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Supporting the Development of
a Free Trade Area
In 2000, RCSA supported a forum where the
Southern African Development Community (SADC) set the date
(September 2000) for implementation of a SADC Free Trade Area
(FTA). Botswana, Lesotho, Mauritius, South Africa and Swaziland
have submitted implementation instruments; the FTA is in effect
for trade among these countries. When the FTA is in place
for all countries, it will function as a single integrated
market of 200 million people instead of 14 small fragmented
markets.
RCSA’s support over the past four years was
instrumental in this development. RCSA became involved in
negotiations in 1996, when South Africa was threatening to
pull out of the process. USAID realized that one of the main
impediments to successful negotiations was that most countries
lacked the technical expertise to convince decision makers
to include the private sector as a partner in the negotiations.
USAID efforts are credited with the ratification of the trade
protocol that established the basis for the creation of the
Free Trade Area.
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Support to the Ivory Tracking Initiative
Conservation of wildlife is the most visible
natural resource management issue confronting Southern African
nations. Elephants, valued for their ivory and tourist appeal,
are a primary issue. Southern African governments have done
an effective job of controlling poaching and believe that
selling the ivory is preferable to random culling with no
economic benefit. They want local citizens to share some of
the economic benefits of conservation and aspire to even higher
levels of voluntary compliance. In contrast, western nations
fear that permitting the sale of ivory will result in a return
to widespread poaching because of the inability to control
the source and origin of ivory.
In 1992, RCSA funded the development of a
comprehensive ivory tracking system. The Bad Ivory Database
(BIDS) has the endorsement of CITES (the Convention on International
Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) and has
been monitoring seizures of illegal ivory since 1991. The
new system also traces the source and origin of ivory from
the animal to its ultimate destination. The efficient functioning
of this system was instrumental in the decision by CITES to
allow Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe to sell ivory stocks
in 1998.
USAID funds assisted the Wildlife departments
in these countries to install computer-based tracking systems.
The systems track the ivory from initial harvest to storage.
Data are verified and readily available for regional and international
inspection. The system is establishing a sound basis for extending
a verifiable accountability system to other wildlife species
throughout Southern Africa. Comparisons of elephant herds
between nations are now possible, providing data to further
facilitate transboundary conservation of wildlife.
The BIDS system has now become the Elephant
Trade Information System, an even more sophisticated monitoring
tool with a number of component databases, including information
on seizures of ivory worldwide since 1989. Other databases
hold information on law enforcement efforts, legal trade in
elephant products, legal domestic ivory and elephant product
markets in range states and consumer nations.
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Promoting Industrial Uses for Cassava
In Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia, a "root
crops revolution" is underway. RCSA’s assistance to the
Southern African Root Crops Research Network (SARRNET) has
supported networking of farmers, industry and researchers
and generated basic information to help researchers produce
high-yielding, industrial quality varieties of sweet potato
and cassava.
When production increased, industry responded.
The wood, textile, foods, manufacturing and milling industries
in Malawi are currently using about 21,000 metric tons of
cassava flour (equal to about 63,000 metric tons of fresh
cassava). This use could double in the next three years. Cassava
is being used as a low-cost substitute for corn starch or
wheat flour. At the macro level, cassava and sweet potato
are contributing over 30 percent to the national food balance
sheet in Malawi.
Farmers’ incomes have increased significantly
from sales to industry. With income from cassava sales, they
are purchasing bicycles, livestock and fertilizer and expanding
the area they allocate to rootcrops. Chidazi Kateka of Malawi
is one example. After the 1997/98 season, he sold his first
crop of cassava (12 metric tons from 0.8 hectares) for US$1,062.
He was able to build a modern house with burnt bricks and
iron sheets from this one season’s crop.
(For related information, read the Success
Story: Malawi report on Linking Cassava
Farmers with an Industrial Market)
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