\n<\/p>\n
Countries agreed Wednesday to new limits on the international trade in African hornbills. The spectacular birds, which play a key role in African forest ecosystems, are threatened by the growing global sale of hornbill parts.<\/p>\n
The new restrictions were agreed to at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species now underway in Uzbekistan. A coalition of African states had\u00a0proposed listing seven species of African hornbill under Appendix II\u00a0of the\u00a0convention,\u00a0a move intended to lead to greater regulation and monitoring of the international hornbill trade, with the aim of ensuring the birds\u2019 continued survival in the wild.<\/p>\n
The new protection comes after\u00a0reporting from Yale Environment 360 detailed the burgeoning global trade in African hornbill skulls and beaks, as well as stuffed and live birds. The e360 report, which was distributed to delegates at the CITES meeting, revealed a surge in online listings and international shipments, with poachers in some regions reporting that growing interest from foreign buyers is leading to increased hunting of hornbills.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cListing African hornbills in CITES Appendix II is a decisive step toward safeguarding these iconic birds,\u201d\u00a0said Alex Berryman of BirdLife International, a conservation group.\u00a0The measure, he said \u201cmarks a meaningful commitment by countries to the long-term conservation of Africa\u2019s hornbills.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Every country where these birds naturally occur reportedly voted in favor of the CITES measure, as did the U.S. and E.U., which are major destinations for hornbill parts. No countries opposed it.<\/p>\n
\u201cGlobally, the illegal and unsustainable trade in birds is accelerating, threatening more species every year,\u201d\u00a0said Chris R. Shepherd, of the Center for Biological Diversity. \u201cWithout international regulations and controls, there are simply no mechanisms to confront the organized criminal networks driving this crisis.\u201d<\/p>\n
Conservationists cheered the new measure, noting that greater limits on the trade of African hornbills may also bolster protections for Asian species of the bird. Though Asian hornbills are already listed under CITES, their skulls and feathers can resemble African species, complicating enforcement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A Troubling Rise in the Grisly Trade of a Spectacular African Bird<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Countries agreed Wednesday to new limits on the international trade in African hornbills. The spectacular birds, which play a key role in African forest ecosystems, are threatened by the growing global sale of hornbill parts. The new restrictions were agreed to at a meeting of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species now underway<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[8121,3520,1048,20143,20142,2678],"class_list":{"0":"post-35872","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-african","9":"tag-agree","10":"tag-countries","11":"tag-hornbills","12":"tag-imperiled","13":"tag-protections"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=35872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=35872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=35872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=35872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}