It's not about that of course. It's that the EU feels like just banning without ivory trade without a support network behind in Africa will just lead to even mo

It's not about that of course. It's that the EU feels like just banning without ivory trade without a support network behind in Africa will just lead to even more devastating black market ivory trade. We can see how bad the previous bans went and how the wild life suffers in those same African countries that already banned poaching... but where the elephants keep dying awfully because the local governments are corrupt and let the poaching continue gaining even higher margins after the ban. It's exactly that the EU wants to avoid.