CAPE TOWN, June 24 (ANA) – Ensuring that African elephants are protected is a high priority for 29 African countries meeting in Montreux, Switzerland, said the African Elephant Coalition (AEC).
The AEC consists of 29 African countries and several partner organisations including the Swiss based Fondation Franz Weber, Uganda Wildlife Authority and Kenyan Wildlife Services.
Countries within the AEC include Benin, Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Southern Sudan.
The AEC meets from June 24 – 26 in Montreux, Switzerland ahead of the 17th Conference of the Parties (CoP17) of CITES (the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) scheduled to take place later in the year in Johannesburg, South Africa.
The AEC submitted five proposals to CITES in April this year and the proposals seek a ban on the ivory trade which, the AEC said in a statement, would include "the closure of domestic ivory markets, the destruction of ivory stockpiles, ending the Decision-Making Mechanism for legalizing trade in ivory, and limiting the export of wild, live African elephants to conservation projects in their natural habitat".
The coalition on Thursday said: "The proposals would put an end to the ivory trade and afford elephants the highest protection under international law".
The AEC noted that at the height of elephant poaching from 2010 to 2012, statistics revealed that at least 100,000 elephants were killed for their ivory tusks, and most of these killings occurred in AEC countries.
Executive Director of the Uganda Wildlife Authority Dr Andrew Seguya said: "The crisis facing the African elephant is still very real, and calls for a global unity of purpose".
A worldwide ban on the ivory trade would "save elephants from imminent extinction".
He added the AEC was "making a collective stand for the long-term survival of elephants throughout Africa and calling on the world to stand with us".
Kenyan Wildlife Service Deputy Director Patrick Omondi said the AEC’s message was that "elephants are worth more alive than dead."
Fondation Franz Weber President Vera Weber said: “A global, permanent ban on ivory trade is the only way to ensure the protection of elephants".
Weber noted that African countries within the AEC were determined to protect their elephants and were "blazing the trail to shut down the global ivory market and put an end to this senseless killing forever".
– African News Agency (ANA)
