A giraffe browsing at the Maasai Mara National Reserve. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP
American wildlife officials have said they would officially
consider listing the giraffe as an endangered species, a move long
sought by conservationists alarmed by the African mammal’s precipitous
decline and a growing domestic market for giraffe products.
The
US Fish and Wildlife Service said on Thursday that it had found
“substantial information” that listing giraffes as endangered or
threatened under the Endangered Species Act “may be warranted.”
PROTECTION
The
finding came more than two years after conservation groups petitioned
the Trump administration for the protection, warning that the animals
were in danger of extinction.
The Fish and Wildlife
Service will now begin an in-depth review before making a final
decision. The process could take years, conservationists said.
Designating
giraffes as endangered or threatened would place restrictions on their
import into the United States and make federal funding available for
conservation efforts.
Conservationists also hope that a listing could elevate the
giraffes’ plight, which they said was often overshadowed by
higher-profile initiatives to protect lions, elephants and other
distinctive animals.
ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT
“Tonnes
of money is poured into conservation projects for these species,” said
Adam Peyman, manager of wildlife programmes and operations for the
Humane Society International, one of the groups that filed the petition.
“Giraffes just don’t enjoy that.”
Conservationists say there is a strong argument for listing giraffes under the Endangered Species Act.
The
population of giraffes, the tallest land animals on the planet, has
declined about 40 per cent in the last 30 years, according to the
groups’ petition. They estimate the population today is close to 97,000.
Among the biggest threats to giraffes is habitat loss
driven by the expansion of cities, agriculture and timber harvest.
Poaching and legal hunting have also contributed to the decline.
EXTINCTION
In
2016, the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural
Resources declared the giraffe “vulnerable to extinction.”
The market for products derived from giraffes has also increased in the United States.
According
to a report released last year by the Humane Society of the United
States, more than 40,000 giraffe parts were imported from 2006 to 2015
to be made into expensive pillows, boots, knife handles, Bible covers
and other trinkets.
Peyman
acknowledged, however, that legal hunting had a relatively small impact
on giraffe populations when compared with habitat loss or poaching. He
said it was not clear how much of the giraffe products’ import comes
from poaching.
“What we want to do is raise that bar,
make it so that giraffes aren’t threatened by trade in addition to the
other threats they are facing,” he said.
HUNTING
Some, however, say that listing the giraffes under the Endangered Species Act could have an adverse impact on their population.
The
Safari Club International, a pro-hunting group, said that the potential
measures “would reduce US hunters’ willingness to pay top dollar for
giraffe hunts,” money that could in turn be used to buy land to increase
giraffes’ habitat or fund anti-poaching programmes.
“Many
species, including giraffes, benefit from this investment in
conservation,” the group said in a statement. “Without offering anything
in return, an ESA listing could reduce the revenues and incentives
currently being generated by hunting.”
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