Thailand. With the opening of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) yesterday in Bangkok, Thailand has announced they will move to ban all ivory trade including domestic trade. (I like to think my signature on the petition last week really moved this along). This is potentially good news for the elephants depending on when and how it is enacted.
So what is CITES? Having never heard of it until last week, it certainly has been in the news recently. Well it is a treaty signed by 197 countries (called parties) with a goal to ensure the international trade of plants and animals doesn’t threaten survival of the species in the wild. Over 34,000 species are covered. Wow.
Plants and animals are categorized into 3 categories with Level I addressing plants and animals faced with the threat of extinction. Included in this list are Asian elephants, some populations of African elephants, jaguars, gorillas, red pandas, tigers and manatees. Woah. Manatees?
Yep. Manatees are an endangered species. And even more interesting (to me) is DNA evidence suggests manatees are related to elephants. So that sweet manatee you see in the coastal waters of Florida may be related to the baby elephant I am feeding in Northern Thailand. Once again, the world comes around in a full circle. Absolutely amazing!