African and Asian nations on Tuesday agreed on urgent measures to tackle the illegal ivory trade, from the slaughter of elephants to the trafficking of their valuable tusks to the Far East.
The deal comes after top officials and experts from 30 states met in Botswana this week to tackle an upsurge in elephant poaching as demand for ivory soars from countries such as China and Thailand.
Countries that are home to elephants, and those where their ivory ends up, agreed to "urgent measures to halt the illegal trade and secure elephant populations across Africa," the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and Botswanan government said in a statement.
Do you feel that there will be high resistance from those who are part of illegal ivory trading? Or do you think this will surely cut down the amount of elephants killed for their tusks?
I think this will help to shut down the irvory trade. However, I don't think it will be able to eliminate the ivory trade all together. Many poachers are experts at not getting caught and obviously don't care about breaking laws. I am hopeful that these new restrictions will help to catch poachers and save many elephants.