A UN meeting on endangered species eased a 13-year-old ban on the ivory trade last night, allowing southern African nations to sell elephant tusks in a ruling that angered environmentalists.
Delegates at the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, gathered in Chile voted to let South Africa, Botswana and Namibia stage one-time sales of 30 tonnes of ivory from their stockpiles in 2004.
Trade in ivory was prohibited globally in 1989 after the number of African elephants plummeted to 600,000 from about 1.2 million in just over a decade.
Much of the ivory that would be sold comes from elephants that have died naturally. The countries would receive around $2 million to $3 million each from the sales, delegates said.
Some populations have since recovered but not all African states with elephants support a return to the ivory trade.
Kenya said even limited, regulated sales like those approved last night would encourage poaching. "We are going to start seeing elephants getting killed.
We are not exaggerating; you will see it. And not only elephants but you are going to lose lives of rangers, of poachers," Mr A.O. Bashir, an official of the Kenya Wildlife Service, said.
The UN meeting also rejected a request from Zimbabwe and Zambia to sell ivory in similar deals. Delegates said they were concerned that those two countries could not properly monitor ivory sales due to corruption and political instability.