Satao’s Law introduced to congress to help protect elephants

Wildlife News
Kevin Heath
September 12, 2014

A new bill, in honour of Satao a Kenyan ‘big tusker’ killed by poachers, has been put before Congress in the United States. If passed it will give the US government the power to introduce trade sanctions against countries that do not do enough to tackle elephant poaching and the trade in illegal wildlife.

As the United States continues to take the lead in ending the trade in ivory the new bill being introduced by Peter DeFazio from Oregon will enable the government to impose greater sanctions that can currently be done under the CITES agreement.

Under CITES there is the ability to put in place trade sanctions against countries in regard to international trading of species listed under the CITES agreement. The new bill will extend that to other targeted trade sanctions and allow the US to operate sanctions independently of international agreements.

Whether the US government will take advantage of this if given the power is debatable. The US currently has the power to impose trade sanctions against whaling nations. While it has stepped up diplomatic sanctions against countries such as Iceland it has not yet been willing to impose trade restrictions.

The new bill, which was submitted on 11th September, will mean once a country is identified by CITES as being a country of particular concern for the trade in ivory the US President will be required within 30 days to consult with the authorities of that country to be informed of plans in order to stop all import and export of illegal ivory.

If the country refuses to submit plans or fails to submit adequate plans within 90 days of the request the bill will require the President to ban all trade in wildlife, plants and fish with the country. The ban will stay in place until CITES removes the country from the list of concerned countries or until a suitable plan is agreed on to end illegal ivory trade within the country.