For over a decade, we at Elephanatics Foundation have been powering bold elephant advocacy across Canada and Africa. Our mission is clear and drives everything we do: educate, conserve, and take action for elephants and the ecosystems they inhabit.
Why Elephants Matter
How We Take Action: From Savanna to Policy Table
Frontline Conservation: Our sustained partnership with the Mara Elephant Project (MEP) in Kenya connects your support to life-saving work, including funding anti-poaching patrols, utilizing GPS collars for real-time tracking, and implementing human-elephant conflict mitigation strategies.
Historic Policy Win: We lead influential policy campaigns — for example, the Ivory-Free Canada coalition that successfully implemented a historic ban on the elephant ivory trade in Canada in November 2023.Read more here
Public Awareness: We provide educational resources and raise public awareness, making elephant protection a cause people can engage with, not just observe.Find resources here
Fundraising & Amplification: We actively fundraise for specific, high-impact conservation needs (like our World elephant Day support for MEP’s Loita Forest project). Critically, for Giving Tuesday on December 2nd, we will amplify MEP’s urgent field work across our channels, encouraging our supporters todonate directly here to their frontline efforts.
What’s Coming Up: CITES CoP20
From November 24 to December 5, 2025, representatives from 185 countries will gather in Samarkand, Uzbekistan for the 20th meeting of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).ElephanaticsFoundation has submitted a position letter to Canada’s Scientific Management Authority outlining opposition arguments to Proposals by African countries wanting to reopen the ivory trade. The cost to elephants for any renewed trade would be catastrophic, as a legal market would inevitably provide cover for illegal poaching, creating a devastating surge in demand that would once again drive elephant populations toward extinction.
Ongoing Policy Work
We continue to work in collaboration with other global NGOs, sending letters to MPs and Federal Ministers regarding the urgent need for an additional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) to tackle the illegal wildlife trade.The 13th session of the Conference of the Parties (CoP) to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) is scheduled to take place in October 2026 in Vienna, Austria. We will continue to advocate on this critical topic more aggressively.
A Final Call to Action
Elephanatics Foundationis turning the tide for elephants — from classrooms in Canada and the US to the savannas of Africa — by merging education with on-the-ground conservation and policy power. With the global spotlight shifting to the critical negotiations at CITES CoP20 this November, the time to support organizations working against the reopening of the ivory trade is critical. This makes Giving Tuesday (December 2nd) an excellent time to provide the vital funds these organizations need to continue their advocacy work and protect the future of the species. Donate directly to MEP’s frontline effortshere.
Thank You
We thank you for being a committed Elephanatics follower. Whether through sharing our posts or donating on Giving Tuesday, December 2nd, you are a vital partner in our fight to secure a future free of the ivory trade. We are deeply grateful for your continued advocacy and support.
The sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is taking place in Cali in Columbia, from 21 October to 1 November 2024. Canada’s Kunming-Montreal Declaration aims to set ambitious goals to halt the loss of biodiversity, promote sustainable development, and enhance global environment efforts by 2030. Elephanatics has written letters and sent emails to the Ministers of Environment and Climate Change and MP’s across Canada asking that they support the merits of a global agreement in the form of an additional protocol to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Crime (UNTOC) to strengthen the international legal framework to tackle illegal wildlife trade. Because the illegal wildlife trade is so interconnected with biodiversity loss, a global agreement is the next logical step to take.
We hope you consider writing your MP to support our ask. Find a pre-written letter here (featured Item)
Find your MP here
See our communication below:
……………………..
The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, P.C., M.P., Minister of Environment and Climate Change, House of Commons, Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6
via email: Steven.Guilbeault@parl.gc.ca
cc:
Hon. Mélanie Joly, P.C., M.P., Minister of Foreign Affairs melanie.joly@parl.gc.ca
Hon. Arif Virani, P.C., M.P., Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada arif.virani@parl.gc.ca
September 18, 2024
Dear Minister Guilbeault,
Please see attached letter sent to you March 7, 2024, in reference to strengthening the international legal framework to tackle the illegal wildlife trade by considering the merits of a global agreement in the form of an additional protocol to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Crime (UNTOC). Despite the scale and impact of IWT – one of the largest illegal markets in the world – a global agreement covering this topic still does not exist.
The sixteenth meeting of the Conference of the Parties (COP16) to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) is taking place in Cali in Columbia, from 21 October to 1 November 2024. Canada’s Kunming-Montreal Declaration aims to set ambitious goals to halt the loss of biodiversity, promote sustainable development, and enhance global environment efforts by 2030. Because the illegal wildlife trade is a direct threat to biodiversity the inclusion of a new protocol under UNTOC in the form of a global agreement needs to be considered seriously as part of the Kunming-Montreal framework to curb biodiversity loss. A protocol under UNTOC would show a strong commitment in working with partners to help curb the illegal wildlife trade and would also help bring other countries up to Canadian standards for wildlife trade.
TARGET 4: Halt Species Extinction, Protect Genetic Diversity, and Manage Human-Wildlife Conflicts
“Ensure urgent management actions to halt human induced extinction of known threatened species and for the recovery and conservation of species, in particular threatened species, to significantly reduce extinction risk, as well as to maintain and restore the genetic diversity within and between populations of native, wild and domesticated species to maintain their adaptive potential, including through in situ and ex situ conservation and sustainable management practices, and effectively manage human-wildlife interactions to minimize human-wildlife conflict for coexistence.”
(q) “Enhanced collaboration, cooperation and synergies between the Convention on Biological Diversity and its Protocols, other biodiversity-related conventions, other relevant multilateral agreements and international organizations and processes, in line with their respective mandates, including at the global, regional, subregional and national levels, would contribute to and promote the implementation of the Framework in a more efficient and effective manner;”
The illegal wildlife trade imperils biodiversity, contributes to climate change, creates economic instability in communities and is responsible for global pandemics. The way forward is to unify and collaborate with similar organizations and partners to thwart biodiversity loss.
Once again, we ask that you consider a new protocol under the UNTOC in the form of a global agreement to strengthen the international legal framework to tackle the illegal wildlife trade.
The Honourable Steven Guilbeault, P.C., M.P., Minister of Environment and Climate Change, House of Commons, Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6 via email: Steven.Guilbeault@parl.gc.ca
cc: Hon. Mélanie Joly, P.C., M.P., Minister of Foreign Affairs melanie.joly@parl.gc.ca Hon. Arif Virani, P.C., M.P., Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada arif.virani@parl.gc.ca
March 7, 2024
Dear Minister Guibeault,
A coalition of organizations co-signed a letter written by the Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime, addressing the need to strengthen the international legal framework to tackle the illegal wildlife trade (IWT), and was sent to you on 7 September 2023, asking for ways to better understand Canada’s views on how best to tackle wildlife trafficking at the international level. I am following up and have added more points to the initial letter sent by Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime and coalition to further support our request.
Despite the scale and impact of IWT – one of the largest illegal markets in the world – a global agreement covering this topic still does not exist. We are writing to ask you to support this initiative by considering the merits of a global agreement, taking the form of an additional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC). As stated in theletter:
“The size and scale of wildlife trafficking is truly a global challenge and one that demands urgent action. The value of illegal trade has been estimated at between $7 and $23 billion per year.” A report by FINTRAC acknowledges, “illegal wildlife trade not only affects Canada, but poses a serious threat internationally”. Canada has signaled that this is a priority issue to address, both at home and abroad, and we were pleased to see that the mandate letter released by the Prime Minister on 16 December 2021, included a commitment for Canada to “work with partners to curb illegal wildlife trade”.
In the same mandate letter, the Canadian Government mandated an end to the elephant ivory and rhinoceros horn trade in Canada. We were very pleased to see these regulations enacted 20 November 2023. It is now time to deliver on the third item in this part of the mandate letter : new actions to combat the illegal wildlife trade.
Additionally, in December 2023, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released an updated report containing the views of 73 States and the European Union on the potential of an additional Protocol to the UNTOC covering wildlife trafficking. UNODC did not produce an analysis of the report, but the Global Initiative to End Wildlife Crime – at the request of Angola – did and concluded that around 78% of the responding States are either in favour of a Protocol or open to discussing it: PRESS-RELEASE-07-DEC-UN-report-shows-clear-majority-of-States-now-favour-a-new-global-agreement-against-wildlife-trafficking-.pdf (endwildlifecrime.org)
February marked the 10th anniversary of a declaration signed by Canada and 41 other countries at the first London conference on Illegal Wildlife Trade, 2014, to implement actions to:
(1) improve law enforcement, (2) improve legal frameworks against IWT (3) reduce demand for illegal wildlife and (4) support alternative livelihoods.
Beyond Canada’s commitment of a $2 million donation in emergency funding to combat illegal wildlife trade activities in East and Central Africa, and the recent ban of elephant ivory and rhino horn along with the import of hunting trophies containing these parts, have there been further measures Canada has put into place to support the declaration signed at the London Conference?
Canada is putting together its action plan for the Global Biodiversity Framework to show action on Kunming-Montréal convention prior to CoP 16 in the fall. Because the illegal wildlife trade is a direct threat to biodiversity the inclusion of a new protocol under UNTOC would be proactive to add to its strategy on how best to curb biodiversity loss.
A protocol under UNTOC would also help bring other countries up to Canadian standards for wildlife trade.
As Minister of Environment and Climate Change, you have an important role to play in the future of our planet and the wildlife that we are intrinsically tied to for our own survival. The illegal wildlife trade undermines governance, corrupts and weakens security within a country as well as threatens its economies and biodiversity.It is imperative we end wildlife trafficking to cease the destruction of global biodiversity, help mitigate climate change, avoid future pandemics, and protect communities and economies that are reliant on the use of sustainable natural resources.
Supporting a global agreement in the form of an additional Protocol to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime (UNTOC) would show a strong commitment in working with partners to help curb the illegal wildlife trade.Thank you for your attention to this request.
Photo credit – Francine Lebel-Carruthers
