CITES national ivory action plans are a practical tool that is being used Parties to strengthen their controls of the trade in ivory and ivory markets, and help combat the illegal trade in ivory. Each plan outlines the urgent measures that a CITES Party commits to deliver – including legislative, enforcement and public awareness actions as required – along with specified timeframes and milestones for implementation.
While the plans may follow a common formula of actions, timeframes and milestones, each national ivory action plan is unique. A plan should identify the actions that are of highest priority for a particular Party to help combat the illegal ivory trade, depending upon the Party’s own circumstances including its capacity-building needs, the extent of available resources, and the scale and nature of illegal trade and whether the Party is a source, transit or destination State for illegal ivory.