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http://redirect.viglink.com?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Fenvironment%2Fafrica-wild%2F2016%2Faug%2F29%2Four-message-to-japan-africas-elephants-need-your-support&key=ddaed8f51db7bb1330a6f6de768a69b8
Our message to Japan: Africa's elephants need your support
Paula Kahumbu: Elephant diplomacy is helping to get Japan on board in efforts towards a global ban on ivory trade
The global coalition for a total ban on the trade in ivory is taking shape. In Africa calls for the ban are led by the 29 nation African Elephant Coalition (AEC). In the consumer countries, both the US President Obama and China's President Xi have made commitments to close the domestic markets which will have a huge impact on demand.
To be sure, progress towards building the coalition is uneven. Key African nations such as Zimbabwe and Namibia are opposed to the ban, and have even petitioned CITES for a relaxation of current restrictions. In Europe, while the French Environment Minister Ségolène Royal has signed a decree banning the trade, in the UK the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says it is still “working” on its pledge to implement a total ban on ivory sales.
Japan is one of Africa's most important development partners. They have made major contributions and commitments to support conservation. Now the conservation community call for 5 actions to be agreed at TICAD:
1. Japan to permanently close legal domestic markets of ivory, and aggressively close down online trading sites that deal in ivory, all to crush demand.
It is important that the international community does not underestimate Japan's role as an ivory consumer and the effect of legal ivory trade. With Kenya having hosted TICAD6, I hope that Kenya will use their friendship with Japan, to win their support on elephant conservation.
I was invited by First Lady Mrs Kenyatta, who is also doing a lot of conservation work, to visit the Sheldrick's animal orphanage. Baby elephants who lost their mothers to poaching… They may have been traumatised by seeing their mother killed right in front of them, yet they come and so innocently play with us.
Feeding them milk, stroking them… I felt a kind of connection with these babies. And before I realized I was in tears. It almost felt like touching God…
Continue reading... gaia
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