In 1961, the Arusha Manifesto declared the following commitment to wildlife in Africa:
"The survival of our wildlife is a matter of grave concern to all of us in Africa. These wild creatures amid the wild places they inhabit are not only important as a source of wonder and inspiration, but are an integral part of our natural resources and our future livelihood and well being. In accepting the trusteeship of our wildlife we solemnly declare that we will do everything in our power to make sure that our children's grand-children will be able to enjoy this rich and precious inheritance. The conservation of wildlife and wild places calls for specialist knowledge, trained manpower and money, and we look to other nations to co-operate with us in this important task - the success or failure of which not only affects the continent of Africa but the rest of the world as well." Julius K. Nyerere, Arusha Manifesto, 1961
However, in recent years, the plight of elephants in Tanzania is become critical and the world just has to do something about this or they will be gone forever. Government data shows industrial scale of poaching for ivory as number of elephants in Tanzania drops from 109,051 in 2009 to 43,330 in 2014.
Current predictions estimate that elephants could all be wiped out by the year 2020 unless the trend is reversed.
Elephant poaching has reached CRISIS LEVEL but it is now widely recognised that the UK can do something about this by instigating an outright ban on ALL ivory trade in, to or from the UK. This simple act could be enough to reverse the damage done in recent years.
Please write to your MP to show your support for an outright ban on all ivory sales in the UK.