We recognize the interests of the Kingdom of Swaziland and the complex issues of southern white rhino management, but with such high stakes for rhinos, we voted no on this proposal. The proposed actions would have come with tremendous risk and uncertainty, and we found the unknowns unacceptable.
With continuously high levels of rhino poaching and illegal trade in rhino horn, any opening of trade would be a dangerous experiment that could promote additional poaching and would come with significant enforcement challenges, allowing legal trade to serve as a cover for illegal trade.Experimenting with legal trade in rhino horn would be too risky, given the small population size of rhinos in Swaziland, the small and isolated populations in other countries, and the high level of rhino poaching throughout Africa. We believe commercialization of rhino horn would undermine conservation and enforcement efforts.
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe, head of the U.S. delegation to the 17th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES, regarding CoP17 Prop. 7 to alter the existing annotation on the Appendix II listing of Swaziland’s white rhino, adopted at the 13th Conference of Parties in 2004, so as to permit a limited and regulated trade in white rhino horn that has been collected in the past from natural deaths or recovered from poached Swazi rhino, as well as horn to be harvested in a non-lethal way from a limited number of white rhino in the future in Swaziland, proposed by Swaziland.
Photo by Roger Smith, (CC BY-NC 2.0)
We applaud the leadership and dedication of Kenya, Gabon, Chad, Botswana, and the many other proposing and supporting range states. Notwithstanding the fact that their proposal was defeated, elephants and elephant conservation have overwhelmingly won the day at this CoP. Their courage and passion have helped fuel a great series of successes.
All routes to opening legal ivory trade have been blocked. We’ve urged member nations to close domestic ivory markets that contribute to poaching or wildlife trafficking. We’ve strengthened provisions to identify and potentially sanction nations that are not taking adequate steps to stem this crisis.
However, the United States voted no, on this proposal, because it opened up the potential that member nations would take a reservation and use a victory on Appendix I uplisting as a back door to resume trade.
In fact, during discussion on the proposal, Namibia explicitly stated its intention to take a reservation.
We are unalterably opposed to resumption of commercial ivory trade, under any terms. Therefore, because of the risk it represented, we felt compelled to oppose a proposal that we would otherwise support.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe, head of the U.S. delegation to the 17th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES, regarding proposal CoP17 Prop. 16 to include all populations of African elephant in Appendix I of CITES through the transfer from Appendix II to Appendix I of the populations of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe, proposed by Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Chad, Ethiopia, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sri Lanka and Uganda.
Photo by Joe Milmoe, USFWS
CITES Parties have come to an agreement that will eliminate commercial trade in bones and products from wild lions, and we are pleased with that outcome. The suite of decisions adopted today will give range countries the necessary support to evaluate trade and work collaboratively on lion conservation plans and strategies. The United States, through the Endangered Species Act, has strong protections in place for African lions and we are committed to working with range countries and through international fora to ensure the future of this majestic species. As we have done in the U.S., we encourage all nations to consider adopting even more stringent domestic measures to protect lions.
U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe, head of the U.S. delegation to the 17th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to CITES
Photo from the Flickr stream of Dimitry B. shared under Creative Commons licensing
CITES Members Urged to Close Domestic Ivory Markets
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Media Contact:
Johannesburg, South Africa:
Danielle Kessler (Danielle_Kessler@fws.gov; +1 571-228-1803)
USA:
Laury Parramore (Laury_Parramore@fws.gov; 703-358-2541)
(Johannesburg, South Africa) Member nations of a key global wildlife trade treaty today delivered a critical victory in the battle to save elephants from the devastating impacts of ivory trafficking by agreeing to clamp down on the sale of ivory within their borders. The United States, which recently enacted its own unilateral restrictions on the sale of African elephant ivory, had called on the signatories to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) to take all necessary legislative, regulatory and enforcement efforts to close their domestic markets for commercial trade in raw and worked elephant ivory.
“The United States has taken strong actions to impose a near-total ban on elephant ivory import, export and domestic sale,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe, head of the U.S. delegation to the treaty’s 17th Conference of the Parties (CoP17) in Johannesburg, South Africa. “In September 2015, China committed to take similar actions. At this meeting, we’ve worked closely with Kenya and several other African elephant range states on this historic effort. The world is coming together on this issue and our goal now is to have all countries examine their domestic markets and take any and all actions necessary to ensure they are not contributing to ongoing poaching and illegal ivory trade.”
The illegal killing of elephants and trade in their ivory is a major problem across much of Africa. Poaching and illegal ivory trade threatens the survival of savanna and forest elephants, including those previously thought to be secure. Beyond the threat to the elephants themselves, this trade undermines the ecological integrity of African forest and savanna ecosystems, and it harms the sustainable economic development of local communities as well as elephant range states. Legal sales of ivory, including within domestic markets, increase the risk to elephant populations and local communities by creating a significant opportunity for the laundering of illegal ivory.
“Elephants are protected under CITES, but until each country with a domestic ivory market takes responsibility by enacting and enforcing strong laws to end the commercial trade in ivory, we won’t be able to staunch the hemorrhaging of ivory out of Africa into markets around the world,” said Ashe. “Ivory should not have value unless it’s attached to an elephant.”
CoP17 is taking place from Sept. 24 through Oct. 5, 2016. CITES is an international agreement initiated in 1973 and since ratified by 182 countries and the European Union to protect certain wild animals and plants against over-exploitation as a result of international trade. More than 35,000 species of animals and plants benefit from CITES protection. Every two to three years, a session of the CoP is held to review, discuss and decide on changes in the implementation of CITES, including changes in protections for certain species.
To learn more about the Service’s involvement in CITES, visit: https://www.fws.gov/international/cites/cop17.
View the Service’s “Choose Elephants Over Ivory” Flickr album at https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwshq/albums/72157668801328061.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service works with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. For more information, visit www.fws.gov, or connect with us through any of these social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube.
Photo from the Flickr stream of Peter Steward shared under Creative Commons licensing
Strongest CITES Protections Signal Hopeful Future for African Grey Parrots
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact:
Johannesburg, South Africa:
Danielle Kessler (Danielle_Kessler@fws.gov; +1 571-228-1803)
USA:
Laury Parramore (Laury_Parramore@fws.gov; 703-358-2541)
(Johannesburg, South Africa) - African grey parrots are being loved to death. Their intelligence and longevity make them popular as pets, and overharvest for the pet trade is devastating populations in the wild. Fortunately, nations gathered at the world’s largest and most important wildlife trade conference today handed these birds a lifeline by granting them increased protections under a global treaty called the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). CITES member nations, referred to as “Parties,” voted to increase protections for grey parrots in a proposal co-sponsored by the United States.
“Increased CITES protections come not a minute too soon for African grey parrots,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe, head of the U.S. delegation to the treaty’s 17th Conference of the Parties (CoP17) in Johannesburg, South Africa. “During the past 25 years, more than 1.5 million wild African greys have been taken from their native habitats, making them one of the most traded of all CITES-listed parrots.”
The Johannesburg vote moves the parrots from Appendix II of the convention to Appendix I, the most restrictive of the CITES designations, which prohibits international commercial trade. Leading up to and during this meeting, the United States worked closely with a coalition of countries committed to gaining support for the Appendix I-listing proposal. The proposal, submitted by Angola, Chad, the European Union, Gabon, Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal, Togo and the United States, was adopted in a vote with 95 countries in support, 35 opposed, and 5 abstentions.
Thriving wild populations of the African grey parrot were once widespread throughout west and central Africa. However, CITES Appendix II protections were insufficient to control the pet trade demand, which, combined with deforestation for timber, fuelwood and agricultural expansion, has caused the species to be eliminated from much of its West African range. Today, the largest populations are now found only in central Africa.
Today’s vote still needs to be finalized at a session later in the week, but Ashe is confident the strength of the science supporting the Appendix I listing will ensure the protections will be upheld.
CoP17 is taking place from Sept. 24 through Oct. 5, 2016. CITES is an international agreement initiated in 1973 and since agreed to by 182 countries and the European Union to protect certain wild animals and plants against over-exploitation as a result of international trade. More than 35,000 species of animals and plants benefit from CITES protection. Every two to three years, a session of the CoP is held to review, discuss and decide on changes in the implementation of CITES, including changes in protections for certain species.
Species protected by CITES fall under one of three appendices. Appendix I includes species threatened with extinction and provides the greatest level of protection, including restrictions on commercial trade. Appendix II includes species that, although currently not threatened with extinction, may become so without trade controls. Changes to Appendices I and II must be proposed at a CoP and agreed to by a two-thirds majority of the parties present and voting. In contrast, listings to Appendix III can be requested by individual parties at any time. Appendix III includes species protected by at least one country that needs assistance from other parties to control trade.
VIDEO: Produced by Cornell Lab of Ornithology available at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfXxh0Eff_w
PHOTOS are available for select CITES CoP17 species at
https://www.flickr.com/photos/usfwshq/albums/72157673776718036
Please credit photos as noted in associated captions.
To learn more about the Service’s involvement in CITES CoP17, visit: https://www.fws.gov/international/cites/cop17.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service works with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. For more information, visit www.fws.gov, or connect with us through any of these social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube.
