The documentary Blood Ivory Smugglers, following EIA undercover investigators in Hong Kong, China and Kenya, makes its UK premiere on Nat Geo Wild; EIA co-founder Dave Currey was one of the team being filmed and here reflects on his experiences of campaigning against the ivory trade
People sometimes ask me how I can do my job. Actually, I don’t know how the folk at STE do theirs. EIA’s work is in many ways a one removed from the grim reality of poaching because we are focusing on the trade; so it’s rare for us to be present at the immediate aftermath of a poaching incident.
Our Lead Campaigner, Debbie Banks, reports on the recent CITES meeting where civil society was voted out of the room in a ploy for China and others to discuss our ivory investigation findings. China's lack of enforcement is alarming and we will continue to challenge it on its CITES commitments to tigers and elephants.
Conservation groups reacted with dismay and disgust after being forced out of a crucial session on elephants and the ivory trade at the UN CITES Convention in Geneva. The move comes as China faces criticism for failing to clamp down on its illegal ivory trade, raising suspicions it may have been behind the exclusion
A briefing to CITES Standing Committee arguing that one-off sales of stockpiled ivory have actually stimulated the illegal black market trade and poaching, rather than stem them. Among our recommendations, we urge the Standing Committee to withdraw China’s status as an ivory trading partner with immediate effect
Almost 10 years ago, we investigated the case of more than six tonnes of illegal ivory seized en route to Japan. It had been only one of 19 which had left the shores of Africa, all heading to Asia. To this day, no-one apart from a minor fixer in Singapore has ever been prosecuted, let alone convicted.