Lion Gjoni is continuing his life, under the wonderful care of the staff of BEAR Sanctuary Prishtina.

However, BEAR Sanctuary Prishtina remains a temporary home for Gjoni, who has been waiting for years to be transferred to South Africa, to one of FOUR PAWS’ rescue centers.

Gjoni remains hostage to political procedures, namely the CITES international convention, which Kosovo has not yet ratified. Without ratification of this convention, Kosovo cannot export protected wild animals to other countries that are members of CITES.

Unfortunately, Gjoni is not the only wild animal smuggled into Kosovo and kept in inadequate conditions in isolation, and the country’s institutions have no initiative nor possibility to confiscate these animals, due to the lack of infrastructure to house them, but also due to the inability to cooperate with international organizations to transfer them to other countries.

Given the legal requirements in Kosovo for ratification of an international convention, great political mobilization is needed, and we expect the Ministry of Environment, but also other relevant institutions and parliamentary commissions, to initiate the ratification of the CITES convention as soon as possible!