According to a statement released earlier today by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra has agreed to propose legislation that would put an end to Thailand’s ivory trade.
For the past several months, the WWF has led a large-scale campaign intended to put pressure on Yingluck to ban the sale of ivory within Thailand. The campaign involved an online petition, which gathered more than 50,000 signatures, and enlisted the help of such high-profile environmentalists as Leonardo DiCaprio.
Yingluck’s announcement came during a speech she gave at the opening of the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Fauna and Flora (CITES) conference, which is taking place in Bangkok throughout the following week.
“As a next step we will forward amending the national legislation with the goal of putting an end on ivory trade and to be in line with international norms,” she said. “This will help protect all forms of elephants including Thailand’s wild and domestic elephants and those from Africa.”
Though the sale of African ivory is illegal in Thailand, environmentalists have long speculated that vendors are selling African ivory within the Thai market, passing it off as ivory harvested legally from domesticated, Thai elephants. The WWF hopes that by banning the sale of all types of ivory within the Kingdom, the Thai government will make it harder for both domestic and international poachers to peddle their wares.
WWF officer Carlos Drews said that his organization is “thrilled” about Yingluck’s announcement, but at the same time called on the PM to lay out a timeline for implementation of this new policy, in order to ensure that it was enacted in a fair and timely manner.
