Thailand Vows To Enforce Stop on Trading Ivory, Saving Both Domestic and Foreign Elephants
March 15, 2013 Kyriaki (Sandy) Venetis Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, whose country has one of the world’s biggest markets of unregulated ivory, has pledged to begin a legislative process to end the trade within the country’s borders.
Seizures of ivory from illegal trade. Photo courtesy of nature.com.
The pledge was made as part of her remarks last week at an international wildlife trade meeting – the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) in Bangkok.
The issue has reached a critical point in Thailand. Janpai Ongsiriwittaya, Illegal Wildlife Trade campaign leader for World Wildlife Fund (WWF)-Thailand, said that, “Perhaps as few as only 2,500 wild elephants are left in Thailand. That’s as many elephants as were wiped out each month in Africa in 2012 to fuel demand for ivory trinkets.”
“Ongsiriwittaya further explained that, “The sale of ivory from wild elephants is currently illegal for CITES-host Thailand, but the sale of ivory from Thai domestic elephants is legal. Determining whether ivory products are derived from wild elephants or domestic animals is extremely difficult, and enforcement agencies are currently unable to detect illegal ivory entering the Thai trade.”
The WWF says that, “Currently, Thai law permits the sale of ivory from domestic elephants, resulting in a major loophole that allows for massive quantities of illegal African ivory to be sold alongside the domestic ivory in Thailand shops.”
The Thai prime minister’s pledge to end the ivory trade in country came after mounting public pressure from a petition campaign by the WWF and the social activist group Avaaz.
The WWF says that so far “1.4 million voices from 227 countries and territories” have signed the petition. So far though, Shinawatra hasn’t given a timeline for when the ban will take place.