It’s no longer acceptable to buy, sell ivory: Prince William

IN A LIVE satellite feed in the lead-up to the major Conference of the Parties (CoP17) of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (Cites) which opens in Johannesburg tomorrow, Prince William said the world had a chance to make a stand and “that it is no longer acceptable to buy and sell ivory”.

Speaking to invited audiences in Johannesburg and Tokyo, Prince William said “the opportunity that Cites presents will not come around again for another three years, I sincerely hope the parties will be able to unite around this message to the world”.

Battle lines have already been drawn between the 183-nation conference over the future of elephants: 29 African nations comprising 70% of African range states calling themselves the African Elephant Coalition (AEC), along with Sri Lanka and supported by France and Luxembourg, have submitted a proposal for a total ban on ivory at the conference, while three southern African countries – Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa – still want to open a legal trade in ivory.

Prince William’s stance to stop the trade in ivory comes in the wake of a newly released and comprehensive data from the Great Elephant Census, which revealed a catastrophic decline in elephant numbers across Africa. This in turn was followed by a resolution earlier this month when the IUCN World Conservation Congress, at its meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii, passed with a 90% majority urging countries to close their domestic markets for commercial trade in raw or worked elephant ivory.

However, the UK does not seem to share the prince’s commitment to saving elephants. Despite a statement yesterday promising to implement stricter measures to regulate its own domestic market, the UK has stopped far short of following his call to not buy and sell ivory.

Earlier this month, the country abstained from supporting a closure of domestic markets in Hawaii, one of the few not to support the measure, and has made no commitment to support the proposal for an Appendix I listing at the CoP, which will provide the highest standard of international protection and would prohibit all commercial ivory trade.

Dame Judith MacGregor, British High Commissioner to South Africa, said as ambassador she could not comment on her government’s policy but she did say “Prince William reflected that there is a general popular increase in concern and that’s certainly true about the UK and should rightly be bringing pressure on our politicians to respond.” – Conservation Action Trust