IN THE NEWS: Full Coverage of the Lifted Ivory Import Ban

It’s been a crazy few days with news coming out of Washington on Wednesday that according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services elephants legally hunted in Zambia or Zimbabwe between 2016-2018 can now be imported into the United States. Then, on Friday, it was announced this decision would be put on hold.

Mara Elephant Project released the following statement regarding THe LIFTED BAN:

Mara Elephant Project’s mission is to protect elephants to conserve the greater Mara ecosystem. Every day 30 elephants are poached for their ivory and any ivory legally or illegally exported or trafficked from Africa feeds the demand for more. Elephant populations across Africa are dwindling (2016 Great Elephant Census www.greatelephantcensus.com) and anything that may suggest otherwise is detrimental to protecting this iconic species and undermines efforts to address poaching.

MEP works daily to stop the ruthless operations of poachers that is an ongoing issue in Kenya. Evidence of this can be found in many of our arrest reports and just this past week MEP arrested two poachers with eight pieces of elephant tusks weighing 12 kilograms. This very unfortunate development, while limited to Zimbabwe and Zambia, puts at risk all of Africa’s elephant population. Elephants are one of Africa’s greatest natural resources and should be protected as such. Learn more about what Mara Elephant Project is doing to protect elephants in Kenya by heading to our website, www.maraelephantproject.org.