Save elephants, stop Japanese ivory trade

This 28 September 2016 video says about itself:

The Dirty Secrets of Japan’s Illegal Ivory Trade

New evidence reveals a twenty year history of broken commitments by Japan to enact effective controls to prevent poached tusks from being sold domestically or for illegal export.

By Sarah Morrison – Avaaz today:

It’s crazy — while tens of thousands of elephants are being slaughtered to death, Japan is fighting to keep its booming ivory market open. But Japan is hosting the Olympics next year and wants to attract millions more tourists — let’s show them people everywhere want an ivory-free Olympics and an end to this bloody trade.

Sign now!

Dear friends,

The best type of ivory comes from the middle of the elephant‘s tusk, where it’s firm and flawless. Poachers try to slaughter the largest elephant — often the matriarch, leaving her baby elephants to fend for themselves.

And the craziest thing? While tens of thousands of elephants are being hacked to death that way, Japan is fighting to keep its booming ivory market open — saying it has nothing to do with it.

But Japan is hosting the Olympics in 2020, and is hoping to welcome millions more tourists! That’s where we come in: many of us live in countries that Japan wants to attract for tourism. If millions of us sign and we launch a global media campaign for an ivory-free Olympics, we can win them over!

Sign now — and let’s together shut down one of the biggest domestic ivory markets in the world for good:

Experts estimate that over 250,000 elephants have been slaughtered to fuel Japan’s ivory trade. And conservationists are warning that elephants could go extinct in our lifetime! Imagine a world where our grandchildren will never know elephants to exist other than in books.

It’s not too late — we can help save them, but it will take massive pressure on governments like Japan to ban the trade. And Japan has set itself a goal to attract 10 million more tourists next year — if we show them that keeping their ivory market open puts that goal at risk, we can get them to change their mind!

Japan argues that their domestic market only uses legal ivory. But the truth is, they can’t know for sure. And, it’s easy to smuggle into other countries like China — which keeps the demand alive, and puts more of Africa’s elephants at risk.

We’ve helped win bans before — let’s do it again! Add your name and share this widely — and let’s get to one million.

This isn’t just about elephants. These majestic creatures are a “keystone species” that help sustain the whole ecosystem in which they live. That’s part of why we’ve been protecting elephants for years — from proving that illegal ivory is sold on the streets of Europe, to funding anti-poaching efforts across Africa, and championing a vision to protect half our planet for nature, so these deeply intelligent, emotional animals can roam free. Now, let’s take the fight to Japan!

With hope and determination,

Sarah, Rosa, Rewan, Laura, Bert, Christoph, Ricken and the entire Avaaz team

Sources:

Japan’s new rule for curbing ivory trade won’t work, experts say (National Geographic)

Japan to make carbon dating of ivory mandatory for trade, tightening controls on oft-criticized market (Japan Times)

Japan is still hungry for ivory. The reason is a personal stamp called a hanko. (Washington Post)

Online Ivory Trade Perpetuated by Yahoo Japan, Weak Legislation (EcoWatch)

TRAFFIC Study: Japan’s ivory market must close (Traffic)

Elephants on the path to extinction – the facts (The Guardian)