Angolan government has announced plans to close the country's big Ivory market which is one of the largest Ivory markets in the world.

The Angolan Minister for Environment Maria de Fatima Jardimannounced this at the African Ministerial Conference in Cairo.

In her words, the minister who stated the country's commitment to fufill the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), said, "The Commission Against Environmental Crimes has presented a decree banning the sale of ivory and ivory artifacts in Angola and we are deploying a wildlife crime unit at Luanda's international airport. We are determined to end the trade in ivory and build a new Angola, in which both people and our unique species can thrive".

Angola who recently joined a thirteen-nation signatory to the Elephant Protection Initiative, will be hosting the 2016 World Environment Day (WED) on June 5^th with the theme "tackling the illegal trade in wildlife".

This latest move is seen as the Southern African's nation way of mobilizing global action and focus towards the theme of 2016 WED.

According to the UNEP, the number of elephants killed in Africa has exceeded 20,000 a year out of a projected population of 420,000 to 650,000. But with reports that 100,000 elephants were killed in just a three-year period between 2010 and 2012, the population figures may now in fact be lower.

With reports that Angolan government is already in talks with traders at Benfica market in Angola's capital Luanda who trade big in carved Ivory, there's a big hope that this policy will be implemented.

It will also be of immense benefit if other African countries endowed with wildlife strictly have such measures in place to ensure that we allow the generations unborn to witness these lovely species.

Source: unep.org

Photo by: Benh LIEU SONG CC