MADAM – Peter Cameron writes in ATG No 2353 that only 691 people have signed the ivory petition [now at 1688 as we go to press], that a response from the government requires 10,000 signatures, and that 100,000 are needed to raise a parliamentary debate.
Just four weeks before the House of Lords’ committee stage of the proposed bill to ban ivory, BADA Council members Alastair Gibson and Laura Bordignon have published an open letter, urging people to sign the petition (ATG No 2354).
Too little, too late. The petition asks that the de minimis rule is raised from 10% to 50% of ivory. But 50% of what exactly? Area? Weight? Can the ivory be separated from the object? Is 50% acceptable but 51% illegal? Quite unnecessarily complicated.