March 13th marks the 15th iteration of Annual National Thai Elephant Day – a holiday meant to attract attention to one of Thailand’s most beloved animals. The date has been commemorated since 1998 when the government approved the holiday.
With Elephant Day upon us and the 16th Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) conference wrapping up tomorrow, let’s look back at how Thailand, the conference’s host country, has made strides towards becoming an ivory-trade-free nation.
March 3th: Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra gave a nod to the proposal of legislation that would terminate Thailand’s ivory trade.
“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,” Yingluck said. “This will help protect all forms of elephants including Thailand’s wild and domestic elephants and those from Africa.”
Yingluck’s announcement came after the WWF had submitted an online petition, with 50,000 signatures from supporters and the endorsement of Leonardo DiCaprio, to her in order to pressure the Thai government to ban the sale of ivory within the Kingdom.
March 7th: the standing committee of CITES put Thailand on an ivory trade watch list, despite Yingluck’s explicit willingness to ban the notorious trade. Being in the list simply means that Thailand risks being alienated in the international wildlife trade community.
March 11th: CITES delegates joined hands in threatening Thailand with trade sanctions if the country fails to halt the domestic ivory trade by 2014. The delegation specifically said that they had lost patience with Thailand.
The CITES conference will conclude tomorrow and few developments are expected to emerge from its remaining hours. From this date, the Thai government has less than two years to show that it is sincerely committed to keeping its promise. But this will not be an easy task, as explained in our feature on Thailand’s tortuous ivory laws.
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