GABARONE (AFP) — Botswana auctioned 44 tonnes of ivory Friday to buyers from China to Japan at a luxurious resort, officials said, in a closed-door sale expected to rake in millions of dollars.
The auction is the second sale of elephant tusks this week approved by CITES, the international convention that governs trade in endangered species, after Namibia on Tuesday sold more than seven tonnes of ivory for 1.1 million dollars.
Botswana's wildlife ministry conducted the invitation-only sale at the prestigious Phakalane Resort, but officials declined to give any details of the auction.
The ministry's deputy permanent secretary Edmont Moabi said a statement would be issued later.
Based on the results of Namibia's auction, Botswana was expected to earn several million dollars, which CITES requires the country to invest in elephant conservation programmes.
About 108 tonnes of tusks are going on the block around in four southern African countries, in a once-off sale to China and Japan approved by CITES in July.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) approved the auctions -- the first in nearly a decade -- to sell off tusks from government stocks only to buyers from China and Japan.
While elephant populations in many parts of Africa have been decimated by poaching, CITES says that herds in Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe are healthy.
The four countries are home to 312,000 elephants, and their stocks of tusks came from natural deaths or the culling of herds to keep the population under control.
Some conservationists have raised concerns that the sudden arrival of so much legal ivory on the market could make it easier for poachers to slip their ill-gotten wares past regulators.
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