CITES- Designate African Elephants as Highly Endangered

  Your petition Dashboard Edit Petitioning South African Consulate, Los Angeles, CA, USA Letter to South African Consulate, Vice Consul, Los Angeles, CA Mrs. Nthabiseng (Pamela) Petition fo Ask CITES to classify African Elephants as Highly Endangered Connection Africa Every 2 years, CITES, the organization that determines whether species are classified as threatened, endangered or highly endangered, is going to hold their convention. This year, they are meeting on September 24th in Johannesburg, South Africa. One of the species that they will be making a determination on is African Elephants. We are attempting to persuade the delegates of the CITES Convention to list African Elephants as HIGHLY ENDANGERED. Since CITES last met, in 2014, the African Elephant population has dropped by 25%! In only two years we have lost 100,000 elephants due to poaching. The life span of an elephant is roughly the same as ours, they live well into their 80's and don't reproduce until the females are in their late teens or 20s. They have only one calf, normally, and their gestational period is almost two years long. They reproduce extremely slowly, and cannot make up the numbers lost to poaching. Can you imagine our children and grandchildren growing up in a world without elephants? Governments of many countries in Asia, the European Union, and even in Africa, do not want to have elephants listed as HIGHLY ENDANGERED because they want to continue to trade in ivory, which is only obtained from the tusks of elephants. At the current rate of poaching, African Elephants will be extinct within 8 years. If they are designated as HIGHLY ENDANGERED, more power will be given to countries to fight poachers. Poachers would be able to be prosecuted under far harsher penalties. CITES is a global agreement and with a HIGHLY ENDANGERED designation, elephants would be much more protected. We ask that you sign to help us convince governments that are sending delegates to the CITES Convention, that elephants need the classification of HIGHLY ENDANGERED, to help governments save the lives of elephants. This petition will be delivered to:South African Consulate, Los Angeles, CA, USA Letter to South African Consulate, Vice Consul, Los Angeles, CA Mrs. Nthabiseng (Pamela) Petition fo Read the letter  Letter to South African Consulate, Los Angeles, CA, USA Letter to South African Consulate, Vice Consul, Los Angeles, CA Mrs. Nthabiseng (Pamela) Petition fo Ask CITES to classify African Elephants as Highly EndangeredLetter to South African Consulate, Vice Consul, Los Angeles, CA Mrs. Nthabiseng (Pamela) Petition for CITES to classify African Elephants as Highly Endangered We send this to you, respectfully, to ask you to consider, as delegates to the CITES Convention in South Africa, in September, to vote to list African elephants as Highly Endangered. Their current designation as "Threatened" does not take into consideration the high level of poaching that is disseminating the elephant population in most countries that have elephants in Africa. Designating them as "Highly Endangered" will allow more protection by law, give governments more power to prosecute under international law, and gives them much more of a fighting chance. It is the will of the people that these animals be protected. We have lost one quarter of their numbers in only 2 years, since the last CITES Convention. At the current rate of poaching, they will be extinct in just a few years. The ivory trade is increasing, not decreasing, and each piece of ivory comes from an elephant downed simply for having tusks. Please, take into consideration the will of the people, and vote to designate African elephants as "Highly Endangered". Thank you for your attention.