CHAPTER 7 - THE AFRICAN CONVENTION ON THE CONSERVATION OF NATURE AND NATURAL RESOURCES

Summary

“We are the fire which burns the country. The calf of the elephant is exposed on the plain.”

(Bantu saying)

Background

The first international agreement to conserve African wildlife was signed in London on 19 May 1900. It was called the Convention for the Preservation of Wild Animals, Birds and Fish in Africa. It was signed by the colonial powers then governing much of Africa – France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Portugal and Spain – and its objective was “to prevent the uncontrolled massacre and to ensure the conservation of diverse wild animal species in their African possessions which are useful to man or inoffensive.” As long ago as 1900 the teeming herds of African wild animals were starting to diminish, and the primary goal of the Convention was to preserve a good supply of game for trophy hunters, ivory traders and skin dealers.

The 1900 Convention prohibited the killing of all specimens of species listed in Table 1 of the Convention and “all other animals which each local government judges necessary to protect, either because of their usefulness or because of their rarity and danger of disappearance.” Table 1 was divided into Series A (“useful animals”) and Series B (“animals that are rare and in danger of disappearance”). Series A contained the secretary bird and all vultures, owls and oxpeckers. Series B consisted of “giraffe, gorillas, chimpanzee, mountain zebra, wild asses, white tailed gnu and pygmy hippopotamus.”