Saturday, 26 July 2014

CITES list of shame reaches almost 20 countries

Eleven more countries have been added to CITES original list of eight countries they have highlighted as needing to do more to protect elephants and end the illegal ivory trade crossing into their borders.

CITES have now called on Angola, Cambodia, Cameroon, Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gabon, The Lao PDR, Mozambique and Nigeria to develop national action plans to protect both elephants and rhinos:

They join China, Kenya, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Uganda, Tanzania and Vietnam, and bring the total number of countries on CITES list of shame to 19.

However some of these countries have already started to act and install action plans. For example, since 2013, there has been a clear increase in the number of seizures made in Africa, with 80 per cent of large-scale ivory seizures occurring in Kenya, Uganda, and the United Republic of Tanzania. However Thailand is still to show any improvement and officials have them given till March 31st ,2015 to put in place changes to national laws and regulations to control its legal domestic ivory trade or face sanctions.

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