Negotiators discussing wildlife trade rules have agreed overwhelmingly to back a proposal that regulates the currently unrestricted trade in all seven species of African forest hornbills. Eight West and Central African countries had tabled the proposal at the ongoing summit of CITES, the global wildlife trade convention, taking place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. It calls for listing the seven species, from the genera Ceratogymna and Bycanistes, in CITES Appendix II, which would allow the commercial international trade in the species, but under stringent oversight, including import and export permit requirements. No country objected to the proposal, and it was accepted by consensus. “This decision will go a long way in providing urgently needed protections to keep African hornbills where they belong, wild in African ecosystems, rather than in markets for wildlife trade,” Nico Arcilla, president and research director at the International Bird Conservation Partnership (IBCP), told Mongabay in a text message. There are 32 known species of African hornbills, none of them previously listed on CITES, and most of which inhabit grasslands and savannas. The seven newly listed ones, including the black-casqued hornbill (Ceratogymna atrata) and the white-thighed hornbill (Bycanistes albotibialis), are forest-dwelling birds, concentrated in West and Central Africa. Over the last two decades, hunting of these African forest hornbills for the international trade has become a growing concern. Additional pressure from deforestation and habitat degradation has pushed populations of these birds to historic lows in Togo, Ghana and Nigeria. Research shows an average of 100 African hornbills entered the…This article was originally published on Mongabay

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