In January 2015 Action for Elephants UK organised its second protest at the Chinese embassy, calling on China’s leadership to close China’s ivory-carving factories and ivory retail outlets, and close down the domestic ivory market. As the world’s leading consumer of ivory, China had the biggest role in the slaughter of Africa’s elephants, which was occurring at the rate of 100 every day. Dr Trevor Jones from Southern Tanzania Elephant Project and Dominic Dyer from Care for the Wild International spoke at the event.
Our open letter to China’s president (sent also in Mandarin) was signed by David Attenborough, Richard Leakey, Jane Goodall, and many more. It garnered extensive media coverage, including in The Guardian, The Independent on Sunday, The Telegraph, South China Morning Post, Zee News India, and NBC News.