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February 2022

News and Resources

PRESS RELEASE: Nations meeting next week will realize how seriously Japan lags in addressing its domestic ivory market
1024 979 Japan Tiger Elephant Organization

TOKYO (February 28, 2022)— The Standing Committee (SC) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) is going to discuss “Closure of Domestic Ivory Markets” at its 74th meeting on 7-11 March in Lyon. The working document prepared for discussion includes reports submitted by 10 countries/regions, including Japan, a non-elephant range state which maintains a legal domestic market at a time when many leading consumer nations have closed their markets to protect elephants from the threat of poaching to supply the ivory trade. The Government of Japan (GoJ) insists that “Japan has been implementing stringent measures to ensure that its domestic ivory market is not contributing to poaching or illegal trade”; however, a…

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PRESS RELEASE: Tokyo Committee on Ivory Trade Regulation Could Backfire; A Recommendation to the Governor Unlikely
1000 1024 Japan Tiger Elephant Organization

TOKYO (February 9, 2022)— Elephant advocates worldwide sent a letter to Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike to warn that the “Advisory Committee on Regulation of Ivory Trade” she established two years ago is now failing to achieve its goal: producing a specific recommendation on regulation of ivory trade to the Governor. In a move that suggested a willingness to take stronger action on ivory trade than the national government, in early 2020 the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (TMG) announced the development of the “Advisory Committee on Regulation of Ivory Trade”, comprised of experts from different fields including law, economy, ecology, media and conservation, to explore and discuss measures to prevent illegal ivory trade and export.The international community including the range states of…

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