This week I joined the International Fund for Animal Welfare to back their campaign to ban the UK ivory trade.

Ivory trading in the UK is still legal for ivory predating 1947. But regulation is weak, and illegal trading rife. It’s estimated that the UK is now the third largest supplier of illegal ivory to the US. Every year over 30,000 African elephants are killed for their ivory. But a YouGov survey recently found that 95% of people support an outright ban on ivory trading in the UK.

Legal domestic ivory markets only serve to sustain demand. To reduce this demand, IFAW are encouraging anyone who owns an ivory item to surrender them in support of the campaign. Without an outright ban, the UK legal ivory trade will continue to act as a cover for the much bigger illegal market. This has to stop.

In 2010 the Tories pledged a ban on the UK ivory trade as part of their manifesto. They made the same pledge again in 2015. As they continue to break their promise, the illegal market grows. An outright ban is the only way to stop the needless, illegal slaughter of these magnificent animals.