European governments are deciding whether to support a global, permanent ivory ban right now!

We need them to speak up because the European Commission is keeping the door open for future legal trade in ivory, something which 29 African countries say will lead to elephant extinction!

Choose your country from the drop down menu on the right and send an urgent message to your government asking them to support maximum protection for elephants, fight poaching, and shut the door on the bloody ivory trade for good.

Here are the facts and some talking points to use in your letter, but remember the more personal the message the better:
I call on you to:

• Support giving elephants maximum legal protection at the upcoming CITES conference, and call on the European Commission to do the same.
• Oppose all efforts to reopen the ivory trade when the moratorium on ivory sales expires in 2017.
• Work with the African Elephant Coalition countries to build global support for these proposals.

Facts:

• Elephants are in crisis. Across Africa, the population has reduced by 61% in the past 33 years and current trends point to extinction. 29 African governments say the only way to save elephants is to give them maximum protection and completely and permanently shut down trade, while just four African countries oppose the plan because they hope to profit from a future trade.
• The European Commission currently does not support that position and could be open to discussions to reopen the legal trade in certain circumstances.
• The latest research shows that even a closely controlled legal trade in ivory fuels the poaching that could wipe elephants from the Earth. There is no such thing as a safe trade in ivory, and any efforts against poaching will be incomplete without a permanent ivory trade ban, globally and domestically.