Urge EU to help protect endangered giraffes from trophy hunters
Dear Commissioner Vella:
We urgently call on you to support COP18 Proposal 5 to list Giraffes in Appendix II of CITES.
Giraffe numbers have fallen by up to 40% over the last 30 years to just 97,500 in the whole of Africa. Giraffes are now listed as 'vulnerable' on the IUCN Red List. Three sub species of giraffes are listed as 'Endangered'. Two subspecies - the Nubian and Kordofan giraffes - are listed as 'Critically endangered'.
Giraffes currently have NO protection under CITES. As a result, they are hunted WITHOUT RESTRICTION by trophy hunters.
39,516 giraffe 'specimens' were imported into the US between 2006-2015: this is the equivalent of at least 3,751 individual giraffes. 95% of these imports were for hunting trophy purposes.
Without action TODAY, giraffes face a serious threat of EXTINCTION.
The proposal to include giraffes in Appendix II of CITES has been made by the Central African Republic, Chad, Kenya, Mali, Niger and Senegal. It has the support of the 32 nation members of the African Elephant Coalition. It is being considered at the CoP meeting of CITES members in Sri Lanka 23rd May- 3rd June.
The EU voting bloc is CRITICAL to the success of Proposal 5. We the undersigned therefore strongly urge you to support this proposal.
Update #14 jaar geleden
Thank you to the nearly 200,000 people who signed our petition calling on governments to protect giraffes!
Good news: A group of African nations took a resolution to the CITES international wildlife conference in Geneva this week calling on governments to protect them under CITES rules. The governments voted for the resolution by an overwhelming majority.
It's a step forward, but more needs to be done to ban this immoral 'sport' completely. Find out how you can help at www.bantrophyhunting.org
