The UN Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) Conference of Parties is fast approaching. This is the stage on which the decision to ban trade in ivory was taken in 1989, and where the ban was weakened with one-off stockpile sales two decades later. This year there are no new proposals for one-off sales (Tanzania having recently withdrawn theirs following revelations about the scale of the poaching crisis that they are suffering), but there are still important battles to be won in order to secure a future for elephants.
Save the Elephants has been assembling a crack team to send to the meeting, which is to be held in Bangkok over the first two weeks of March. In January we hired scientist Dr Kathleen Gobush as our Ivory Crisis Strategist, who has been tasked with developing an action plan to reduce demand for ivory that a broad coalition of individuals, non-governmental organisations and governments can unite behind. Dr Lucy King (leader of STE’s Human-Elephant Conflict programme) and Festus Ihwagi (senior research scientist for STE) will also be there, with STE founder Dr Iain Douglas-Hamilton at the helm.
Sending a delegation half way around the world to stand up for elephants at such a level doesn’t come cheap. Here we were blessed with the support of the Briar Patch Foundation and Helen Lang, both of whom have given crucial support for getting the team to Bangkok to realise our mission.
We’ll keep you posted on how the team is getting on both with longer updates in the Field Diary and via our facebook page. Wish us luck!