DAKAR, Senegal — For years, Chinese companies and contractors have been slaughtering millions of donkeys in Africa, coveting the gelatin from the animals' skins that is processed into medicine, candy and beauty products. But the practice has decimated donkey populations at an alarming rate.
The African Union, which encompasses the continent's 55 states, adopted a continental ban on donkey skin exports in February in the hope that populations will recover.
Rural households across Africa rely on donkeys for transportation and agriculture.
“A means of survival in Africa fuels middle-class demand for luxury goods in China,” said Emmanuel Sarr of Brooke, a London-based organization that works to protect donkeys and horses. “This cannot continue.”
China is the main trading partner of many African countries. But in recent years his companies have come under increasing criticism for depleting the continent's natural resources, from minerals to fish and now donkey skins.
“This trade is undermining mutual development talks between China and African countries,” said Lauren Johnston, an expert on China-Africa relations at the University of Sydney.
Some Chinese companies or local middlemen buy and slaughter donkeys legally, but authorities have dismantled clandestine slaughterhouses. Rural communities have also reported cases of donkey theft.
China's donkey skin trade is the key component of a multibillion-dollar industry of what the Chinese call ejiao, or donkey gelatin. It is a traditional medicine recognized by Chinese health authorities, but whose real benefits continue to be debated among doctors and researchers in China.
The industry ejiao China consumes between 4 and 6 million donkey skins a year — about 10 percent of the world's donkey population, according to Donkey Sanctuary estimates. China used to get ejiao of Chinese donkeys, but their herd has plummeted from more than 9 million in 2000 to just over 1.7 million in 2022. So over the past decade China has turned to Africa, home to 60 percent of the world's donkeys, for agreement with the United Nations.
Donkeys are highly resistant to harsh climatic conditions and can carry heavy loads for a long period of time, making them a precious resource in Africa. But they take time to reproduce.
The decline has been pronounced. Kenya's donkey population fell by half between 2009 and 2019, Brooke research shows. A third of Botswana's donkeys have disappeared.
Some countries already have nationwide bans, but porous borders and lax enforcement of fines have made it difficult to stop the trade. In West Africa, donkeys are trafficked from landlocked countries before being slaughtered near the sea.
“Traffickers are looking for exit routes, such as ports, which we must fight to keep closed,” said Vessaly Kallo, director of veterinary services in Côte d'Ivoire.
Some governments have also faced pressure from farmers who raise donkeys and profit from the trade.
Some countries, such as Eritrea and South Africa, had long been reluctant to accept a ban, arguing that they had the right to decide how to use their natural resources, said Mwenda Mbaka, a member of the African Union's animal resources body.
In September, Mbaka took dozens of African diplomats on a retreat in Kenya. He showed them images of illegally slaughtered donkeys and emphasized that without the donkeys, some of the heavy work they do would likely fall to children or women.
It didn't take long to convince his audience, Mbaka said. “Once they saw the evidence, they were on board.”
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