Botswana Robbed In Ivory Sales?

Botswana was hoping its ivory stockpile would rake in a substantial amount, according to Gaborone based Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) desk officer Diana Chimidza. She told Monitor they were not expecting to get this much from the sales considering the expensive nature of wildlife conservation. " We had high expectations, especially from the Japanese bidders.

 "They were 20 companies from Japan. If you have so many competing you hope for stiffer competition, but it did not turn out like we had anticipated. Only seven of the Japanese bidders were active, while the rest were observers. We did not manage to up the prices as a result," Chimidza said in an interview on Friday.