The role of CITES in contributing to a legal, sustainable and traceable trade in Africa 25 June 2019

CITES International cooperation required to safeguard certain species from over-exploitation for international trade. CITES was conceived in the spirit of such cooperation. Agreement between countries – To regulate international trade in > 37 000 species of animals and plants listed in three Appendices, according to the degree of protection they need. 183 member countries to date Basic requirements: Authorities – Management and Scientific Authorities; Non-detriment Findings required; Compliance monitoring and enforcement

Trade must be responsible: Legal, sustainable, traceable Legal and sustainable international trade can be beneficial for conservation of wild species, livelihoods, economies… …illegal or unsustainable international trade can pose serious risks to biodiversity, people and businesses Regional preCoP, August2016

(legal trade – close to 1,5 M trade transactions per year) CITES Trade Records (legal trade – close to 1,5 M trade transactions per year)

Legend for the slides in the presentation.  Data for this and all but two of the subsequent slides are from the CITES trade database. Bubble sizes/numbers represent the CITES Appendix I & II export transactions from Africa in the period 2009-2018. We expand on the details of the transactions in subsequent slides. Records for 2018 not complete at time of preparing this presentation.   Colour codes Central – Rainforest Green Eastern – Laterite Clay North – Sahara Sands Southern – Kalahari sand West – African mahogany

TAXONOMIC GROUPS PER SUBREGION – in terms of number of transactions – southern Africa most transactions for animals and plants and trade seem to cover a diverse number of taxonomic groups…. In this and subsequent slides, animals are shown on the top pane, and plants on the bottom pane. These charts are known as treemaps — they show a breakdown of number of CITES (App I and II) export transactions by major taxon / group and by subregion.  Southern Africa clearly dominates in terms of number of export transactions processed. Although of course each transaction can contain from one to thousands of specimens, and weigh from less than a gram to many tonnes. Note that the total number of transactions for animals is considerably higher than the number for plants.

TRADE IN WILD SOURCED SPECIMENS – Emphasize the need for NDFs to ensure sustainability More than half of Southern Africa’s animal transactions are in wild mammals and reptiles, but captive bred birds, mammals and reptiles represent a substantial proportion of the total. Transactions of wild animals seem more prevalent in the other regions, although this is hard to tell from the chart due to the missing lables in some of the smaller boxes (labels can’t fit). This highlights the importance of NDFs – ensure the trade in wild specimens remain sustainable Artificially propagated and captive bred plants are the subject of the vast majority of plant transactions — with notable exceptions being wild succulents from Southern Africa and African Teak from Central Africa.

The dominance of Southern Africa we’ve seen in the last few slides diminishes considerably when we move from considering purely transactions to considering numbers of live specimens. For animals, West Africa — and Togo and Ghana in particular — emerge as a major exporter of live reptiles (predominantly pythons and monitor lizards) and live scorpions (Pandinus spp). When it comes to plants, it is Kenya and Tanzania in Eastern Africa that emergs as a major exporters — exporters of live cuttings of succulents, mostly of the cactus family. Virtually all cactuses only occur naturally in the Americas, but one genus, Rhipsalis, is actually native to Africa — and it is this one genus that is exported in largest numbers by Kenya and Tanzania , where it is artificially propagated and exported mostly to the Netherlands for use in the flower industry.

Different patterns also emerge when we look at exports by weight. Some 2,500 tonnes of eels – both live elvers and as meat were exported by three North African countries , Morocoo, Tunisia and Algeria in the last decade. Most of those went to Japan and Korea, although some also went to Spain and European countries. Over in the plant Kingdom, it is Central Africa that clearly dominates exports by weight, largely through the export of logs and sawn teak. When we looked at transactions, all regions appeared to be dwarfed by Southern Africa. Now we have seen that each of the other four African regions hold their own in the African Wildlife Economy. North African eels; Central African timber; Eastern African cuttings and West African live reptiles and scorpions. But these four have not outshined Southern Africa altogether yet. As we can see from the top chart, the trade in reptiles from southern Africa (crocodile meat and skins, mostly from South Africa and Zimbabwe) account for about half of the animals exported by weight. Mammals also are visible in the above chart — and that is thanks to sea lion skins and oil from Namibia.

This final slide shows the revenue accruing to individual countries This final slide shows the revenue accruing to individual countries. Cameroon has the lion share of the timber trade in Central Africa, with nearly $4bn, followed by Gabon with nearly $1bn. It’s worth noting that the DRC is missing from the chart, as it did not report to Comtrade. Ethiopia and Kenya led in East Africa in terms of revenue from plant cuttings, with over $300m each, with Uganda following at 250m and Tanzania at 190m . As for the Southern African crocodile trade, Zimbabwe led the way with 100 m, followed by South Africa with 63m.

Nile crocodile ranching in Kenya CITES & Livelihoods Nile crocodile ranching in Kenya Background Kenyan population downlisted to Appendix II for ranching in 1992 Local communities bear the cost of crocodile- human conflicts Benefits most important contribution of legal and sustainable trade to communities are financial, human and physical capital. communities also benefited in terms of skills and capacities Livelihood benefits are crucial to improved local attitudes toward crocodiles support for conservation of crocodiles and crocodile enterprises among local leadership and the County government also increased

African cherry - Cameroon Background Cameroon is the main source of African cherry bark trade from mainland Africa. Bark used internationally in the production of medicines that treat prostate problems High value: Bark extracts (6370-7225 kg) are worth an estimated $4.36 million per year. Unregulated collection of bark led to the risk of the species becoming endangered. Benefits Generated income for forest communities Broad awareness of the need for sustainable use of forest resources, community and individuals benefited from community infrastructure projects Scientific data collected to better conserve and manage the species.

Thank you!