October 31, 2002. Copyright 2002. Graphic News. All rights reserved.

Trade controls could cut tally of threatened plants and animals

LONDON, October 31, Graphic News: The percentage of the worldÕs plants that are threatened with extinction, currently cited at 13 percent, is spectacularly wrong, according to scientists writing in the current issue of the journal Science.

ÒThe true figure is at least 30 percent,Ó researchers Nigel Pitman and Peter J¿rgensen said. ÒThe former number does not include a reliable tally of species at risk in the tropical latitudes, where most of the worldÕs plants grow.Ó 

The authors estimated the missing tropical data using the number of plant species endemic to a country. Using data for 189 countries and territories, the authors calculated that the global percentage of threatened plants is between 34-47 percent.

The paper is published on the eve of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) which opens on November 3 in Santiago, Chile.

CITES will decide on wildlife trade controls affecting the survival of dozens of wild plant and animal species ranging from the highly charismatic minke whale and African elephant, to endangered Latin American parrots and even some cacti and orchids.

One group of proposals addresses AsiaÕs declining freshwater turtles, which are collected and traded as pets, food, and medicinal preparations in the Far East. The number of turtles on sale at Chinese food markets alone is estimated between 12 and 20 million specimens annually, most of them originating from the wild. Experts fear that many Asian turtle species will soon face extinction. 

Another contentious item at Santiago will be the African elephant. After an eight-year ban on ivory sales, in 1997 CITES agreed to allow three African countries -- Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe -- to make one-time sales from their existing legal stocks of raw ivory.

Now South Africa, Tanzania and Mozambique will propose a relaxation of the global ban on ivory trading to allow the sale of a further 80 tonnes of stockpiled ivory. 

Animal welfare campaigners have warned that the South African-led proposal will re-ignite illegal trading and lead to the devastating slaughter of elephants by poachers.

The elephant population in Africa had dwindled from 1.3 million in 1981 to as few as 300,000 four years ago, with poaching resulting in the deaths of more than 500 elephants a year.

The South African government argues that its careful management of about 12,000 elephants, most of them in the Kruger National Park, earns it the right to sell ivory. It insists that limited ivory sales -- intended to benefit conservation and support local communities in South Africa -- should not be held back by poor regulation in other parts of Africa and the activities of poaching syndicates.
/ENDS

Sources: Science, CITES