A global wildlife summit, CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species), has come to a standing resolution to regulate international trade in giraffes and a range of shark species and tighten protections for elephants, otters, and other endangered species.
Following a 12-day meeting in Geneva that was wrapped up yesterday 28/8/2019, parties to Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) affirmed to a long line of proposals to tighten protections especially on endangered wildlife.
The Geneva meeting for the first time decided to list giraffes in its Annex II, thus requiring tracking and regulation to ensure all trade of the species is sustainable, amid a feared “silent extinction” of the gentle giants.
The African giraffe population has decreased by an estimated 40 percent over the past three decades, to just under 100,000 animals as according figures available to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).
Giraffes have especially been hard-hit by habitat loss, but with their vote, the delegates representing more than 180 countries have acknowledged that international trade in skins, horns, hooves, and bones are contributing to their decline.
The treaty that created more than four decades ago, regulates trade in over 35,000 species of plants and animals and contains mechanisms to help crack down on illegal trade and sanction countries that break the rules.
At the summit, delegates also decided to add 18 species of rays and sharks, including the mako — the fastest shark in the ocean and three sea cucumber species which have all been put in Annex II. Protections to endangered species of Asian otters that have come increasingly been under pressure amid a social-media fueled craze for acquiring the silky mammals as pets were also put up.
The Asian small-clawed otter and the smooth-coated otter were both moved from Annex II to Annex I, meaning all international trade will be banned. These species had already been on the CITES radar.
The guest countries also voted through a near-total ban on sending African elephants captured from the wild to captive facilities like zoos.
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