Zimbabwe and five other Southern African countries are fighting for exemption from a global ban on ivory trade imposed by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), saying they must cull their large elephant populations regularly for economic benefit and environmental sustainability. Researched by Nevanji Madanhire What is the issue? CITES banned international trade in ivory in 1989. However, there are still some thriving but unregulated domestic ivory markets in a number of countries, which fuel an illegal international trade. Poaching to meet growing demand from affluent Asian countries is driving up the rate of poaching. In some countries, political unrest contributes to elephant poaching. (www.worldwildlife.org/threats/illegal-wildlife-trade) The African elephant is still listed as vulnerable on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, according to conservation charity, Tusk. The IUCN moved African elephants from “endangered” to “vulnerable” status in 2004, in part because the animals are relatively numerous and populations are growing in some areas. (WWF) The Zimbabwe case The Zimbabwean government is calling for the lifting of the ban on trade in elephants and ivory to allow live sales, culling and trophy hunting and to enable it to sell a stockpile of ivory worth more than half a billion dollars. The proceeds, the country says, will be used to fund the conservation of the animals. The African elephant is on Appendix 1 and downlisting it to Appendix 2 would allow culling to reduce the population. In successive meetings held in Botswana and Zimbabwe in May and June, together with other countries in the region which form the (KAZA) bloc, Zimbabwe lobbied for the relaxation of the ban during the inaugural Wildlife Economy Summit aimed at establishing a common position on issues of sustainable wildlife management ahead of a CITES meeting in August 2019 in Geneva. Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe form the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area (KAZA TFCA) commonly referred to the KAZA bloc. It is home to more than 250,000 elephants out of the estimated 400,000 elephants worldwide. Zimbabwe boasts 84 000 jumbos, which it says are more than 30,000 too many for the habitat. The KAZA-bloc countries are making their case at the CITES conference currently being held in Geneva, Switzerland. Kenya-led opposition But other African countries, led by Kenya, are opposed to the reopening of international trade in ivory, arguing it will trigger a rise in elephant poaching and endanger further existing populations around the continent. What is the African elephant? African elephants are the world’s largest land animals. The African elephant (Loxodonta) is a genus comprising two living elephant species, the larger savannah elephant (Loxodonta africana africana), and the smaller forest elephant (Loxodonta africana cyclotis). The biggest can be up to 7,5m long, 3,3m high at the shoulder, and 6 tonnes in weight. The African bush or savannah elephant roams southern African countries including Zimbabwe, Botswana, Zambia, Angola, Namibia and South Africa. The smaller African forest elephant lives in the equatorial forests of central and western Africa the biggest weighing only 2,7 tonnes. (WWF) How many elephants are in Zimbabwe? According to the last elephant census done in 2014 Zimbabwe has 82 091 elephants. This translates to 1.5 elephants per km² in the four elephant regions namely North West Matabeleland, Sebungwe, Mid-Zambezi Valley and South East Lowveld. The ideal population should be one jumbo per km². Zimbabwe’s carrying capacity is 50,000 elephants. How are they distributed? Elephants are distributed in four main regional populations in Zimbabwe, namely, Northwest Matabeleland, the Sebungwe, the mid-Zambezi Valley, and the South-East Lowveld. Crude ecological densities vary between 2.16 elephant/km² in Northwest Matabeleland and 0.46 elephant/km² in the Sebungwe region. Elephant densities in the Communal Areas vary from 1.50 elephant/ km² in the south-east Lowveld to 0.06 elephant/km² in the Sebungwe region. Overall it is estimated that 5,000 elephants reside in Communal Areas and occupy approximately 16,000 km². Are elephants a threat to their habitat? An African elephant may eat up to 450kg of vegetation a day, including fruits, flowers from trees, pods, leaves, entire plants and roots. However, their digestive system is not very efficient, so only 40% of this food is properly digested. It drinks up to 400 litres of water a day. What is its importance to the ecosystem? The African elephant plays a vital role in maintaining ecological harmony.