"Elephants need water, but people also need water," said Zimbabwean president Robert Mugabe in his opening remarks to the CITES meeting. "Every creature must exist in its own way. For developing countries, natural resources give us hope for future development," he said in encouraging the shifting of the elephant to the less protected level of Appendix Ⅱ.
「大象要喝水，人也要喝水」，辛巴威總統穆加比在會議開幕致詞說，「每一物種必需以自己的方式生存，對發展中國家，自然資源給我們往前發展的希望」，他催促各國將大象在保育名錄上降級。