Kazakhstan’s push to lift saiga trade ban meets strong global resistance at CITES meet

New Delhi: Kazakhstan wants the moratorium on commercial international trade on the Saiga antelope, an icon of the Eurasian steppe, to be lifted.

However, scientists, conservationists, environmentalists, wildlife activists and animal lovers strongly feel that lifting the ban may not be a wise step without putting an effective scientific management system in place both in export as well as import countries.

Mongolia has also come out with a statement rejecting the proposal.

At the on-going 20th meeting of the Conference of the Parties of the Convention of International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) which is being held till December 5 in Samarkand (Uzbekistan), Kazakhstan has proposed a revised annotation to read as, “Zero export quota for wild specimens traded for commercial purposes, except for specimens from population Saiga taratica of Kazakhstan”.

The revised annotation, Kazakhstan underlines, would be to restore the economic value of Saiga through the introduction of sustainable use of mechanisms. It also says the move will help meet the existing demand for Saiga horns and reduce poaching pressure.

The Saiga population has shown stable growth; it apparently reached 2.8 million individuals in 2024, which is a significant number compared to other ungulate species in the country. One of the reasons, the government claims, is the country’s protection and restoration programmes of the Saiga.

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However, since the history of Saiga shows “extreme fluctuations” in population growth, Susan Lieberman, vice president (International Policy) of the New York-based NGO Wildlife Conservation Society, feels governments should be cautious, since reopening the commercial trade in Saiga horn could threaten the endangered population in Mongolia.

Saiga has gone through various phases since the early 20th century, from uncontrolled hunting for Saiga horns and their meat to overhunting and licensed killing. In fact, the vicious cycle of targeted poaching of male Saigas for their horns caused a drastic imbalance in the Saiga sex ratio and skewed the population. There have also been disease outbreaks which caused catastrophic decline in numbers.

Dr Lieberman is emphatic, “The Saiga population has increased but we are deeply concerned about the lack of a Saiga antelope national adaptive management plan in Kazakhstan, transparent reporting, including proposed offtakes, science based quotas, and stockpile management in Kazakhstan and importing countries.

“Kazakhstan needs to first build an effective national management plan, understand and be cautious in terms of the status of the species, particularly because saga antelope is a species whose population experiences what biologists call boom and bust. China and other consumer countries should declare their stockpiles they have and how they manage these,” stresses Dr Lieberman.

While rejecting the proposal, the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) has emphasised that it would be “extremely risky” if the ban is lifted, as it would threaten Mongolia’s population. In addition, “stockpile management is weak in both range and consumer States, and any opening of trade should not be considered by CITES until the stockpile management systems across the species range and in the major consumer States are operational and transparent,” says WCS.

A social media video footage shows the gruesome and harrowing ways of killing of Saigas. It shows herds of Saigas being chased by individuals on foot as well as motorbikes. They are driven into a place enclosed with nets, and as the Saigas run helter-skelter to escape, some fall down and lie on the ground exhausted. Then, some people come and slit their throats. There is also footage of piles of entrails left discarded in the steppe.

According to a report of zakon.kz, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources, Yerlan Nysanbayev, at a press conference on June 25, said that 8,00,000 Saigas could be removed from the wild and packed off to the meat processing plants.

The report quotes the minister as saying that, “As of today, the official figure based on the spring census is 3.9 million head. Of these, 2.3 million are from the Ural population, 1.6 million from the Betpak-Dala population, and a small population of almost 78,000 is our Ustyurt population. Therefore, we’ll base the figure on a figure of approximately 4 million. 3,978,000 is the final figure today. This means we need to cull approximately 8,00,000.” According to him, 20 per cent of the population could be removed without risking a decline in numbers, the report added.

“The proposed plan of Kazakhstan for the mass slaughter of 800,000 Saiga antelopes for meat, and to sell their horns to other Asian countries, needs retrospection from an ethical and ecological perspective. Such a large-scale killing plan needs foremost re-thinking on whether it is necessary. Whether such a large-scale killing is likely to have an impact on the male and female ratio for future population built up to keep the species alive and at a lower threat level,” said Dr Bibhab Kumar Talukdar, Secretary General of Aaranyak, a wildlife conservation NGO based in Guwahati, in the state of Assam in India.

“While killing of any species, the decision lies with the concerned government as per their legal statute, but international trade shall attract the provisions of the CITES,” underscored Dr Talukdar, who has been actively following the illegal wildlife trade issues.

Mongolia, as a range state for Saiga borealis, a genetically and geographically isolated subspecies found exclusively in the country and listed as Critically Endangered under national law, has rejected Kazakhstan’s proposal and officially expressed serious concern.

The government of Mongolia has taken the stand that it remains committed to regional collaboration for Saiga conservation and supports trade decisions that are “science-based, precautionary, and enforceable. As currently formulated, the proposed amendment does not meet these standards and presents unacceptable risks to vulnerable Saiga populations and regional enforcement systems”.

As a key concern, the Government of Mongolia has stated that the proposal lacks alignment with the CITES precautionary requirements criteria. It argues that while the proposal refers to the principle of sustainable use, “it lacks supporting evidence that legal trade would reduce poaching or benefit conservation. Global experience with other high-value wildlife products such as ivory, rhino horn, and pangolin scales shows that legal trade can stimulate consumer demand and complicate enforcement, particularly where illegal supply chains are entrenched”.

The Government of Mongolia has categorically stated that it cannot support the proposed amendment unless Kazakhstan first provides clear evidence that all regulatory control systems, such as traceability, stockpile oversight, isotopic origin verification, and coordination of enforcement with both consumer and transit countries, are fully implemented and subject to independent verification.

“This is essential to ensure that the trade does not contribute to poaching and illegal trade of any Saiga population,” according to Mongolia’s statement.

It underlines that Mongolia will not allow its territory to be used for the transit of saga horns or derivatives. “No legal trade in Saiga horns or derivatives should be permitted to transit through Mongolian territory.”

Also, it is emphatic that Kazakhstan should commit to processing Saiga horns into finished products domestically and limit exports to those forms, not raw materials.

Mongolia has stated that a CITES-led intersessional working group should be established to assess trade feasibility, risks, and necessary safeguards across the range and consumer States.

Finally, it has been said that continued engagement under the CMS Saiga MoU and Central Asian Mammals Initiative (CAMI) is essential to ensure decisions benefiting one population do not jeopardise others, especially Saiga borealis.