At the 14th meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) in March 2010 in Doha, Qatar, the parties adopted Decision 14.79 which directed the Secretariat of CITES to establish an African Elephant Fund that will be applied to the implementation of the African Elephant Action Plan. The CITES Secretariat requested the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) to establish and administer a general, multi-donor, technical cooperation trust fund for receiving and accounting for voluntary contributions to fund activities related to the implementation of the African Elephant Action Plan. Subsequently, the creation of the African Elephant Fund was approved by the Executive Director of UNEP on 12 February 2011, and its establishment was approved at the 26th meeting of the UNEP Governing Council1. The CITES Secretariat was further directed to establish a Steering Committee consisting of representatives of the range States and donors to govern the African Elephant Fund. The Steering Committee was mandated to decide on the organization of the administration of the fund.