Pangolins and parrots protected – lions and elephants lose out

Ready for release: a rescued pangolin is returned to the wild in Sumatra

NurPhoto/Getty

By Andy Coghlan

It’s been a red-letter week for many of the world’s most iconic and threatened species, tinged only by disappointment at failure to win complete protection for elephants and lions.

Overall, countries voted en masse to back outright bans on trade in the parts and tissues of a whole host of threatened species, including African grey parrots, all species of pangolins, and Barbary macaques.

The decisive votes were cast this week and last in Johannesburg, South Africa, at the 17th triennial conference of CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora.

Advertisement

“Most of the decisions favour protection of animals for the long term, so overall it’s been a very strong pro-conservation agenda,” says Kelvin Alie, acting vice president of animal welfare and conservation at the International Fund for Animal Welfare.

Many of the votes increased protection for species by upgrading them from Appendix II, which gives relatively weak protection, to Appendix I which forbids all trade in tissues and parts from those animals.

Decimated species

The major new arrivals in Appendix I included all pangolin species and Barbary macaques – Europe’s only non-human primate, as well as African Grey Parrots. Loss of habitat and exploitation via the pet trade has decimated the species in 14 of 18 countries that form their range.

Also on a positive note, countries voted soundly to defeat a controversial proposal from Swaziland to sell white rhino horn.

“The world has done the right thing by rejecting the proposal to allow international trade in rhino horn between Swaziland and ‘licensed retailers in Asia’,” Adam Peyman, wildlife programme manager for Humane Society International told the Press Association.

“This proposal could have reversed years of progress to reduce demand, crack down on rhino horn trafficking and protect rhinos in their natural environment.”

Several species of sharks and rays are newly listed under the treaty.

Paper protection

“The listing of sharks and rays is one step for conservation, but it’s only paper protection unless backed up by sound implementation,” said Glenn Sant, Fisheries Programme Manager for TRAFFIC, an international organisation monitoring illegal trade in wildlife.

“There is an urgent need to understand better the trade in shark and ray meat and the implications this may have for species.”

Delegates were disappointed, however, at the failure to completely ban trade in elephant ivory and lion parts by moving all elephants and lions to Appendix I.

South Africa won a vote to continue selling body parts from captive-bred lions, an outcome raising fears that poachers will sneak wild-caught material onto the market.

“We came here with very high ambitions to list lions on Appendix I, so it’s a poor decision, and doesn’t lead to what we wanted,” says Alie.

And Namibia, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe blocked the motion to add all African elephants to Appendix I, and will only be obliged to destroy ivory stockpiles if it can be shown they are contributing to poaching and illegal trade.

Alie says that although trade remains illegal, the outcome in Johannesburg keeps the possibility of future trade open by “encouraging” rather than forcing these countries to destroy their stockpiles.

Read more: How forensic science can stop slaughter of endangered wildlife