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European Union Vote at CITES Guarantees More Elephants Will Die

European Union Vote at CITES Guarantees More Elephants Will Die

 

The European Union (EU) voting block of 28 nations killed a proposal to list all African elephants on Appendix 1 at the current Conference of the Parties meeting of CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora).

Appendix 1gives the highest protection possible for elephants. If passed, the measure would have uplisted elephant protections from Appendix 2, that allows domestic slaughter of elephants and trade in their ivory. The EU vote snubbed the elephant-friendly African Elephant Coalition comprising 30 African nations among other nations that supported the increased protections.

The result is that South Africa, Namibia, and Zimbabwe will continue to list elephants under Appendix 2 with elephants in those countries killed for their ivory ostensibly for the domestic market. This legal yet morally reprehensible commercialization of elephant lives will continue to provide cover for poached ivory that has killed at least 144,000 elephants in less than a decade, plus an estimated one thousand African park rangers murdered by poachers during the last ten years.

While last week’s CITES vote showed some encouraging action in elephant protection by rejecting the re-opening of ivory trade for some African nations, this week’s vote is a further death sentence for wild elephants of Africa.

Read more here.

 

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