Tell the EU to Ban the Ivory Trade – NOW!

EUROPE, APPEALS, ANIMAL RIGHTS - VEGETARIANISM, 11 Mar 2019

Rainforest Rescue – TRANSCEND Media Service

Freshly poached – and traded in the EU as “antique” ivory. (© Virunga Nationalpark, DR Kongo)

The EU sees itself as a conservation leader, yet it has a blind spot for the ivory business. The trade in “antique” ivory remains legal in the EU – a convenient loophole to launder tons of freshly poached tusks and export them to Asia. Tell the EU to kill the trade – before the trade kills the last elephants!

Call to action

To: the European Commission and governments of the Member States

Ban the ivory trade completely in the EU. Poaching will not stop until the market for ivory has been eradicated.

Read letter

Many people assume that elephants are poached in Africa and their ivory is sold to Asia – and that Europe is completely out of the picture. In fact, Europe is a hub for both the legal and illegal trade in ivory.

The sale, the import and export of existing ivory stock is legal in Europe – making it relatively simple for organized criminals to use the trade to launder illegal ivory from poached elephants.

Ivory is openly available for sale in the EU at auctions, in antique shops and online. Some EU companies are even specialized in purchasing and exporting ivory to Asia: more than seven tons of ivory and over 12,000 ivory carvings were exported to Hong Kong alone over the last two years.

No one can say how much illegal ivory is being laundered on the European market, or how many elephants have been killed for it.

In two recent conferences, the international community called on all governments to shut down their domestic ivory markets. The EU has not complied with these demands and continues to undermine the global struggle to save the elephants.

Please call on the EU to ban the ivory trade completely. We need to kill the trade – before the trade kills the last elephants!

Back­ground Letter

This petition is also available in the following languages:

• German
• Spanish
• French
• Italian
• Portuguese

Go to Original – rainforest-rescue.org

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