In a time of global uncertainty and increased tension, elephants have just been given their best chance of survival since the start of Africa’s exploitation centuries ago. China’s president Xi Jinping has followed through on an agreement with Barak Obama to commit to a timetable for reducing the brutal demand for ivory that is wiping out Africa’s elephants.
China has promised that it will have stopped domestictrade in ivory by the end of 2017. If the bottom drops out of the market, the incentives to kill will drop too.
As WildAid said so well:
“When the buying stops
The killing can too”
This is intervention on a scale that will make a difference.
We need to recognize that ending trade will be very difficult, and it is important to empathize with the many artisans who will lose jobs, but while it is our responsibility to recognize positive steps, we also must raise our voices when needed so that the promise is kept.
ELP Community - we have pushed out an awareness campaign with the above text and the fantastic video linked above, but we need to try to really get this viewed widely. My hope is that by lodging the tag 'China's Promise' and the hashtag #chinapromise in lots of people's heads, we can reach a really big group when we need to put pressure on China and other 'non-compliant' countries to keep the promise (e.g. joining petition campaigns).
Please, go to our FaceBook page and share the post. If you do Twitter, go to @elephantrumbles and re-tweet our post there.
And Thank You.
- Peter
The Elephant Listening Project is dedicated to the study and conservation of elephants, with a focus on the forest elephants of Central Africa. Visit the project's website at http://elephantlisteningproject.org.
You are receiving this newsletter because you requested it directly or subscribed on our website. If we are sending this in error please accept our appologies and use one of the links below to unsubscribe.
