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EU risks stalling progress on wildlife protections at global conference

By Tracy Keeling - The Canary The World Wildlife Conference began on 14 November. In it, nations will make decisions that determine the fate of numerous species. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora’s (CITES) conference of the parties (CoP19) runs to 25 November. Elephant protections are high on the agenda, with a number of African nations calling for increased protections for them from trade. The European Union has, however, positioned itself as an obstacle to progress on one such elephant-related proposal....

Battle lines drawn over the future of elephants

By Don Pinnock - Daily Maverick Are elephants global treasures in urgent need of protection, or a commodity on the world market? According to positions being taken at the UN wildlife trade organisation Cites meeting in Panama, they cannot be both. This week, 183 countries at the Cites Congress of Parties (CoP) meeting in Panama will consider more than 100 proposals on the trade and protection of wild animals and plants. High on the agenda are elephants and sparks are sure to fly. In 1980, the African elephant population was estimated at 1.3 million. Following a census in 2015, only 415,428...

Africa is not a country: Europe’s neo-colonial attitude to the protection of African elephants

By Rosie Awori Next week, the 184 Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) will meet to discuss the future of wildlife. The 19th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES (CoP19) will take place in Panama City from November 14th to 25th. As usual, the discussions are likely to be fractious between pro-trade and pro-conservation Parties – and no species issue will polarise the debate more than the African elephant. Once again, Europe’s one-sided approach will exacerbate an already difficult situation facing the survival of...

EU backtracks: Once again, it supports the export of baby elephants out of Africa

By Adam Cruise, Keith Lindsay and Anna Zangger Three years ago, at the 18th Conference of the Parties of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES CoP18) in Geneva in 2019, the European Union, in agreement with most African elephant range states, committed to a strict restriction of the live trade of elephants. This led to a decisive vote by the CITES Parties to limit the trade from some of the key exporting African countries to in situ conservation programmes or secure areas in the wild and within the species’ natural and historical range. In...