There has been a massive surge in illegal ivory trading, researchers have warned. They have found that more than 14,000 products made from the tusks and other body parts of elephants were seized last year, an increase of more than 2,000 on their previous analysis in 2007.
Details of this disturbing rise have been revealed on the eve of the 20th anniversary of the world ivory trading ban. Implemented on Jan. 18, 1990, it was at first credited with halting the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of elephants.
But the recent growth in the Far East’s appetite for ivory — a status symbol for the middle classes of the region’s newly industrialized economies — has sent ivory prices soaring from US$245 a kilogram in 2004 to more than US$6,500.
At the same time, scientists estimate that between 8 percent and 10 percent of Africa’s elephants are now being killed each year to meet the demand. The world’s largest land animal is again threatened with widespread slaughter.
“It is a really worrying situation,” said Richard Thomas, director of Traffic, the group that monitors trade in wildlife. “However, it is not absolutely clear what should be done.” Indeed, the issue is so confused that conflict over the ivory trade is expected at March’s meeting of Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES).
A key source of contention will be the future of legitimate stockpile sales of ivory that have been permitted by international agreement. Killing elephants for their tusks is illegal, but selling ivory from animals that have died of natural causes has been permitted on occasions. In 2008, a stockpile of tusks — from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe — was bought by dealers from China and Japan. The sale of 105 tonnes of ivory raised more than US$24.5 million.
But now countries including Kenya and the Democratic Republic of Congo are to call for a ban of these stockpile sales at the CITES meeting. They say such trade — albeit sporadic — only increases demand for ivory goods and is responsible for triggering the recent rise in illegal trade and the killing of thousands of elephants across Africa.
But countries such as Tanzania and Zambia, which have some of the worst poaching records in Africa, want a relaxation of ivory trade regulations at CITES so they can hold their own stockpile sales. They say the tens of millions of US dollars that could be raised would help them fund rangers who can protect their elephants.
“Unfortunately the evidence is not clear whether stockpile sales increase demand for ivory or help to control it,” said Heather Sohl of the WWF. “We have had recent stockpile sales of ivory — and poaching has increased dramatically. But other factors may be involved. Many African countries are suffering terrible drought and local people are desperate. Killing elephants brings money, alas.”
Killing for tusks is a particularly gruesome trade. Elephants are intelligent animals whose sophisticated social ties are exploited by poachers. They will often shoot young elephants to draw in a grieving parent, which is then killed for its ivory. Estimates suggest more than 38,000 elephants were killed this way in 2006: the death rate is higher today.
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