A major global conference on wildlife conservation ended last week in Geneva, Switzerland. The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) meeting was a big win for the African elephant.
The meeting retained the ban on ivory trade and tightened restrictions on the sale of African elephants to zoos outside the continent.
But that is not what the Standard newspaper reported. On Monday, August 26, the paper ran a story titled, “Key forum fails to shield elephants” by Protus Onyango (p.6).
“African countries have regretted that participants at a global forum did not extend full protection to the continent’s elephants,” the story said.
The report quoted Environment CS Keriako Tobiko as saying that while proposals calling for reopening of international trade on ivory were overwhelmingly rejected, the parties of CITES did not take the necessary steps to provide full protection to the African elephants.
The EU, with its block vote of 28 countries, was blamed for this failure.
But the Standard report was contradictory. Hidden away many paragraphs down, the story said “two proposals that would have resulted in a resumption of ivory sales by amending the CITES Appendices for the African elephant were roundly defeated.”
So, how did the CITES conference fail to protect the African elephant?
At least 20,000 elephants are killed annually in Africa for their ivory. This translates into 55 elephants killed daily or one elephant killed every 26 minutes.
The Kenyan delegation to the CITES conference dismissed the Standard story as inaccurate and misleading.
“The article insinuates that CITES COP-18 [18th conference of parties] failed to shield elephants from challenges that have led to drastic decline in their populations across Africa. Nothing could be further from the truth. As noted in our previous statement issued on Friday, 23rd August 2019, CITES COP-18 took an unequivocal stand for wildlife conservation and protection,” the government statement said.
Kenya led a spirited fight against a proposal by South Africa, Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe to trade their ivory stockpiles. The proposal was defeated by 101 of the 183 state parties.
A report in the Star newspaper celebrated “How Kenya rallied countries to thwart sale of ivory”.
Kenya led 32 states that form the African Elephant Coalition to win the support of the EU, US, Latin American and Caribbean states to tighten protections for the elephant.
The Standard reported fake news about CITES COP-18 in Geneva. Either reporter Protus Ochieng did not understand what went on in Geneva or he had other agendas.
Dear All,
I hope you are well. I do read and learn from your media reviews. But it seems at times you are in a rush to review some articles that you don’t have facts. The case in point is the story on elephants. I was not in Geneva yes, but I can come to your office and share with you daily communication and reports from the meeting. I have covered conservation for a decade and I know what I am talking about. What you did is get an unsigned statement from the CAS, who led the Kenyan delegation to Geneva and quote from it. Beware that before that statement was uploaded on Twitter, I shared the origin of my story with the Ministry of Tourism and they did not dispute it. It was a case of protecting those out to harm the elephants like the EU. Beware also that Kenya is a signatory to the organisation that released the statement to the world-the source of my story. Ochieng is not my name. Please, it is better if in future you call the writer in question to verify issues before reviewing his/her story. This is disgusting!