Twilight for the trade in tusks - Main contents

Almost exactly a year ago I was in Kenya, looking at the remains of an enormous pile of ivory. The ashes of 105 tonnes of ivory in fact, a stockpile sent up in smoke by the authorities in Nairobi. Rather than seeing it fuel the murderous trade that is killing elephants and the rangers who protect them all across the African continent, they decided, quite simply, to burn it.

That blaze was a powerful symbol, a graphic illustration of how serious they are in their efforts.

In the EU, trade in ivory was already strictly regulated, and we had a wide-ranging Wildlife Trafficking Action Plan on the way. But as I looked at the ashes I couldn't help wondering if we were really doing enough. What more could we do to help?

Elephant poaching has reached very high levels, with up to 30 000 African elephants being killed every year since 2011. Elephant numbers are plummeting as a result, negating the rises we started to see at the end of the 1990s.

Those elephants were being killed for a reason. The illicit trade in ivory has skyrocketed in recent years, driven by rising demand in Asian markets. Figures from the Elephant Trade Information System show 39 tons of raw ivory being seized every year between 2010 and 2015, with seizures of worked ivory rising too, although at a much lower level. The scale of the trade is a sure sign that organised criminal networks are involved, using sophisticated methods to evade detection.

In the EU, raw ivory exports were already banned, but there was an exemption. It was legally possible to export raw ivory, provided the ivory could be proven to date from before 1990, the date when all elephants were given full protection under CITES, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species.

The export of old ivory items from the EU to Asia had risen continuously since 2012, a strong indicator that this exemption might have been fuelling the global demand for ivory, or that it was serving as a cover for the illegal ivory trade.

So one year on from that funeral pyre, it was very gratifying this week to finally announce an EU-wide ban on all exports of raw ivory. The trade in tusks will now end, irrespective of their age, simplifying the EU position, and bolstering the fight against this illegal trade.

Closing that potential loophole is also in line with our earlier commitment in the Action Plan against Wildlife Trafficking, which foresaw further limits on trade in ivory within and from the EU.

The new guidance will ensure the uniform interpretation of EU rules in the Member States, but the international effects will be just as important. It adds up to another step towards ultimately reducing demand, and supporting the efforts of destination markets like China, where a major effort is under way to restrict ivory imports and domestic trade.

We can take pride in the knowledge that although this new incremental step is an important advance, it's only a small element in a much a larger strategy to protect Africa's wildlife. Over the past 30 years, Europe has provided more than half a billion euros for wildlife conservation in Africa, and we remain committed to conservation efforts and the sustainable use of biodiversity across the continent.

Many of these efforts are coordinated by the CITES Secretariat, so I was also very happy to them being further reinforced. The Commission also decided this week to grant the Secretariat an additional EUR 2.25 million, to help them implement the decisions made at the last Conference of the Parties in Johannesburg in October 2016.

Long may their good work continue.