Save Elephants from Illegal Poaching and Resumption of Ivory Trading
savewi...@defenders.org
free e-mail to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service urging them to support
elephant conservation and work to oppose illegal poaching and future
efforts to resume international trade in ivory.
Barely ten years ago, wild elephants in Africa and Asia were hurtling
towards extinction. Poachers were killing elephants in record numbers
to feed the international demand for the ivory from elephant's tusks and
their hides. Elephants in Africa were particularly hard hit, with
populations in many countries nearly destroyed. In 1989, the nations of
the world took action through the Convention on International Trade on
Endangered Species (CITES) to ban the international ivory trade and stop
the wholesale slaughter of the world's elephants.
In 1997, CITES allowed a one-time trade in stockpiled ivory to resume
from some countries. That experiment resulted in dramatic increases in
poaching, both in the countries involved in the trade and across Africa
and Asia.
This past April in Nairobi, Kenya, the world's nations were once again
asked at CITES to approve a proposal to lift the ban and allow the ivory
trade to resume. In the end, this request was withdrawn, but the
poaching and illegal trade that was sparked by the experimental ivory
sale continues. To bring this poaching under control and to ensure that
it doesn't explode again if the ivory trade resumes, governments must
act now to enforce their laws and build their capacity to combat
elephant poachers now and in the future.
Sincerely,
Help Elephants Campaign
Defenders of Wildlife
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