Kenya joins African Countries in Cop 18

Kenya joins Senegal, Chad , Mali and Nigel with a strong proposal to the CITES Eighteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties Colombo (Sri Lanka), 23 May – 3 June 2019.
Full proposal https://cites.org/sites/default/files/eng/cop/18/prop/020119_d/E-CoP18-Prop_draft-Giraffa-camelopardalis.pdf to have Giraffe ( Giraffa camelopardalis )on Appendix II . The species also meets Criterion B of Resolution Conf. 9.24 (Rev. CoP17), Annex 2a: “It is known, or can be inferred or projected, that regulation of trade in the species is required to ensure that the harvest of specimens from the wild is not reducing the wild population to a level at which its survival might be threatened by continued harvesting or other influences.” In 2016, the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species updated its assessment of Giraffa camelopardalis to “Vulnerable,” citing an ongoing population decline between 36% and 40% over the last 30 years or three generations.
According to the proposal the species has faced a precipitous population decline and given the animal’s low reproductive output, could decline further very rapidly. Giraffes have historically been sought for their hair, tails, medicinal and magical purposes but more recently have been increasingly hunted and poached for bushmeat . Taking these factors together “regulation of trade in the species is required to ensure that the harvest of specimens from the wild is not reducing the wild population to a level at which its survival might be threatened by continued harvesting or other influences.”
In the second proposal, Kenya co-sponsor that Sea cucumbers, also named holothurians on Appendix II, other countries joining Kenya includes European Union, Senegal, Seychelles and United States of America. Sea cucumbers, also named holothurians, play an important role in the Indo-Pacific region among the many invertebrates that are fished since more than a thousand year Their exploitation has risen for the last 25 years and is filling growing international markets seeking for sea cucumbers are part of the most fished and poached Holothurians in the tropical Indo-pacific region full proposal and justification https://cites.org/sites/default/files/eng/cop/18/prop/020119_d/E-CoP18-Prop_draft-Holothuria-fuscogilva_H-nobilis_H-whitmaei.pdf
Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, Kenya, Liberia, Nigeria, Sudan, Syria and Togo jointly continue with a proposal seeking Transfer of the elephant populations of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe from App. II to App. I. The proposal seeks to list all African elephants populations in Appendix I in order to offer maximum protection under CITES in the face of the ongoing threat posed by the unsustainable demand from the ivory trade, the uncertainty of the impact of that trade on the species across its range, and the enforcement problems that current split-listing may create. Elephant populations in all regions of the species’ range have experienced ongoing intense pressure from ivory poachers and depredations by criminal syndicates in recent years as evidenced by population declines and repeated high annual levels of poaching and ivory seizure indices. Full proposal https://cites.org/sites/default/files/eng/cop/18/prop/020119_d/E-CoP18-Prop_draft-Loxodonta-africana-uplisting.pdf

Cde, Jim Justus Nyamu- Executive Director Elephant Neighbors Center