Members of the Pro Elephant Network have written a letter to the President of Zimbabwe, the Endangered Species Import and Export Management Office of the People’s Republic of China in Beijing, the Legal Officer at CITES, the Secretary General of CITES, the chairperson of the African Union, the IUCN SSC African Elephant Specialist Group, the Co-Chairs of the African Elephant Coalition.
PLEASE FIND A COPY OF THE FULL LETTER HERE:
The PREN experts have been reliably informed and are deeply concerned about the imminent capture of young elephants for export from Zimbabwe to captive locations abroad.
The PREN experts call on the relevant authorities to immediately suspend any plans to capture live elephants for export.
The decision that “only appropriate and acceptable destinations for live elephants exported from Zimbabwe or Botswana should be in-situ conservation programmes or secure areas in the wild, within the species natural and historical range in Africa, except in exceptional circumstances where, in consultation with the Animals Committee, through its Chair with the support of the Secretariat and in consultation with the IUCN African Elephant Specialist Group , it is considered that a transfer to ex-situ locations will provide demonstrable in-situ conservation benefits for African elephants or in the case of temporary transfer in emergency situations” was taken at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) CoP18 meeting in Geneva in 2019. This decision was supported backed by a coalition of African nations and the European Union, this decision must be respected.
Image Credit: Hwange National Park
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