End the ivory trade deadlock to protect elephants

A team of leading international researchers is working to break the stalemate on ivory trade policy.
For decades there has been a deadlock on the controversial issue.
One side promotes regulated ivory markets as a way of raising much needed funds to fight poaching, while the other side argues that prohibiting all ivory trade is the best solution for saving elephants.
Researchers from 14 organisations including Griffith University, the University of Queensland, Oxford, Cambridge, Yale and Monash Universities have outlined their concerns and recommendations in Science today.
Lead researcher Dr Duan Biggs, of Griffith’s Environmental Futures Research Institute, said the 30-year-old deadlock on whether to trade ivory was bad for elephant conservation and wasted valuable conservation resources.
“Scientific information alone will not solve contentious issues like ivory trade,” said Dr Biggs.
“The continued polarisation of this debate stems from a failure to recognise the different moral perspectives of stakeholders.
“Identifying people’s beliefs, values and perspectives on ivory

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