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African Union Donkey Skin Trade Ban Laudable but Doubt, Pessimism Cloud Implementation

By 2020, the global donkey population stood at 53 million, two-thirds in Africa. Using the estimated human population in Africa, simple math shows that one donkey serves at least 37 people, making it a critical resource for the continent’s economy.

Africa Climate Editor
The China-Global South Project

Related Posts

Misadventures in the Skin Trade

This week I spent a few days in Cape Town, in time for a minor, if telling, crisis in international agricultural trade. A ship crammed with 19,000 (mostly still living) cows was stuck in Cape Town harbor, en route from Brazil to the Middle East.

The Far-Reaching Consequences of China’s Demand for African Donkeys

Elephants, rhinos, and lions usually come to mind first in discussions about the China-Africa animal trade, not donkeys. But surging demand for donkey hides used to manufacture a Chinese traditional medicinal product is having a devastating impact on rural populations across ...

Kenya’s High Court Overturns Ban on Donkey Slaughter, Clearing the Way For More Skins to Be Sold to China

Kenya's High Court on Friday overturned a February 2020 government directive that outlawed the slaughter of donkeys. The court's ruling will now allow for slaughterhouses to re-open and the resumption of the animal's meat trade. 

China’s Ejiao Producers Are on a Quest for Africa’s Donkeys

In Africa it’s said that “if you don't have a donkey you become a donkey yourself”. A proverb that is becoming more relevant as China’s ejiao (donkey-hide gelatin) producers look to the Continent for resources. Ejiao is a glue derived from ...
Leading from the “Global Middle”: China’s Bid to Host the New Ocean Treaty
Fishermen conduct abalone management and protection operations at sea in the waters of Xiaocheng Town, Lianjiang County, Fuzhou City, Fujian Province, China, on March 14, 2026. (Photo by Costfoto/NurPhoto) (Photo by CFOTO / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP)
"China's financial commitments are simply more tangible and easier to grasp than those of Europe," one delegate from an island state remarked to me on a bright spring day in late March, as we both gazed out at the East River from the United Nations Headquarters. Behind us, in airless ...

African Union Donkey Skin Trade Ban Laudable but Doubt, Pessimism Cloud Implementation

By 2020, the global donkey population stood at 53 million, two-thirds in Africa. Using the estimated human population in Africa, simple math shows that one donkey serves at least 37 people, making it a critical resource for the continent’s economy.

Misadventures in the Skin Trade

This week I spent a few days in Cape Town, in time for a minor, if telling, crisis in international agricultural trade. A ship crammed with 19,000 (mostly still living) cows was stuck in Cape Town harbor, en route from Brazil to the Middle East.

The Far-Reaching Consequences of China’s Demand for African Donkeys

Elephants, rhinos, and lions usually come to mind first in discussions about the China-Africa animal trade, not donkeys. But surging demand for donkey hides used to manufacture a Chinese traditional medicinal product is having a devastating impact on rural populations across ...

Kenya’s High Court Overturns Ban on Donkey Slaughter, Clearing the Way For More Skins to Be Sold to China

Kenya's High Court on Friday overturned a February 2020 government directive that outlawed the slaughter of donkeys. The court's ruling will now allow for slaughterhouses to re-open and the resumption of the animal's meat trade. 

China’s Ejiao Producers Are on a Quest for Africa’s Donkeys

In Africa it’s said that “if you don't have a donkey you become a donkey yourself”. A proverb that is becoming more relevant as China’s ejiao (donkey-hide gelatin) producers look to the Continent for resources. Ejiao is a glue derived from ...

The Donkey: Africa’s Next Endangered Animal

When you think of endangered African animals threatened by poachers, donkeys typically do not come to mind. But the Nigerian government wants to change that by classifying the donkey as an animal that potentially faces "extinction" unless something is done soon.

Donkey Populations in Kenya and Ghana Are on Track to Be “Devastated” Due to Chinese Demand for Hides

The Washington Post's West Africa correspondent Danielle Paquette and Maxwell Suuk published a compelling story this weekend on the devastation that subsistence farmers in Ghana are encountering due to donkey poaching. The animal's hides are sought after in China where they're used to make the traditional Chinese medicine ejiao ...
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