New Delhi: Elephant experts are concerned at the unprecedented rise of African ivory seizures globally in recent months. There are apprehensions that the ivory black market is heating up as ivory dealers in China and Japan await news of stock pile sales by some African nations.

The decision on the sale of ivory stockpiles could come as early as October 2006, at the Standing Committee meeting of the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in Geneva.

Though CITES had banned the elephant ivory trade in 1989, one-off sale of ivory stock piles from Nambia, Botswana, and South Africa was allowed, if specific trade and enforcement protocols are met. Experts now fear that this scheme might fuel illegal poaching for ivory in Africa.

In response to this, wildlife management authorities and experts from 19 African states discussed at a three-day symposium on August 24 in Accra, organized by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).

The meeting focused on strengthening elephant conservation measures in West, East and Central Africa.

Experts said that their population is most depleted in these regions due to widespread poaching for bush-meat and ivory besides habitat degradation and human-elephant conflicts.

Michael Wamithi, IFAW’s Elephant Programme Manager in Kenya who had attended the symposium said, “West and Central Africa’s small elephant populations can not absorb the levels of poaching we have seen. The stockpile sale scheme needs to be abolished immediately, or we risk losing some of the world’s most unique elephant populations – forever.”

“Today, only three percent of Africa’s elephant population can be found in small fragmented habitats of the region.” he said.