Jared Leto: Ban U.S. ivory imports to save Africa's elephants

NEW YORK, June 16 (UPI) -- Actor and World Wildlife Fund global ambassador Jared Leto implored the United States to end its commercial ivory trade in an effort to end the poaching that has decimated Africa's elephants.

In an article co-written with Carter Roberts, president and CEO of World Wildlife Fund, the pair said the U.S. needs to follow China's lead and make moves to phase out the country's domestic ivory trade.

"If China makes good on this promise, Africa's elephants may actually have a fighting chance," the article stated. "While the Chinese pivot toward zero ivory, the U.S. lags on this critical front in the fight to save elephants"

In early June, the conservation group Traffic found a "catastrophic" decline of elephants in Tanzania due to uncontrolled poaching. The local government found the country's elephant population, one of the largest on the African continent, dropped some 60 percent in five years, from 109,051 in 2009 to 43,330 in 2014.

Leto and Roberts wrote the U.S. may be the second-largest market for wildlife products in the world, including ivory, just behind China. Two years ago, the U.S. government destroyed a stockpile of confiscated ivory in an effort to take a public stand against ivory poaching and trafficking. Friday, it will crush another ton in New York City's Time Square.

While commercial import of ivory has been outlawed in the U.S. for 25 years, "legal" ivory -- including antiques containing ivory -- have slipped through the cracks, the article stated. When lawmakers tried to seal those cracks and create further legislation that would put an end to all ivory imports, it's not happening fast enough, the authors said.

"Our collective efforts don't match the scale and speed of the calamity before us. Time is running out for elephants," the authors wrote. "The grim reality is that until superpowers like the U.S. and China close their commercial ivory markets, and freshly poached ivory can no longer masquerade as something it's not, the blood of Africa's elephants will continue to stain our collective hands.