Tell Hong Kong: Elephants can't wait

Hong Kong has bowed to international pressure and, in 2018, agreed to close its ivory markets. But the ban won't be in effect until 2021. This three-year grace period could actually increase the illegal ivory trade. At the current poaching rates, where nearly 100 elephants are killed a day, more than 100,000 could be slaughtered by 2021.

A distant target could lead to stockpiling, whereby poachers significantly increase elephant slaughter for traders who want to sell as much ivory as they can before the ban puts an end to their bloody profits.

Elephants need our full protection now. Each time a mother elephant is killed, her dependent calves may die too, wiping out two generations at once. Elephants have slow rates of reproduction with intervals of 3 to 6 years between births. Their regeneration rate averages 5 to 6 percent annually, compared to the 8 to 9 percent poaching rates, resulting in a net loss in population numbers.

Sign the petition and send a strong message to Hong Kong: End ivory sales now!