← Signals
Recordedyeargeopolitics

CITES CoP7 moves all African elephant populations to Appendix I

At its seventh Conference of the Parties in Lausanne in October 1989, CITES transferred the African elephant to Appendix I, banning international commercial trade in ivory with effect from 20 January 1990. The listing followed the poaching collapse of the 1970s and 1980s. It is credited with closing major ivory markets and reducing poaching in many range states, and it has been contested since by southern African states with growing populations, several of which later secured Appendix II listings with trade annotations.

Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.

Subjects

Evidence

Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.

Recorded on CITES — Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora

  1. CITES CoP7 moves all African elephant populations to Appendix I
  2. Great Elephant Census reports 352,271 savanna elephants and a 30% decline
  3. Coordinated KAZA aerial survey estimates about 227,900 elephants

Related

Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.