The situation for the elephants of Africa is dire. One elephant is killed for its tusks every fifteen minutes. The demand for ivory needs to be halted at the global level in order to save this iconic species from slipping into extinction.
However, Tanzania has formally applied to CITES (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna) to sell-off its stockpile of ivory. Selling ivory will only contribute to maintaining the trade by feeding demand, which means the deaths of more elephants at the hands of poachers.
CITES gave permission to four African countries to sell-off ivory stockpiles in 2008, which is seen to have been the catalyst for the current poaching crisis. This ‘one-off’ sale stimulated the market and encouraged more poaching by fueling the belief that a full-scale ivory trade would resume.
Recent figures show that 22,000 elephants were killed across Africa in 2012. The rate of killing compared to natural population growth means the largest animal on Earth could soon become extinct.
According to the Tanzania Wildlife Research Institute, Tanzania loses 30 elephants a day to poachers, with total numbers now less than a third of what they were in the 1960s.
Please sign the petition and demand that CITES helps to save the elephants of Tanzania by denying the Tanzanian government’s application to sell-off its stockpile of ivory.
