Global March for Elephant, Rhino & Lion - Melbourne

The Global March for Elephant, Rhino and Lion MELBOURNE 11am on 24 September to call for urgent action to stop the slaughter of these critically endangered species.

WEAR YOUR ONESIE FOR WILDLIFE AND #MarchAsOnesie to save these iconic species.

Organised by For the Love of Wildlife and My Green World, this year’s march is timed to take place on the opening day of the CITES conference, CoP17, in Johannesburg.

Thousands of people in over 100 cities around the world will take to the streets to send a powerful global message to the delegates, asking them to vote for the strongest measures of protection for elephants, rhinos and lions. We call on them to move all populations of both species to Appendix I status, which will impose a global ban on trade in their body parts, and to reject proposals for trade in ivory or horn. There will be a contingent of southern African nations calling for such trade.

Every year, upwards of 35,000 elephants and 1,200 rhinos are brutally killed by poachers. Their tusks and horns are hacked from their faces and illegally trafficked around the world, mainly to countries in Asia where demand is highest. Heavily armed, well-organized gangs carry out the killing, and in some areas terrorist groups run the poaching and transport networks for ivory. If the slaughter continues at current levels, elephants, rhinos and lions face extinction in the wild within a generation.

But this is not an inevitable scenario, if all countries act now to eliminate demand by closing domestic ivory markets. If demand ends, the poaching will too, giving elephants and rhinos a chance to recover their numbers. The CITES conference in September, where critical decisions affecting the future of these species will be made, may be the last chance to take bold, principled steps that will give elephants, rhinos and lion a final lifeline to survival.

“Unless immediate action is taken by all countries to put an end to the ivory and horn trade, we may be the last generation to see elephants and rhinos in the wild,” said Denise Dresner of Action for Elephants UK. “We hope everyone who cares about their survival will join the march on September 24th and demand action from their governments to save them.”