Urge our CITES delegates to VOTE at CoP18 for maximum protections for Endangered Species

One of the key asks for GMFER2019 will be to urge our CITES delegates to vote at CoP18 for maximum protections for endangered species (vote for all uplist proposals), and to reject proposals to reopen ivory trade in southern African countries, trophy hunt elephants and down list endangered species. We suggest event organizers include these calls to primary CITES representatives as a key ask of their event this year, as well as calling for a ban on the import of hunting trophies of endangered species.

Kitty Block, president of Humane Society International, said:

"Every single day, human-induced habitat loss, poaching, commercial trade and climate change are pushing more of our planet's precious wild species towards extinction. We can no longer afford any complacency when it comes to saving wild animal species threatened by over-exploitation, and so as we welcome CITES proposals to establish new or increased protections, we urge nations to ensure that species conservation is approached as a necessity not a luxury, with pro-active trade restrictions imposed long before a species is at the extinction precipice.

With ivory traffickers exploiting the long-extinct mammoth so that they can further exploit imperilled elephants, the time is now for African and all other nations to unite in the fight to end the poaching epidemic and ensure all ivory markets are closed. Giraffes too need our urgent attention, having already disappeared from seven countries and now quietly slipping into extinction with the wild population at or just under 100,000. The time to act is now, before we lose them forever.”