We, young Europeans, call on the European Commission to implement an EU-wide ivory trade ban and close the EU domestic ivory market as a matter of urgency.

We welcome the new EU Biodiversity Strategy to 2030 published on 20^th May and note it includes a commitment to propose a further tightening of the rules on EU ivory trade later this year. We are shocked to learn that ivory continues to be traded on-line, in auction houses and markets across Europe. 

African elephants are facing their worst crisis in decades due to poaching for their ivory and large elephant populations are being wiped out from their natural habitat to fuel the illegal ivory trade. Voices across Europe have raised concerns regarding the legal trade being used by traffickers to launder illegal ivory.

Additionally to the indisputable animal rights abuse, the slaughter of tens of thousands of elephants has a disastrous effect on ecosystem health and functionality, further contributing to biodiversity loss and associated social impacts at a wider scale. 

We want to live in a world where elephants graze in African savannas and forests, but the youngest generation will be the ones most affected by the lack of action on this critical issue. We urge EU leaders to listen to us and to promote the interests of young people in enjoying a prosperous environment, for the benefit of all generations. 

To us, the ivory trade has no place in society. Elephants, as ecosystem engineers, are imperative to sustaining the ecosystems they inhabit and we recognise their intrinsic value to the natural world. We are not calling for the destruction of any ivory and we understand that any commercial ban would not affect past possession, inheritance or donation.

On behalf of GCE’s Biodiversity Working Group, we urge you to protect African elephants by purely and irreversibly closing the EU domestic ivory market and banning the commercial trade in ivory in the EU.