UK PARLIAMENT TO DEBATE PETITION CALLING FOR CLOSURE OF DOMESTIC IVORY MARKET
EIA mailing list
January 30, 2017
THE UK Parliament is due on February 6 to debate the closure of the country’s domestic ivory market after a petition exceeded 100,000 signatures.
In September, UK Environment Secretary Andrea Leadsom announced plans for a ban on ‘modern day’ ivory sales – but the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), while welcoming it as a first step, pointed out that the proposal was effectively only tightening current regulations and would not further restrict the trade.
EIA Executive Director Mary Rice said: “Some of the evidence suggests the UK’s legal market provides cover for the illegal international trade, a wholly unacceptable state of affairs for a country which has shown strong leadership on elephant conservation over the past three years in particular.”
With the USA and France already going further than the UK to close down their ivory markets, and with China’s announcement that it will close its own domestic market by the end of 2017, EIA believes it is imperative that the UK moves decisively to close its remaining domestic ivory markets.
