African wildlife will not be protected through Western conservation approaches but through the involvement of local communities, says conservationist Margaret Jacobsohn.
She said this last week following the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora's (Cites) recent rejection of Namibia's proposal to be allowed to trade in ivory.
"The only way to conserve is by letting all African countries care for our wildlife," said Jacobsohn.
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While she acknowledged that ivory trade is a complex issue, Jacobsohn said Namibia has strong conservation systems in place and is a global leader in both conservation and sustainable development.
She pointed to Namibia's community-based natural resources management programme, which links conservation to job creation and poverty reduction.
The model has spread across the continent, with countries such as Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania adopting similar approaches.
"Some countries, especially the Europeans, are more concerned about animal rights instead of applying the concept of sustainable use so that wildlife and natural resources can benefit rural people in a sustainable way," she said.
Jacobsohn said Western countries need to reassess their approach.
"The West needs to look at themselves carefully and realise that armchair conservation of animal rights groups will not work in Africa," she said.
Namibia's proposal to engage in controlled ivory trade was rejected at the Cites 20th Conference of the Parties held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, towards the end of last year after failing to secure a two-thirds majority.
At the beginning of last month, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) in Namibia said they supported Namibia's proposal to Cites to be allowed to trade in registered stocks of raw ivory (including whole tusks and pieces) of Namibian origin for commercial purposes.
WWF Namibia programme director for wildlife and landscape Pauline Lindeque told The Namibian they recognise the rationale behind Namibia's proposal and the challenges faced by elephant range states in sustaining conservation financing.
"We believe the Namibian proposal highlights the urgent need for the international community to explore innovative, evidence-based mechanisms that reward responsible stewardship and provide predictable funding for conservation," says Lindeque.
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She says the debate should not be reduced to fears of increased poaching alone, but rather seen as an opportunity to rethink how best to secure elephants and the landscapes they depend on.
Namibia wanted permission to trade in an existing stock of 46 286kg of registered raw ivory.
The stock comes from elephants that died of natural causes and from wildlife management operations.
According to the proposal, the biggest long-term threat to Namibia's elephant population is not poaching, but habitat loss.
This includes the fragmentation of elephant ranges, blocked migration routes and growing human-wildlife conflict where there are no incentives to protect wildlife.
"Namibia's sound conservation measures that are in place enabled the expansion of the elephant population from just over 7 500 in 1995 to over 25 664 at present, but there are high financial and security implications involved with the storing of ivory, and ivory from natural mortalities and management practices is continuously being accumulated," reads the proposal.
All revenue generated from ivory sales will be paid into the Game Product Trust Fund.
The funds are used for elephant conservation, including monitoring, research, law enforcement and other management expenses as well as for community conservation and development programmes.
