Helen Clark Joins Fight to Ban Ivory Trading

Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Helen Clark has joined prominent New Zealand business leaders, respected conservationist Jane Goodall, WildAid and the Environmental Investigation Agency – to formally urge the New Zealand Government to consider a complete ban on all ivory trading.

An Open Letter was delivered to the New Zealand Government and Prime Minister John Key on 17 July.

Clark has recently returned from visiting African countries on the frontline of the poaching crisis. Voted by Forbes as one of the most powerful women in the world, Clark is on a mission to dismantle the illegal wildlife trade by tackling the root of the problem: rural poverty in African source countries.

“This vile trade is a development, environmental, and security challenge,” Clark says. “It is pushing endangered species toward extinction, fuelling corruption and conflict, and putting lives and livelihoods at risk.”

In support of the ivory ban in New Zealand, South African environmental activist Jamie Joseph, writing for the Huffington Post, also met up with legendary conservationist and scientist Jane Goodall to discuss the elephant crisis.

“Every ivory bracelet, pendant or trinket represents a dead elephant,” Goodall says.

Original article by Jamie Joseph, The Huffington Post, July 20, 2014.

Photo Helen Clark/savingthewild.com.