Yesterday the UK Government announced a consultation on a near-total ban on the UK Ivory Trade. This is obviously a step forward in the fight against elephant poaching, but does it go far enough?
Many conservation charities have welcomed the announcement with caution, having already pledged their involvement in the consultation process that runs for twelve weeks, closing on 29th December.
As the news broke on Friday morning, and throughout the day, we heard quotes from senior Conservative figures such as "
radical and robust action", "
poaching shames our generation" and "
this will put the UK front and centre of global efforts to end the insidious trade in ivory". Additionally, many news headlines simply stated "Ivory Trade to be banned in UK".
This is something we have all heard before. Twice the Conservative Party have included a UK Ivory ban in their manifesto, and twice they have not acted. In the 2017 election they didn't even bother to include it in their manifesto, indicating that it was just not important to them. Twice in the last year a UK Ivory trade ban was discussed in parliament and still no action was taken. And lets not forget that the Prime Minister is friends with Lady (Victoria) Borwick, the Conservative candidate who lost her seat in Kensington this year, and who is the president of the British Antique Dealers Association.
The US announced a near total ban in 2016. Hong Kong announced a ban in 2016. China announced a ban in 2017. The UK (the worlds largest ivory exporter) has only just announced a 'consultation' on a 'partial' ban. Certainly not "a
t the front and centre of global efforts".
The proposal isn't for a full ban. There will be exemptions, permitted items, loopholes that can be used by traders to continue to make money, and thus continue to feed demand. So its not a ban. It's just a day of misleading news headlines and sweeping statements by Government Ministers.
Whilst the government have said this action is a result of their concerns for elephants, lets not forget that in 2018 the UK is hosting a major illegal wildlife conference. The Government needed to do something to avoid the embarrassment of being the host yet being the only one not taking action.
This week the Conservative Party Conference took place. The conference included everything you would expect from a party in crisis. Senior Government Ministers undermining their leader, the Foreign Secretary joking about dead bodies, mixed messages on the approach to Brexit, a series of mishaps overshadowing the Prime Ministers speech, a prankster.....all topped off by a plot to remove Theresa May from her post and seek a new leader.
The Conservatives have had an awful week. They needed a good news story. They needed something positive to hit the headlines and detract from the internal fighting and backstabbing taking place.
If they really were concerned about elephants why not use their party conference to announce the consultation? Why wait until after the event when all the news about the Conservative Party was negative? Why do they think we can't see that the timing of the announcement was off? Why now, when it was removed from their manifesto? Yet another U-turn (albeit a positive one this time!).
Whilst I am pleased that, if nothing else, this has raised awareness - I, like many others, remain cautious. I can't sing and shout about it yet. We still have a very long way to go.
Whilst we should welcome the announcement, it is not good enough. Until the new regulations are put in place, and effectively enforced, I remain cautiously optimistic. The elephants still need us to keep fighting for them - a global total ban is what they need to survive.
