South Africa: Is South Africa Breaking Ranks On the Ivory Trade in Lead-Up to Cites COP20?

By Adam Cruise

A quiet but highly significant policy rift is opening among southern African states as the world turns its attention to CITES CoP20, scheduled for 24 November 2025 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

A quiet but highly significant policy rift is opening among southern African states as the world turns its attention to CITES CoP20, scheduled for 24 November 2025 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

For decades, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa marched in step, championing the sustainable use of wildlife -- including promoting the international trade in elephant ivory. Together, they challenged anti-trade coalitions led by east and central African nations, and conservation NGOs.

But this year, South Africa appears to have broken ranks.

Namibia's big ivory gambit

The flashpoint is Namibia's Proposal 13, which seeks CITES approval to sell more than 46 tonnes of government-owned raw ivory stockpiles for commercial purposes. Namibia argues the sale would be a one-off transaction with CITES Secretariat-verified trading partners, generating conservation revenue. The funds, they argue, would support conservation and rural communities.

The secretariat, however, has raised serious concerns. It flagged ambiguities around how trading partners would be verified, how trade would be monitored and whether the sale might set a precedent for future trade.

Building on this, a global NGO, the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), has urged parties at CoP20 to reject the proposal outright. In its own briefing, the EIA argued...

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