MAPUTO, Aug. 20 (Xinhua) -- The Mozambican Conservation Area Administration said on Tuesday that the number of elephants has stabilized at 10,800 across Mozambican territory since 2014.
The announcement was made in a statement from Geneva, Switzerland, at the ongoing conference of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
"The preliminary result indicates an estimated 10,800 elephants and the population has been stable since the 2014 census," the statement said, highlighting the 2018 census.
The exercise, co-funded by the Mozambican government and the French Development Agency, budgeted at 1 million U.S. dollars, is an extremely important measure for monitoring the evolution of the pachyderm population in the country, the statement said.
"There is now an independent evaluation of the census report, which will be followed by the validation of the raw data review report," the statement said, adding that "these are the internationally established procedures for the final census findings."
Mozambique is committed to the implementation of the convention, particularly in the ivory and rhino management action plan, the statement said.
"The stabilization of elephant numbers is due to the efforts made, notably in the fields of legal framework, oversight, inter-institutional, regional and international coordination, as well as communication and awareness," said the statement.
The CITES convention is an agreement signed by governments around the world to regulate international trade in endangered species of wild fauna and flora within a framework of sustainable use of these resources.
The agreement protects around 5,800 species of animals and 30,000 species of plants.
