The leaders of Africa along with other wildlife enthusiasts are crafting a new path which the African people will be at the forefront of saving elephants – one of the famous Uganda Safari products from poaching and eventual extinction in the wild.
The coalition also known as the Giants Club stands as a selection of African leaders joined by the entertainment and business gurus aimed at preventing the extinction of African elephant. The Giants Club consists of countries of Uganda, Gabon, Kenya and Botswana which are among the main elephant dwelling areas in Africa prompting the world travelers to plan travels to them including safaris to Uganda.
In a bid to take this conservation move forward, the Presidents of these mentioned countries have arranged a two day meeting which has commenced today 29th April 2016 in Nairobi Kenya. President Museveni is noted to have been the first leader in the East African Community to second the initiative of the Giants Club in the month of July 2015 and has since then been at the conservation forefront. The elephant population in Uganda is noted to have risen from 700 – 800 in 1980s to about 6,000 elephants according to the Uganda Wildlife Authority.
The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) noted that in the year 2013, over 20,000 African elephants were hunted down for ivory tusks and even in the year 2014, the figure is almost the same. The range of 60% of the elephant carcasses that were surveyed across the continent of Africa in the year 2014 indicated that these elephants had lost their lives in the poachers’ hands.
Cites notes that the figure above the 50% is considerably high and definitely creates decline in the elephant population and the conservation advocates anticipate that if the poaching is not put to the end, the African elephants might encounter extinction in the few decades ahead.
The Abstract Report released by the Uganda Bureau of Statistics in the year 2015 puts the elephant population in Kenya at 38,000 while the report asserts that the destination Uganda is registering a success story globally when other countries are fighting with the decreasing counts. This keeps Uganda positive on the continuity of this species which form a considerable component of travel products sought after by travelers on safaris and tours in Uganda. However, Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA) shows that killed elephants form the biggest part of Uganda’s illegal wildlife trade and most of this ivory is taken to China.
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