Sir Roger (North Thanet)  has shown his commitment to protecting elephants by pledging his support for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)’s campaign against the ivory trade.
 
Sir Roger attended IFAW’s ‘Dying for Ivory’ event at the House of Commons this week .  He is pictured with a large confiscated elephant tusk to highlight the issue and send a clear message that we want the UK to take the lead in the international community to stop elephants dying to fuel the ivory trade.
 
Recent months have seen the shocking scenes of massacred elephants killed by poachers for their ivory tusks. For example, in the first two months of 2012, it is reported that as many as 650 elephants were butchered in a national park in north Cameroon. First-hand information collected by IFAW indicates the indiscriminate, violent nature of the killings of entire elephant families, including mothers and even juveniles with small tusks.

IFAW’s event highlighted the threats currently facing elephant populations and focused on the rising consumer demand in China.

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​It showed that the recent stockpile sales of ivory(1) have fuelled demand, pushed up prices and allowed illegal ivory to be leaked into the market place along with legal ivory. IFAW explained that escalating ivory prices and demand in China combined with an uncontrollable ivory market make for a lethal combination that could be contributing to the rise in poaching and destruction of wild elephant populations. 
 
Rt Hon Nick Herbert MP, Minister for Policing, spoke at the event, highlighting the fact that organised criminal syndicates have been linked to illegal ivory trade. Traffickers deal in ivory and use the same pipelines for smuggling people, drugs and weapons.