U.S. Seeks to Strengthen Wildlife Strategy to Minimize Ivory Trade

In 1989 the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species outlawed the trafficking of African elephant ivory worldwide. However, with a rise in the killings of elephants and rhinos in recent years, world leaders seek to enact stricter laws.

Between 2007 and 2012, rhino killings rose by 5,000% and 100 elephants were killed daily. The World Wildlife Fund estimates that the illegal ivory trade in recent years has killed 30,000 elephants per year, which is a startling number since there are less than 500,000 African elephants in existence. As a result, the Wildlife Conservation Society fears that these elephants face extinction within a decade. Additionally, the six remaining subspecies of tiger are endangered. World leaders seek to enact stricter sanctions to curb the illegal ivory trade. These statistics can be found in this CNN article as well as this National Geographic article.

President Obama plans to reveal his new strategy to fight wildlife crime in the next two days at a wildlife conference in London where UK Prime Minister David Cameron, Prince Charles and the Presidents of Botswana, Gabon, Tanzania and Chad will also speak and be present.

The drastic rise in ivory prices has led to an exacerbation of wildlife crime as well as an apparent disregard for the law. It's now estimated that illegal ivory sells for $1,500 a pound and illegal rhino horns can reach $45,000 a pound.

The U.S. and China have sent strong messages to these crime networks. This past November, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service crushed six tons of seized illegal ivory. This was the first staged effort to send a message in hopes of mitigating the illegal actions. China followed suit last month and also crushed six tons of seized illegal ivory. Soon thereafter, Hong Kong announced it will burn 28 tons of ivory over the next two years.

The Obama Administration plans to announce its three-pronged plan to protect the various ivory wielding wildlife. The plan hopes to  "Toughen domestic and global enforcement"; "Reduce demand for illegally traded wildlife at home and abroad"; and "Strengthen international partnerships to combat wildlife poaching," as provided by this National Geographic article.

Hopefully the world leaders at the conference can arrive at a consensus over the next 48 hours to help protect these wildlife species.