Posted on July, 21 2012

Members of WWF-Spain have voted today to amend their constitution by removing the position of honorary president of the organisation. 94% of voters decided that this position should be made redundant.

The meeting followed controversy surfacing in April 2012 over the King Juan Carlos hunting of elephants during a trip to Botswana. WWF-Spain requested a meeting to convey its profound discomfort and concern and that of many other members and citizens over this controversy. Although not illegal, the hunting was widely viewed as incompatible with the King’s position at the head of WWF-Spain.

At that time the Executive Council of WWF-Spain agreed unanimously to initiate procedures to modify the section of its bylaws regarding honorary positions in the organization, and to allow its members to decide to keep or to remove the Article 6 of the statutes: the article stipulated that the head of state of Spain was to be the honorary president of WWF-Spain. King Juan Carlos had held that position since the founding of the Spanish WWF in 1968.