WWF - Illegal ivory trade booms during Egypt's Arab Spring

WWF - Illegal ivory trade booms during Egypt's Arab Spring

Elephants are being hunted and killed for their ivory only. With the recent political unrest in Egypt it would difficult for the Egyptian Widlife Service to prevent illegal trade of animal products. According to the article there have been few ivory seizures since 2005. CITES is working with the EWS to help educate people on illegal animal products and how to identify them. Tom Milliken, TRAFFIC's ivory trade expert said, “Tourists buying ivory are potentiating this illegal trade, making a mockery of CITES and fuelling the poaching of Africa’s elephants.”

TRAFFIC is the wildlife trade monitoring network, which works to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature (www.traffic.org/overview 2012). It is a global network that works with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). The main goal of CITES is to "ensure that the international trade in specimens of wild animals and plants does not threaten their survival" (www.cites.org/eng/disc/what.php 2012).

It is very important for countries to work together to stop market hunting and trade of endangered species because if we fail to work together than we fail to save the Earth's species.

http://www.cites.org/eng/news/pr/2011/20111221_cites_za_elephant.php

This press release was issued December of 2011 and includes details about African elephants and the newly developed African Elephant Action Plan. The plan calls for a stop to illegal trade of ivory, poaching, and a plan to maintain elephant habitats.