William Hague to be chairman of a task force on illegal wildlife trade for United for Wildlife

William Hague has agreed to be the chairman of a task force on the illegal wildlife trade for the Duke  of Cambridge's umbrella organisation United for Wildlife, which brings together conservation groups from all over the world to share ideas and put pressure on governments and industry.

 In central Africa, terrorist groups such as the Lords Resistance Army, Al Shabaab and Boko Haram are among the poachers killing 35,000 elephants a year for tusks that can sell for huge sums of money. Following the recent ban on Ivory imports into China, prices have jumped by 20%

The figures are stark, but William Hague has no doubt the problem can be successfully tackled.“As with the drug trade, the long-term solution is to eliminate demand,” he says, “but in this case we have an advantage we don’t have with drugs: this is not an addiction. This is an industry that only operates in a small number of countries and only among a small minority of their people, so it can be resolved.”