Botswana made a clear statement against ivory trade at the 17th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species when it announced it would voluntarily relinquish Appendix II status for its own elephants to support up-listing all African elephants to the much tougher Appendix I
Following several long and bloody years of escalating poaching, it looks as if elephants may at last be given a fighting chance.
National Geographic has published an investigative report on the illegal ivory trade, Blood Ivory, which highlights fundamental flaws in the CITES ivory-trading system. Ivory trading drives poaching and ivory trafficking and we urge the CITES Parties to learn from this mistake and invest in adequate enforcement.