A historic win for African elephants has been delivered in Geneva, Switzerland on 18 August. The first vote was taken to end the practice of removing live elephants from the wild for export to captive facilities, at the 18th meeting of the The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Conference of the Parties.
CITES is the UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.
Audrey Delsink, director of wildlife for Humane Society International/Africa and an elephant biologist, said, “the export of live wild elephants serves no credible conservation purpose and is opposed by numerous elephant biologists. Elephants are highly intelligent, social animals with strong family bonds.
“The capture of baby elephants is horribly cruel and traumatic to both the mothers, their calves and their herds that are left behind. Calves suffer psychological and physical harm when taken from their mothers.
“Zoos and other captive facilities force these calves to live in an unnatural, unhealthy environment that does not meet their complex needs.”
CITES parties voted to limit trade in live wild African elephants to “in situ” conservation in their natural habitats, which will end the trade in live wild elephants to captivity in zoos and entertainment venues, effectively ruling them unacceptable and inappropriate destinations.
Forty-six countries voted in favour, 18 voted against and 19 countries abstained.
This achieved the 2/3 majority for the proposal to pass in committee.
Iris Ho, senior wildlife specialist for wildlife programs and policy for Humane Society International, said, “this decision will save countless elephants from being ripped away from their families in the wild and forced to spend their lifetimes imprisoned in substandard conditions at zoos.
“HSI applauds this decision and calls on all Parties to affirm this decision at the plenary session next week.”
The decision applies to the elephants in Botswana and Zimbabwe with elephant populations on Appendix II of CITES, which has an annotation that permits this trade to “appropriate and acceptable destinations.”
Zimbabwe has captured and exported more than 100 baby elephants to Chinese zoos since 2012. These calves, severely traumatized by being torn from their mothers, were abused through violent handling that included being kicked and beaten, and several have consequently died.
Image source: Pixabay
