Michael Gove: We must block the ivory trade before elephants become extinct

Under threat: 20,000 African elephants are killed every year

Cameron Spencer/Getty Images

6 October 2017

Could we ever look our grandchildren in the eye if we were the generation on whose watch the African elephant became extinct?

There is a magnificence and beauty to the elephant that makes it an iconic species, but also an increasingly endangered one.

Every year, approximately 20,000 African elephants are slaughtered. That’s 54 every day. And all to meet the global demand for illegal ivory.

Unless we take action, one of the world’s most majestic creatures could be extinct within decades. Robust action is required now to tackle the ivory trade and to save the elephant.

The demand for ivory is driven by the desire of misguided buyers to acquire this trophy asset. And, sadly, Britain has been a route for some of this trade.

In order to ensure that no illegal ivory is bought, sold or trafficked through Britain, we want to impose some of the toughest restrictions in the world on this brutal and exploitative trade. That is why I am proposing to ban the sale of ivory items.

Our proposal will put the UK at the forefront of a global effort to end this trade. We will be talking to conservationists, the arts and antiques sectors and other interested parties to explore practical enforcement. We will consult on the scope of a few, tightly limited exemptions for items where ivory is only a tiny component part of a much bigger object, or where items are of such significant historic, artistic or cultural value that they can be properly verified as exceptional. Exemptions will be strictly enforced in order to ensure they are not open to exploitation.

The proposed ban is the latest, and most important, step in tackling the exploitation of the world’s wild animals. The UK will take further action to tackle poaching and the illegal ivory trade in October 2018 when we will host the fourth international conference on the Illegal Wildlife Trade.

The UK initiated this ground-breaking conference in 2014, and next year will bring world leaders back to London to work together on this global challenge. We are also investing £26 million in illegal wildlife trade projects, including the training of elite anti-poaching African park rangers by British soldiers and the sharing of border enforcement expertise to identify illegal trading.

That ivory is still sold and desired as a commodity is shameful. That is why we, the UK, must show leadership and do everything we can to protect one of the most majestic of all the animals with whom we share this planet.

Michael Gove is Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

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Michael Gove: We must block the ivory trade before elephants become extinct

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