It is very discouraging having to fight the battle to save elephants once again. The 1989 ban helped elephants to recover in most parts of Africa. Now even in Amboseli we're losing elephants to ivory poachers for the first time in many years. The sale of any ivory--legal or not--is creating demand. No one needs ivory. It is a beautiful substance, but the only ones who need it are elephants.
What the Experts Say
Cynthia Moss
Amboseli Elephant Research Project
As long as ivory is valued as a commodity, every tusker is at risk from poachers, and only where anti-poaching efforts are sufficient will elephants survive. Anti-poaching costs money and lives.
Banning the ivory trade has been the single-most effective and economical way to slow the loss of elephants across their whole range - not just where they can be protected by anti-poaching units.
Ian Redmond OBE
Chief Consultant, GRASP - UNEP/UNESCO Great Ape Survival Partnership
Protecting elephants is an important part of fighting climate change. Why? Because every day across Africa and Asia, elephants disperse billions of seeds, some of which will grow into the forests of tomorrow, sequestering and storing carbon, generating rainfall and stabilising our climate. Save the elephants to save the forests to save the world!!
Ian Redmond OBE
Chief Consultant, GRASP - UNEP/UNESCO Great Ape Survival Partnership
As an attorney and author who has been deeply involved in issues pertaining to elephant welfare for 10 years, I am categorically opposed to resumption of ivory trade because all evidence points to such trade fueling the human appetite for ivory and the consequent, indiscriminate slaughter of these Appendix I protected animals.
Lisa Kane
JD
“The extinction of the African elephant is under way. The question we are asking the decision-makers in Europe is: ‘Do they want to see this happen?'.”
Perez Olindo
Government of South Sudan
“A single word can send out the wrong signal for those in the illegal trade, that they can start killing as quickly as possible.”
Perez Olindo
Government of South Sudan
Poaching is reducing continent-wide elephant populations by more than 8% annually, although some countries are being hit much harder than others. This level of off-take is unsustainable and will have serious ecological consequences given the keystone role elephants serve in African ecosystems.
Samuel K. Wasser, Ph.D
Director, Center for Conservation Biology, University of Washington
Elephants are living treasures. Nature's gardeners. Nature's great teachers. Tragically some people don't give a damn. They prefer the dead treasure to the living one. The ivory. We must challenge this so-called 'trade' with all our might and shame on those who would condone it.
Virginia McKenna OBE
Founder & Trustee Born Free Foundation