By AFP
Amid growing calls for an outright ban, the European Union is coming under increasing pressure to help protect African elephants by ending the trade of ivory within its borders.
Poaching has decimated the world elephant population, which slumped in Africa from several million at the turn of the 19th Century to around 400,000 in 2015.
According to conservation group WWF, as much as 60 percent of all elephant deaths can be blamed on poaching.
The David Shepherd Wildlife Foundation, which campaigns against the ivory trade, says that from 2007-2014, 144,000 elephants were killed across Africa—the equivalent of one death every 15 minutes.
The international trade of ivory was officially banned in 1989.
The United States outlawed domestic trade in 2016, with China following suit a year later. Read more…
