The Illegal Trade of Ivory

          The poaching of elephants and rhinoceros is on the rise to feed the expanding illegal trade of ivory throughout the world.  In 1990 the international trade of ivory was banned with the exception of all ivory that had already been harvested and was on the market and animals legally killed by governments from culling herds (leading to loopholes for criminals to sell illegal ivory on the open Markey guised as pre ban ivory which I will discuss later). At the time of the ban the decline rate of elephants due to poaching was around 7.4% per year of a population that was estimated at being just north of one million animals: approximately 70,000 a year. The current rate in 2008 was 8% per year killed of a population numbering under 470,000: approximately 37,600 animals per year. And since then the situation has drastically escalated since then. Ivory is used around the world mostly for three main purposes; art, medicine, and as ornamental decoration.

            Humans, mostly for art such as sculptures and carvings, have used ivory for millennia. In Japan it has become popular to use the ivory of a tusk or horn to make a name stamp known as a Hanko. These items can easily and more inexpensively be made from other materials but since ivory is more expensive it is considered more prestigious. So basically thousands of elephants are killed for no other reason than a persons ego. In the art world Ivory is carved into thousands of objects and is used mostly for its beauty as a medium. Ivory for the art trade is still a major contributor to the decline of elephants and rhinoceros but new markets opening up around the world to use the illegal ivory for different reasons have drastically increased the slaughter.

Another major market is the trade for traditional medicines throughout Asia, most notably China. Millions of people wrongly believe that grinding up and consuming elephant or rhinoceros ivory can improve health. The imagined benefits are everything from curing cancer to being a natural Viagra. Studies have been done and have conclusively proved that the ingestion of ivory has no health benefits but despite this millions of people still insist on believing in these pipe dreams meaning thousands of animals are killed every year for the trade. A new market for South African rhino horn has exploded in Vietnam in recent years due to erroneous rumors that it affects male virility. This explosion in rhino hunting has put incredible pressure on already critically endangered species and if something isn’t done soon the outlook looks bleak. The simple fact is that Ivory has no medicinal value and every one of these beautiful creatures that is killed is wasted.

The United States has also become a major, maybe even second most damaging, market for ivory in the past decade. In fact a major bust of over 2 million dollars worth of illegal ivory just took place in July in New York City. Americans tend to use ivory for artistic and ornamental purposes. The latter of which is why the market is on the rise. Ivory is being shipped to America to be used in gun grips and knife handles.  They number of other substances that can be used for these items is extensive but like Hanko name stamps in Japan, ivory handles are just “cooler”.

            The greatest challenges facing conservationists is the lack of enforcement of the laws in place to prevent it, the lack of exposure the subject gets in western media, and the various loopholes by which criminals can get illegal ivory into the legal market. The 1990 ban was the result of worldwide outrage after the situation had been reported. Now however most people wrongly believe that the problem has been fixed. When the law was originally passed poaching of elephants and rhinoceros was almost stopped overnight. Money and interest poured in from around the world and the culling of poaching was one of the major conservation success stories of the 20^th century. Four years after the law however people wrongly believed that since everything had settled down money was no longer needed to prevent the problem and thus most foreign aid was halted. In the ensuing 18 years poaching has constantly increased and in the last 5 it has done so exponentially. The situation is only getting worse and needs desperate attention. Few agencies devote resources to investigating the trade of illegal wildlife; news agencies seem to be on a blackout of all things environmental, and hundreds of tons of illegal ivory has been and continues to be smuggled into the legal market making it ever more profitable. Measures need to be taken now to put a halt to this treacherous trade if we intend to have elephants and rhinoceros on the plains for our children and grandchildren to see. 

hundreds of elephants tusks

ivory sculptures of the Buddha... ironic huh?

elephant victims

rhino victim