Staff Reporter 

The Kavango (KAZA) Transfrontier Conservation Area (TfCA) Member States are set to participate at the upcoming dialogue meeting to be held in Botswana in August 2024 to come up with a common position to contest a ban on ivory trade.

The Deputy Director for Conservation in the Ministry of Environment Climate & Wildlife (MECW), Tendai Rudzo, said there was need for the lifting of the ban on the international trade of African Elephants.

“As regional members of the KAZA TfCA a common position is we need the ban on the international trade of African Elephants to be lifted. However we have different opinions and approaches from other African countries like North Africa, East Africa and West Africa who do not support the lifting of the ban.

The meeting to be held in Botswana will advocate for our plight, the topics to be discussed in the dialogue will include, sustainable financing for African Elephants conservation and management, disposal of ivory stock piles and permission to trade in live elephants,” he said.

A ban on International Trade of all African elephant ivory was effected by CITES in 1989 through an embargo when the Species was placed in Appendix1 ‘for animals threatened with extinction.’

KAZA partner states (Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe) should fully prepare and participate at the upcoming dialogue meeting in Botswana to develop a regional common position for the upcoming 20th Conference of Parties (COP20) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, Wild Fauna & Flora (CITES) to be held in Geneva, Switzerland in 2025.