Reducing Desire for Elephant Ivory: A Psychosocial Guide to Address Ivory Consumption

One of the biggest priorities for WWF’s wildlife team is to secure time-bound commitments and implementation of elephant ivory bans from three of the largest consumer markets and scale up consumer outreach efforts to reduce desire for elephant ivory. Reducing consumer demand for elephant ivory and mobilizing public support for policy change and enforcement are essential to combating illegal elephant ivory trade.

In an effort to tackle the challenge of “desire reduction” of consumers, WWF commissioned a guide, Reducing Desire for Elephant Ivory: A Psychosocial Guide to Address Elephant Ivory Consumption that presents a new lens through which to view conservation campaigns and their audiences taking on complex dimensions (psychological, cultural, social, and emotional) of elephant ivory consumption.

The purpose of the guide is to support efforts that directly address the active market for these goods and to build upon campaign strategies and amplify their effectiveness. In 2017 we would like to pilot this guide with our demand reduction work and with partners.

Watch: An innovative approach to reducing consumption of illegal products