{A coalition of 15 African countries has welcomed China\u2019s commitment to closing its domestic ivory markets by the end of 2017, saying the move signalled Beijing\u2019s goodwill in protecting Africa\u2019s elephants.}<\/p>\n
The countries that are members of the Elephant Protection Initiative (EPI) said in a joint statement issued in Nairobi that the closure of China\u2019s ivory market is a crucial step into securing a future for elephants in their current range.<\/p>\n
The EPI was established in February 2014 at the London Conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade by leaders from Tanzania, Botswana, Chad, Gabon and Ethiopia as an urgent response to this elephant poaching crisis.They have since been joined by 10 more states — Uganda, Gambia, Malawi, Kenya, Liberia, Congo, Angola, Sierra Leone, Somalia and South Sudan.<\/p>\n
The Director of Malawi National Parks and Wildlife, Mr Brighton Kumchedwa, welcomed Beijing\u2019s pledge to stop their domestic ivory trade in 2017, saying it will both reduce demand and close the legal markets through which criminals are known to launder illegal ivory.<\/p>\n
\u201cMalawi has taken our own fight to combat illegal ivory trade to another level. Just last month, the courts have passed record sentences for wildlife crime, and parliament passed new wildlife legislation,\u201d Mr Kumchedwa said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut as one country, there is only so much we can do, and China\u2019s commitment has boosted our determination and belief that if we all work together we can indeed save Africa\u2019s elephants from extinction,\u201d the director said.<\/p>\n
The EPI is a pledge by African leaders to take actions to protect their elephants and to push for the closure of ivory markets in source, transit and consumer countries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{A coalition of 15 African countries has welcomed China\u2019s commitment to closing its domestic ivory markets by the end of 2017, saying the move signalled Beijing\u2019s goodwill in protecting Africa\u2019s elephants.} The countries that are members of the Elephant Protection Initiative (EPI) said in a joint statement issued in Nairobi that the closure of China\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[100],"byline":[2476],"hashtag":[],"class_list":["post-31871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-africa","byline-daily-news"],"bylines":[{"id":2476,"name":"DAILY NEWS","slug":"daily-news","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"contributors":[{"id":2476,"name":"DAILY NEWS","slug":"daily-news","description":"","image":{"id":0,"url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&f=y&r=g","alt":"Default avatar","title":"Default avatar","caption":"","mime_type":"image\/jpeg","sizes":[]},"user_id":null}],"featured_image":null,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31871\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31871"},{"taxonomy":"byline","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/byline?post=31871"},{"taxonomy":"hashtag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.igihe.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/hashtag?post=31871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}