.

The Committee of Inquiry was set up earlier this year by Environment Minister Edna Molewa. It represents a cross-section of stakeholders from both the public and private sector.

The minister considers them to be leaders in their field, selected for their extensive expertise in their areas of work or nominated by their organisations or departments.

Working against a September deadline the 22-member committee might schedule further hearings of stakeholders.

However 55 individuals, communities and organisations they heard during their the three-day gathering in Boksburg last week has given plenty of material to consider.

The participants hold diametrically opposed views on whether or not the sale of rhino horn should be sold.

However proceedings ran in with remarkable calm and decorum – probably because the common goal is conserving the rhino.

Those advocating legalisation say rhino should be kept safely so their horns, which grow back at a rate of two kilograms a year, could be harvested and sold at about R700 000 a kilogram.

Those opposed counter that this is more about making money than saving the rhino.

Committee head, lawyer and businessmwoman Nana Magomola encouraged all stakeholders to continue working with the experts saying: “ This is not the end of the road.”

She maintained the issues at hand are complex as they relate to rhino poaching and the illegal trade in rhino horn.

“The more information we have the better our decisions will be,” she said.

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Twenty two experts assembled by the Department of the Environmental Affairs heard passionate presentations on both sides of the debate among others from conservationists, breeders, local communities, think tanks and lawyers.

The panel of experts constituted early this year now have to mull over the contents of more than 50 presentations over three days.

The panel has to guide government on its position when the Conference on the International Trade in Endangered Species is held in South Africa next year.

This morning the general manager of a big five game reserve east of the Kruger national Park and a former KwaZulu/Natal parks head ranger both advocated harvesting the horn to raise money for saving the rhino.

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Conservation groups range against local communities and rhino farmers as to what that official South African line should be on this.

Both sides however, say they have same goal: saving the rhino.

The workshop organised by the Department of Environmental Affairs in Boxburg has heard passionate presentations for and against the sale of rhino horn.

Bent on formulating the official line to be taken to next year’s meeting of the Conference on the International Trade in Endangered Species, the department’s called on the services of a panel of 22 experts.

Its members represent both sides of the argument as they listen to the presentations saying legalising the sale of rhino horn will either save or condemn the species in the country still housing the world’s greatest number of rhinos.

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He says he doesn’t want these middle men killed. He wants them jailed and giving information about the organised crime bosses they are working for.

Chris Bean makes a living collecting debts in Africa.

But in Boksburg today he’s representing a client who’s never paid him and never will: the rhino.

He was giving evidence to a specialist committee set up by the Department of Environmental Affairs to recommend the line South Africa should take on legalising the sale of rhino horn at the Conference on the International Trade in Endangered Species it’s hosting in Cape Town next year.

Bean maintains the international law governing hot pursuit entitles South Africa to chase poachers into Mozambique and to recover them to face justice here.

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Claire Attwood, representing the British-based charity Network For Animals, says it will also

damage South Africa’s tourism.

Ends intro

Claire Attwood is among the early participants in a two-day workshop organised by the

Department of Environmental Affairs.

Members of the pro and anti rhino horn trading lobbies are talking to a panel of 22 experts who will

recommend the position should take at next year’s Conference on the International Trade in

Endangered Species.

Attwood says the example of ivory history shows legalising trade in a wildlife product doesn’t stop

poaching.

If rhino sales are legalized South Africa will have only three of Big Five to show tourists because if

if can’t save the rhino, there is little chance for the elephant.

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