CITES’ Momentous Decision Against the Sale of African Elephants
Decades of trade practices, including the separation, capture, and export of young wild African elephants out of south African countries to captive animal facilities around the world, were placed under scrutiny just weeks ago at the 18th triennial Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES)¹. Representatives from 182 countries, including the EU and U.S., came together in Geneva, Switzerland to re-draft the international trade framework for elephant exportation. The convention passed a proposal to limit wild African elephant export to African countries where elephants live or used to live. The only exception is that elephants may be exported if a country can prove the conservation benefit to sending them out of Africa.
Although many wildlife advocacy groups considered the final draft a victory, some elephant experts were not as quick to celebrate due to ambiguous language included in the draft². On August 18th, Committee I of the conference proposed a total ban on elephant exportation, but after experiencing technical issues which delayed the initial vote, the EU was able to rethink their original plan to vote for the total ban in favor of amending the text to incorporate exceptions to the ban. The amended proposal states that elephants must remain in their natural and historical range in Africa except under circumstances when transfer to a location outside of Africa demonstrates conservation benefits for elephants in the country². Although this loophole may still allow for exportation, the circumstances for export will be highly scrutinized by elephant expert groups at CITES and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), who will decide what constitutes conservation benefit.
Historically, elephants in western, eastern, and central Africa have been protected from trade under the CITES regulatory framework. However, healthier elephant populations in countries of southern Africa such as Botswana, Zimbabwe, Namibia, and South Africa have been excluded from requiring the highest order of protection under CITES Appendix II, and some trade was permitted². The extent of such trade was restricted only by the caveat that elephants had to be transported to “appropriate and acceptable destinations” and traders needed to demonstrate benefit to conservation efforts in the home country. The original language of the trade regulations was long considered undefined and allowed countries exporting elephants to designate “appropriate and acceptable” destinations with little regulatory oversight³. In contrast, despite the new proposal’s questionable language, its protocol is designed with significantly more supervision by qualified organizations.
Predictably, the ban was met with the most contention from south African countries. Countries like Zimbabwe and Botswana that are home to 85,000–132,000 elephants but can only support a fraction of that population, profit from elephant trade to offset the costs of conservation and elephant-human conflict prevention⁴. Between 1995 and 2016, southern African countries participated in the export of over 600 elephants to foreign countries⁵.
The U.S. also rejected the final CITES decision indicating that conservation benefits can be gained from individuals seeing elephants in well-managed captive facilities. Representatives from the U.S stated that there should be no geographical limits on where elephants can be sent, but rather such limits should be determined by the suitability of the facility intending to house and care for the elephants⁶. The U.S. has long been one of the top elephant importers for zoos in the world (from 1990–2015)⁷. In spite of much criticism, in 2016, the U.S. bought 18 elephants from Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) to be sent to zoos around the country⁸. It is still unknown if the CITES proposal will impact U.S. zoos’ import of African elephants, but any attempts to import will be examined more closely⁶.
The amended policy on elephant exportation follows years of increasing public awareness of the complexities of the elephant intellect and social structure. As a result, it has become increasingly difficult to ignore the cruelty of the exportation process and the constraints of life in captivity. The prolonged, relatively unregulated freedom to export elephants from south African countries comes at a price to the psychological health of the elephants⁶. Despite the existence of elephant trade for over a century, it wasn’t until the last decade that young elephants, as young as 2 years old, were deliberately separated from their families and captured for exportation⁹’⁷. Videos and stories have surfaced in recent years revealing the brutal ways calves, that are still dependent on their mothers, have been forcefully removed from their family groups and kicked and beaten into transport crates⁵. Exported calves then travel thousands of miles to facilities in countries like China, the U.S., Mexico, and India. Numerous wildlife organizations, including the IUCN, do not endorse the removal of African elephants for any captive use. The IUCN will set high standards for what constitutes the exceptional circumstances that will allow for trans-continental elephant trade⁶.
There are still issues that remain with elephant trade such as the lack of oversight at the capture level for the seizure and transport of calves across Africa and outside the country in exceptional circumstances. Additionally, the elephants that have already been forced into captive facilities may still be subject to trade. Despite these problems, important steps have been taken toward ending all elephant trade. South African countries will need to find a more natural and less disruptive way to support the costs of their elephant populations. Ultimately, with two elephant and wildlife organizations strictly managing south African countries’ ability to take advantage of the ban, there is hope that most elephant calves will be exempt from the trauma of being taken from their families and placed in foreign captive facilities.
References:
¹ Dalton, Jane (2019). EU set to overturn ban on baby African elephants being caught and sent to foreign zoos. Independent. Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/baby-elephants-eu-ban-giraffe-africa-zoos-zimbabwe-china-trade-a9074861.html
² France-Presse, Agence (2019). Near-total ban imposed on sending wild African elephants to zoos. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/aug/27/near-total-ban-imposed-on-sending-wild-african-elephants-to-zoos
³(2019). This momentous decision will save countless elephants from being snatched from their families and natural environment, says Humane Society International at CITES CoP18 in Geneva. Humane Society International. Retrieved from https://www.hsi.org/news-media/region/africa/
⁴Columbus S., Mavhunga (2019). Zimbabwe sells elephants to China and Dubai for $2.7 million. CNN. Retrieved fromhttps://www.cnn.com/2019/05/14/africa/zimbabwe-sells-elephants-intl/index.html
⁵Cruise, Adam & Russo, Christina (2019). Exclusive: footage shows young elephants being captured in Zimbabwe for Chinese Zoos. The Guardian. Retrieved from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/03/exclusive-footage-shows-young-elephants-being-captured-in-zimbabwe-for-chinese-zoos
⁶Fine Maron, Dina (2019). African elephants can now only rarely be taken from the wild and sent to faraway zoos. National Geographic. Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2019/08/wild-baby-elephants-zoo-ban/
⁷(2019). Trade in live elephants — captured from the wild. Future for Elephants. Retrieved from https://www.futureforelephants.org/index.php/information/trade-in-live-elephants-captured-from-the-wild
⁸Alvarez, Eric, Cogliano, Mary, & Gnam, Rosemarie (2019). Open letter by elephant specialists: captive elephants and import of wild elephants for captivity. HumaneSociety.org. Retrieved from https://blog.humanesociety.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Letter-to-FWS-by-Elephant-Specialists-Re-Zim-calf-imports-19-August-2019.pdf
⁹Lewis, Lauren (2019). Breaking news! Urgent help needed to save 35 baby elephants waiting to be exported from Zimbabwe to zoos in China. World Animal News. Retrieved from https://worldanimalnews.com/urgent-help-needed-to-save-35-baby-elephants-waiting-to-be-exported-from-zimbabwe-to-zoos-in-china/
