Lobbying for the African Elephant 09/02/2010

The African Elephant Coalition (AEC), led by Kenya, has recently, brought to the forefront once more, the plight of the African Elephant and the need to bolster conservation efforts. The AEC has been lobbying the European Union members as CITES Parties, to support the Coalition’s position at the forthcoming Conference of the Parties to CITES (CoP15) to be held in Doha, Qatar in March 2010. The AEC’s objective is to ensure that the EU member States speak out during the CoP15 and vote in support of the proposal backed by the 22 African States who are members of the African Elephant Coalition, and not abstain as occurs regularly. If the EU abstains on these votes, this will effectively give the green light for the resumption of the ivory trade, in effect wiping out the conservation efforts of the last decade.

The African Elephant Coalition meeting was held from 22 to 28 January 2010 under the auspices of the Kenya Embassy in Brussels. It was sponsored by the Government of Kenya with support from Coalition partners. The Kenya Delegation to the meeting was led by the Minister of Forestry and Wildlife, Hon. Dr. Noah Wekesa whose presence lent considerable political weight to the lobby effort. The delegation included senior officials from the Kenya Wildlife Service, Ministry of Forestry and Wildlife and the Embassy of Kenya in Brussels.

• Speech by Ambassador Kembi-Gitura
  
• Speech by Hon. Noah Wekesa
  
• AEC position statement (25/1/10)
  
• AEC press release (29/1/10)
  
• International Press Coverage on the  AEC meetings
  
• Article by "The Independent"
  

Please visit the CITES  and KWS websites for more information.