Sat 12 November 2022:
10 African nations claimed that the European Union’s stance on the planned commercial trade restriction had a detrimental effect on the hippopotamus’ ability to survive.
The population of hippos has decreased significantly over the past ten years, according to the documents supplied by the countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Gabon, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Senegal, and Togo.
According to The Guardian, continual illegal poaching for ivory, which is very valuable on the international market, has wiped out the hippo population in Algeria, Egypt, Eritrea, Liberia, and Mauritania. As a result, the need for a general ban has dominated headlines for quite some time.
However, the EU is expected to oppose a complete ban on hippo products at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) conference in Panama.
“By openly opposing our proposal, the EU is jeopardising the chances of the west and central Africa region, which are range states of more than half of the hippo populations, to adequately ensure the survival of the species. Hippos have been silently dying for 30 years. We must act quickly before they become extinct,” a letter from the African countries to the EU high command read.
The global population has also taken a hit recently with a drop of around 30-50 per cent in the last decade and it can mainly be attributed to the meat and ivory trade. The issue was also recognised by International Union for the Conservation of Nature as they were classified as “vulnerable to extinction”.
SOURCE: INDEPENDENT PRESS AND NEWS AGENCIES
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