Zimbabwe is seeking international support to be allowed to sell its stockpile of seized ivory, saying the 600 million US dollars it expects to earn is urgently needed for the conservation of its rapidly growing elephant population which it describes as “dangerous”.
Officials from the Zimbabwe National Parks and Wildlife Management Authority showed ambassadors from European Union countries the stockpile of ivory tusks that have been seized from poachers and collected from elephants that have died.
The Zimbabwean officials appealed to the European Union and other countries to support the sale of ivory which has been banned since 1989 by Cites, the international body that monitors endangered species.
Zimbabwe has 163,000 tons of ivory and 67 tons of rhino horn, said Fulton Mangwanya.
Envoys from the Netherlands, Germany, France, Britain, Switzerland, Canada and the United States viewed the ivory tusks in heavily guarded vaults in Harare.
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