African hornbills are disappearing from East Africa's forests – because of
a booming pet and body parts trade.
Online platforms like Etsy or eBay are allowing the trade despite touting
policies that prohibit the sale of wildlife. We need to act before these
charismatic birds are hunted to extinction – add your name:
[ [link removed] ] Sign the petition
John,
African hornbills are "farmers of the forests": these big, iconic birds
with huge beaks play a crucial role as seed dispersers in the forests they
inhabit. But their numbers in the wild are plummeting as they’re being
hunted for trade, dead or alive.
For years, online platforms like eBay, Etsy and Facebook, despite
promoting policies that ban the sale of wildlife, have profited off a
completely unregulated trade: hundreds of listings of ornaments made of
hornbill skulls, casques and feathers.
None of the 32 African hornbill species used to be protected
internationally — until now.
Just days ago, governments finally granted African hornbills their
first-ever international protection — a landmark breakthrough that changes
everything. Let’s use this momentum to tell eBay, Etsy and Meta to
immediately update their policies and ban *all* hornbill products from
their platforms NOW:
[ [link removed] ]Etsy, eBay, Meta: Protect African hornbills – stop selling hornbills
and their products!
When East Asian hornbills were pushed to the brink by trade, protection
under the global wildlife trade agreement CITES helped pull them back from
extinction. But the so-called “free market” did what it does best: it
moved on – to Africa, and now these spectacular and charismatic birds are
disappearing from the forests of East Africa.
A recent study showed that between 1999 and 2024, the U.S., which ranks as
one of the world’s largest wildlife importers, received about 100
hornbills per year, all likely taken from the wild. And while 100 birds a
year might not sound huge, it’s disastrous for a long-lived, slow-breeding
species like hornbills.
And despite claiming to ban wildlife trafficking, eBay, Etsy and Meta
remain prime destinations for hornbill products. Loopholes let sellers
move skulls, ornaments, and other parts of the bird by changing the
labels, and the platforms look the other way.
We need to stop this before the African hornbills meet the same fate as
their East Asian counterparts. And the first step towards their immediate
protection has just happened: CITES listed them as too endangered to be
traded unregulated. Now we need to call on the mega online platforms to
update their policies immediately and ban all hornbill products
permanently from their sites. Add your name to our call:
[ [link removed] ]Etsy, eBay, Meta: Protect African hornbills – stop selling hornbills
and their products!
When the online trade in hornbills from the Philippines surged and drove
the species to near extinction, this community acted and called on
Facebook to shut down the trade. Let’s do it again for its African
counterpart before it’s too late.
[ [link removed] ] Sign the petition
Thanks for all that you do,
Rosa, Deborah and the team at Ekō
More information:
[ [link removed] ]A Turning Point for Africa’s Hornbills
BirdLife International. 03 December, 2025
[ [link removed] ]A Troubling Rise in the Grisly Trade of a Spectacular African Bird
Yale Environment 360. 24 November, 2025
[ [link removed] ]With ‘terrifying’ trade in African hornbills, scientists call for
increased protection
Mongabay. 29 October, 2025
Ekō is a worldwide movement of people like you, working together to hold corporations accountable for their actions and forge a new, sustainable path for our global economy.
Please help keep Ekō strong by chipping in $3. [link removed]
