Party Conference: International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)
9th October 2009
This meeting was addressed by two wonderful people from the Kenyan Wildlife Protection Service, Patrick Omondi and Eve Abe, Richard Benyon MP and Shadow Minister for Wildlife plus a former spokesperson for the Metropolitan Police wildlife crime unit.
In 1989 the Conservative Government led the world in banning the trade in ivory. But ten years later this Government reversed that success by voting with the far eastern countries to allow the ‘legitimate sale of stockpiled ivory’. They were warned at the time that such a watering down of the ban would stimulate the demand for ivory, and their critics were proved absolutely right. There has been a huge surge in demand, mostly from Japan and China, for ivory and tragically up to 38,000 elephants are being murdered in Africa per year to satisfy this evil demand. The brave rangers who work for the Kenyan (and other) wild life services in Africa (and who could earn a whole lot more by switching sides) are also at risk, 12 rangers were killed last year in Kenya alone.
