Wow. The population of the African elephant in the 1980’s was around 1 million. Now, there is a total population of less than 460,000. These enormous, intelligent and highly sociable mammals are still being slaughtered for their ivory and meat, with some populations in Africa perilously close to extinction, despite the 1990 Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) ban on international ivory sales. The Central African Elephant for example, could be extinct in less than three years, and others are expected to permanently vanish from their natural habitats in the next 20- 50 years. We cannot let this happen!

 In 2009 IFAW reported that over one hundred elephants were being killed daily for their tusks. That amounts to 36,500 elephants a year, being savagely slaughtered to fuel a billion dollar black market. African Elephants are under CITES Appendix II, in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe, which means some regulated trade of ivory is permitted.

What can we do? There more noise we make, and the more people are aware of the plight of the elephants, the more pressure we can put on government officials to strictly enforce laws protecting these animals. Likewise, we can put pressure on CITES to restore the full ban on ivory trading. You can sign IFAW’s petition to end the international ivory trade here.

And you can read more on the ivory trade, and what you can do at CITES, IFAW, Bush Warriors, IUCN, EIA

Photo Via EIA