Scattered over several countries in the savannas and woodlands of sub-saharan
Africa lives a unique animal known for its distinctive looks the giraffe it's
the tallest land mammal on this planet and is considered an iconic creature
among the continents wildlife but the giraffe has a publicity problem
overshadowed by other well-known animals such as the elephant or the Rhino it's
slowly dying out but nobody is talking about it at this summer's sides--
Convention in Geneva which regularly revises the global treaty on the
international trade and endangered species advocates from several NGOs and
certain African countries asked to list the African giraffe in its appendix - to
ensure greater protection of the species lonex good nectar people o'connor's
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lease which Andrew book repeat the giraffe used to live throughout the
continent yet its habitat is now limited to only a few pockets across Africa it
has been considered a vulnerable species by the IUCN since 2016 its population
has decreased by approximately forty percent over the past thirty years from
around 150,000 in the late 1980s to less than a hundred thousand today nine
subspecies of the gentle giant are especially at risk of extinction this
includes the angolan giraffe which is already extinct in Angola and the Nubian
giraffe with fewer than 2,000 individuals left both are listed as
critically endangered by the IUCN
but what's driving this rapid decline who's responsible for it the decrease in
population of the African giraffe stems from the expansion of human presence and
activities into the animals natural habitat ecological changes civil unrest
and local conflicts further complicate conservation efforts the species is also
threatened by illegal hunting giraffes are poached for their meat which is
consumed locally or exported giraffe skin tails and other body parts are
prized by hunters who trade them the upside is that the issue was finally
addressed at this year's SCI T's convention the giraffe was listed under
appendix too many people have dubbed this the sort of a silent extinction
there's a lot of attention put on other big charismatic species like rhinos and
elephants so this is great it shines light on the plight of giraffes and
their decline and it puts in a critical control measures to the international
trade interests and what it will effectively do is prevent illegal
hunting and the subsequent trade in giraffes which is a major threat to
their continued survival but what does a listing under appendix 2 mean
the site EES conventionalist is divided into three appendices which define the
level or types of protection for each listed species under appendix two trade
is not forbidden but countries that want to maintain trade must make sure that it
is legal and sustainable for example through the implementation of trading
permits they also have to determine the status of the species on their
territories and provide global scale trade data the African countries which
sign the proposal argue that there is indeed a non regulated market for
giraffe objects resulting in the mixing of legal and illegal giraffe artifacts
without any surveillance if somebody illegally kills an endangered species of
giraffe and those parts gets taken somehow shipped across boundaries to a
country where you can legally export the killed giraffes and they're all mixed up
you don't know where they came from and so that's the current situation with
appendix - anxieties that could no longer resist because every giraffe that
would be exported has to have a pedigree you have to say this giraffe came from
this country between 2006 and 2015 nearly 40,000 giraffe objects
representing almost 4,000 individual giraffes were imported into the United
States the majority of which came from South Africa
even though opponents say there's not enough evidence to identify trade as the
main factor putting these animals at risk
thus eyeties countries overwhelmingly sustained the proposal voting for the
protection of the giraffe this is a first and vital step to ensure
protection of this iconic animal but the most important thing is that we have to
stop looking away
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