Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what discussions she has had with her EU counterparts on ensuring elephants are given the highest level of international protection.

The UK Government is committed to tackling the crisis facing the African elephant from poaching and illegal trafficking. We fully support the existing global ban on ivory trade. The UK has discussed the global level of protection afforded to the elephant with EU Member States on numerous occasions. In particular, the proposal submitted to the 17^th meeting of the Conference of Parties (CoP17) to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) to include all populations of African elephant in Appendix I was debated in EU CITES meetings in preparation for CoP17.