Now is the time the world has to fight for the Elephants.

She goes on to say: "The integrity and credibility of the International organization established to regulate the trade in Endangered Species, namely CITES or the International Convention for Trade in Endangered Species, has long been questionable, mainly because of this organization’s blatant bias towards trade over and above its mandate of safeguarding the world’s endangered species. Sadly, today’s world seems to have lost ethics about what is right and what is wrong. Greed and corruption sway decisions that adversely affect our fragile planet and the teeth of the world’s largest living land mammal – the elephant – have become a very hot political issue."

To read the rest of Dame Daphnes call to action click here:
Now is the time the world has to fight for the Elephants
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I say - The time has come for elephants - and if we do not heed this Matriarch's call to action I fear it will be on our watch that we see the end of this magnificent species. One can marvel at their size - but it is an elephant's intellect and social structures, their care as mothers, aunties and sisters... of all family members, that speak truly to the complexity and beauty of this species. We cannot sit by or be too busy to care. We must do all we can to support Kenya in their opposition to the proposal Zambia and Tanzania will table at the 15th Conference of Parties (CoP15) in Dohar in March this year.

Everyone of us can do something.

• We can put messages on our web pages, blogs, profiles and sign petitions to stop the trade.
  http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/no-more-trade-in-elephant-ivory
  
  
  
  
• Fuel momentum through the powerful medium of social networking, here on Face book and Twitter
  
• We can talk to our workmates, family and friends in person about how important the upcoming meeting is, what the issues are and ask for a commitment from them that if we send them an email will they sign the petition?
  
• We can boycott ivory sales and boycott those that support the trade.
  
• We can write to the editors of fashion magazines that promote antique ivory as a 'must have" fashion item.
  
• We can put pressure on CITES so that they are forced to listen. The contact details of all Parties to CITES attending CoP15 are on the left hand side this web page.
  http://www.cites.org/common/directy/e_directy.html -
  write to the Parties and tell them you support Kenya in their opposition to the proposal for the sale of Ivory by Zambia and Tanzania and call them to protect the species. You can go one step further and ask them to seek a 20 year moratorium on any further sales of ivory.
  
• We can send a message of support and thanks to Kenya for standing bravely at the front of this fight: kws@kws.go.ke; director@kws.org; cites@kws.org
  
• We can write to our *members of parliament and government in whatever country we are and ask them to act to ensure your countries delagtions or sphere of influence support Kenya at the meeting.

*For Australia click here: Members of Parliament Listing by State
*For United States Click Here: Write your Representative
*For UK Click here: Members of Parliament by Constituency

Dame Daphne states: This year the Vote of the Signatories to the CITES convention will seal the fate of Africa's elephants one way or another, and because of this all caring people have a duty to speak our forcefully, or else become guilty of sinning through silence.

Desert Elephant, Damaarland. Namibia