Zimbabwe has suspended the sale of its stockpile of nine tonnes of ivory to dealers for as long as no proper monitoring system has been put in place, officials said Monday.
The halt in ivory trade on the southern African country's local market will remain in place until a committee finishes drafting a working document to be used as a guide, based on international regulations, said National Parks spokesman Edward Mbewe.
"We have suspended the sale of ivory to all dealers with immediate effect," Mbewe told AFP.
"The selling of ivory used to be done by us (National Parks), but this new structure will result in setting up independent structures which will be able to coordinate monitored sales under Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) structures."
International trade in ivory has been banned since 1989, following a massive surge in illegal poaching that cut down elephant populations sharply in the 1970s and 1980s.
Ivory trading is controlled in Zimbabwe under the 1997 United Nations CITES regulations which state that only ivory from elephants that have died from natural causes can be traded.
Under the CITES agreement, Zimbabwe is only allowed to sell locally to carvers but is not allowed to exceed 500 dollars (396 euros) per person, while any international trade is regulated and has to be sanctioned by CITES, Mbewe said.
"We feel that our ivory is really cheap which has impacted negatively on the industry," he said.
"Since the ivory is cheap this might influence the conduct of some of our dealers, so the committee has to address these problems before any sale resumes."
In July last year, Zimbabwean authorities arrested two Chinese nationals for trafficking in ivory after 72 tusks valued at 55,000 dollars were uncovered.
Parks officials complained that due to the flourishing illegal ivory market in mostly China, Taiwan and Singapore, some of Zimbabwe's ivory finds its way to the Far East.
Zimbabwe has in recent years been grappling with a ballooning elephant population, with 100,000 elephants inhabiting forests that can accommodate 45,000.
