Tourism and Wildlife Cabinet Secretary Najib Balala pressed European Union officials in Brussels to eliminate domestic ivory markets during a March 2019 meeting, emphasizing their role in enabling poaching. The push came as EU Environment Ministers prepared for a March 5, 2019, meeting and the upcoming CITES CoP18 conference in Sri Lanka.
Speaking on behalf of the African Elephant Coalition, Balala stated that 20,000 African elephants are killed annually for their ivory, with legal markets in Europe and Asia acting as conduits for laundering poached material. He highlighted the UK's December 2018 restrictions on ivory trade as a model for EU action, noting that 144,000 elephants were killed across Africa over the past decade.
"Assuming no link between domestic ivory markets and African poaching is a flawed basis for EU policy," Balala argued. He called on the EU to adopt comprehensive measures similar to those in China, the U.S., and other nations that have restricted or banned ivory trade, while acknowledging existing bans in France, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg.
Legal ivory markets, Balala asserted, reinforce social acceptability of ivory and fuel transnational wildlife crime. He warned that failure to close EU markets would continue threatening elephant populations, citing the UK's 2018 regulations as proof of effective policy implementation.
