Support for special protected status for giraffes

4.4.2019

Question for written answer P-001662-19
to the Commission
Rule 130
Frédérique Ries (ALDE)

Around 30 African countries are seeking the EU’s backing in their efforts to secure special protected status for giraffes. This is clearly an urgent matter, given that giraffe numbers have fallen by 40% in just 30 years, and there are now fewer than 100 000 left.

Habitat loss as a result of farming and mining activities is one of the contributory factors, but the main causes are poaching and hunting, which represents a source of revenue for the countries in which it is still legal.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature has called the giraffes’ plight ‘a silent extinction’. In response to this, a group of African countries is keen to place the matter on the agenda of the 18th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES), which is to take place in Colombo in May 2019.

Their aim is to have giraffes listed in Annex II to the Convention. Although the trade in giraffe-based products would not be banned as a result, export permits would be mandatory, and that would be a vital first step towards controlling the trade in the species.

Is the Commission intending to accede to the African countries’ request and support the initiative for giraffes to be listed in Annex II to CITES?