The global fight against the illegal ivory trade received a major boost in South Africa today when countries from around the world backed the CITES-led National Ivory Action Plan (NIAP) process."After hours of grueling negotiations behind closed doors, WWF is very pleased to see that countries have now united behind a deal that strengthens the national ivory action plan process, which is absolutely central to the global fight against the illegal ivory trade," said Dr Colman O Criodain, WWF Global Wildlife Policy Manager.
Initiated at the last CITES Conference of the Parties (CoP) in Bangkok in 2013, the process currently involves 19 countries most implicated in the illegal ivory trade chain, including 12 in Africa and 7 in Asia.
Under the process, these countries have had to develop and implement national ivory action plans to ramp up their efforts to tackle the illegal trade.
"Led by CITES, this process has recently begun to yield results and this agreement will ensure that countries build upon these successes and take more concrete steps to stop the poaching, trafficking and buying of illegal ivory," added O Criodain.
It was critical that CoP17 in Johannesburg continued to focus attention on the NIAPs and act to strengthen the process. And they have – acknowledging the importance of the ivory action plans and backing revisions that will enhance the overall impact of the NIAP process.
In particular, all stages of the process to select countries for inclusion in the NIAP process, drafting of their action plans, implementation and exit from the process must now be evaluated by the Secretariat in consultation with independent experts, including ICCWC, which will make recommendations to the Standing Committee.
In future, the selection of countries will be based on data from the Elephant Trade Information System as the "first cut" but will also take into account other relevant data.
"The world has made its position clear on how to tackle the illegal ivory trade: backing the national ivory action plan process is the best way forward. The decisions taken here in Johannesburg will not immediately slow the slaughter of Africa's elephants, but they will have a major impact in the years to come as countries all along the illegal trade chain implement their ivory action plans," said O Criodain.
But countries will still have to rigorously implement their plans, and their progress also need to be independently reviewed.
"Tough talk in committee rooms is one thing. If those countries most implicated in the illegal trade fail to take the tough measures required, the rest of the world will have to hold them to account," said O Criodain.
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