TRAFFIC and the WWF hosted workshops last month in collaboration with the Chinese government and supported by the governments of SA and Mozambique respectively. The workshops have helped raise awareness among Chinese nationals working and living in both countries of regulations protecting wildlife and support international efforts to reduce demand for threatened wildlife products.

The two events, in Johannesburg and Maputo, were supported by China’s State Forestry Administration (SFA), China Customs, National Forestry Police, the Chinese embassies in SA and Mozambique and the China International Contractors Association (CHINCA). The SFA is China’s Management Authority for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES MA).

About 200,000 Chinese nationals live in Johannesburg, SA’s largest city and an important economic and financial gateway to the rest of southern Africa. Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, is the main trade port linking East Africa to the rest of the world.

Against a backdrop of rising economic and trade exchange between Africa and China, Chinese citizens have been implicated in a number of cases of poaching and smuggling of African ivory, rhino horn and other endangered wildlife products. Such cases undermine China’s international reputation and wildlife conservation efforts in Africa.

About 70 Chinese nationals from state-owned enterprises, private business and local residences in Mozambique and 60 in SA attended the respective workshops, where representatives from the Chinese CITES MA, China Customs and National Forestry Police spoke about wildlife protection and management laws in China, CITES regulations and recent smuggling cases in order to discourage local Chinese nationals from buying and carrying ivory and other endangered wildlife products to China from Africa.

Su Jian, the Chinese ambassador to Mozambique, said about 70% of reported cases involving Chinese nationals are illegal timber and wildlife smuggling related, which damaged Chinese nationals’ and the country’s reputation. He requested local Chinese enterprises and working staff not take ownership of or engage in smuggling of prohibited products including wildlife. This workshop is a great opportunity for Chinese enterprises and the community to join in wildlife protection efforts.

Last month, two Chinese nationals convicted of illegally possessing 706 ivory tusks were each sentenced to 30 years in jail or the option to pay a fine of TZS54.7-billion (US$25m) by a district court in Tanzania.

TRAFFIC spoke about trends in African elephant and rhino poaching and the associated illegal ivory and rhino horn trades. TRAFFIC noted that those convicted of wildlife crimes face harsh penalties in many African countries. Kenya, Tanzania and Ethiopia have all recently strengthened their penalties. In 2014, Mozambique increased its maximum penalties to $90,000 or up to 12 years in jail.

China has taken action too: earlier this year, the SFA announced the extension of bans on ivory imports and a new one on the import of pre-CITES ivory. The three bans will last to the end of 2019. Last September China and the US announced a joint commitment to tackle illegal international ivory trade. Li Nan, a project manager with WWF, spoke about China’s efforts to support wildlife conservation in Africa under the framework of the Forum on China Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) and China’s “One Belt One Road” strategy. Zhang Xiang, Deputy Secretary General of the CICA, emphasised that Chinese corporations should take their social and environment responsibility in Africa seriously and introduced a document on guidance for Chinese enterprise business practices in Africa.

Zhang Shanning, the Enforcement Division Chief of China’s CITES MA, said that wildlife conservation is a cause for mankind shared by the international community while China stands alongside the international community to combat illegal wildlife trade and the country’s overseas citizens should take their responsibility to comply with CITES and relevant national legislation seriously.

“We are coming from afar to Africa to deliver a simple but firm message to Chinese people here: do not engage in illegal wildlife trade,” said Zhou Fei, Head of TRAFFIC’s China office. “If the crime and the demand that fuels it doesn’t end, then attempts to save Africa’s wildlife will be in vain,” he added.

Another highlight is the Mozambique Branch of China Road and Bridge Corporation and the South African branch of SinohydroGroup respectively making pledges to “refuse illegal wildlife trade” by representing other Chinese enterprises presented in the two workshops.

Up to 30,000 African elephants have been poached annually in recent years, mainly in central and eastern Africa, while rhino poaching has skyrocketed. SA, home to about 80% of Africa’s estimated 25,000 rhinos, has seen poaching rise from 13 animals as recently as 2007 to a record 1,215 in 2014. Continent-wide, a record 1,338 were poached in 2015.

This was the fourth communications workshop of its kind jointly conducted by TRAFFIC and the SFA after the first one held in Kenya in January 2014.

(The story was originally published on Business Day on May 4th, 2016.)