International Ivory Trade Research Articles

Radiocarbon dating of illegal ivory confirmed by Milos Forman’s Hair

Abstract Illegal poaching brought elephant species to the brink of extinction; therefore, international trade in ivory has become regulated by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES). However, the trade is still allowed for antique items, standing for ivory from a period before 1947 within the European Union. This could serve as a loophole for the laundering of modern ivory. In the described case of the Happy Fisherman statuette, the traded item was declared to be antique, but radiocarbon analysis proved a modern provenance, and the statuette was confiscated. The radiocarbon analysis was later confirmed by information from a Chinese newspaper found inside the statuette. Based on the findings, we strongly recommend careful consideration of each individual ivory piece offered for sale, with a thorough inspection of the items and related documentation carried out by a relevant CITES authority. Any exemption of the commercial ban should be granted only to those applicants who meet the criteria of proper evidence in the form of scientific analysis or reliable and trustworthy documentation.

The Conservation of African Elephants under the CITES International Ivory Trade Ban

1989 CITES decision to put a total ban on international trade in ivory and the decisions to allow the 1999 and 2008 one-off-sales have generated polarized debates on whether or not these decisions are the reasons behind increasing levels of poaching in Africa. An undisputed fact is that; international illegal ivory trade has promoted rampant elephant poaching in Africa. What has and is contested is whether the ban or the one-off sales have a role to play in the current elephant poaching and increase in the illegal ivory trade. The Southern African range countries blame the international ivory trade ban for the current ivory poaching levels, while Countries such as Kenya, Benin and Uganda have blamed the sales for reigniting international appetite for ivory. The available evidence suggests that the international ivory trade ban with an unbanned domestic market has promoted poaching and negatively impacted on range countries’ ability to effectively and sustainably protect elephants. Besides the reduction or elimination of revenue, the ban undermined the economic incentives associated with elephant conservation, thereby making elephant conservation unattractive, unachievable and subsequently opening up to poaching and illegal trade.

Global ivory market prices since the 1989 CITES ban

Poaching associated with the ivory trade is estimated to cause an 8% annual loss in the world elephant population. Although international trade in ivory was banned by the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species in 1989, elephant populations continue to suffer. Together with global price data on ivory transactions, information on ivory product type, weight, region, legality of sale, and year of transaction, were used alongside an ivory Transaction Index (TI) and world gold price to: (1) examine the temporal and geographic trends in ivory price; (2) determine variables associated with ivory price; and (3) propose a predictive equation based on these variables. Results indicate that ivory price has been rising since the CITES ban, with highest values observed across Asia. Determinants significant to ivory market price include: (1) region; (2) type [raw, polished, carved]; (3) TI; and (4) legality. Interaction effects were present between region and legality, and between region and type. The predictive equation successfully explained 72.5% of variation in price. It is hoped that an improved understanding of the market mechanism will lead to more effective policy interventions, which can ensure a secure future for elephants as a species.

Ivory as Cultural Document: The Crushing Burden of Conservation

AbstractEfforts to stop the international ivory trade and save the affected elephants have increasingly emphasized public ivory crushes of confiscated tusks and carved works. While this and other efforts to involve the public in conservation are commendable, they have a burdensome side. First, African cultural ivories, the artists who made them, and the people who used them may be scapegoated in a misplaced desire to identify perpetrators and hold them responsible for elephant loss. Second, simpler but authentic cultural ivories may remain unidentified and accidentally destroyed. Last, even seemingly negligible tourist art and fakes hold cultural information and deserve individual photographic records for future research. This paper examines the cultural value encoded in select African ivory objects made for small‐scale societies, major kingdoms, and foreign markets to demonstrate the value African societies have for the elephant and its products in the hope that institutions and federal agencies can work together to preserve these cultural documents.

Emergence of Mong La on the Myanmar–China border as a global hub for the international trade in ivory and elephant parts

We report on the illegal trade in ivory and elephant parts in the Special Development Zone of Mong La, Shan State, Myanmar, on the border with China. Mong La caters exclusively for the Chinese market and is best described as a Chinese enclave in Myanmar. We surveyed the morning market, shops and hotels in February 2006, February 2009 and December 2013–January 2014. Trade in body parts primarily concerned dried elephant skin (4 pieces in 2006, 278 in 2009 and 1238 in 2013–2014), and to a lesser extent molars and bones. We found 3494 pieces of carved ivory (none in 2006, 200 in 2009 and 3294 in 2013–2014) and 49 whole tusks (all in 2013–2014) openly for sale, suggesting Mong La has recently emerged as a significant hub of the ivory trade. The origin of the ivory may constitute a combination of Asian elephant ivory from Myanmar and African ivory imported via China. According to local sources the carving was done by Chinese craftsmen, in Mong La as well as across the border in China, and was largely, if not exclusively, intended for the internal Chinese market. Based on asking prices of the most commonly offered items the retail value of the ivory on display in Mong La during the 2013–2014 survey totals an estimated US$1.2 million. Trade in elephant parts and elephant ivory is illegal in Myanmar and CITES I listing of elephants preclude international trade in them. Mong La is governed largely autonomously by an overlord and policed by an Eastern Shan State army. We urge both the Myanmar and Chinese governments to liaise with the Mong La rulers to curb the trade in ivory (and other high profile species), and recommend that the Myanmar and Chinese CITES authorities come together urgently as to resolve the illicit trade of ivory and elephant parts across their borders.

Real-time PCR detection and quantification of elephantid DNA: Species identification for highly processed samples associated with the ivory trade

The ivory industry is the single most serious threat to global elephant populations. A highly sensitive, species-specific real-time PCR assay has been developed to detect and quantify African elephant (Loxodonta africana), Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) and Woolly Mammoth (Mammuthus primigenius) mitochondrial DNA from highly processed samples involved in the international ivory trade. This assay is especially useful for highly processed samples where there are no distinguishing morphological features to identify the species of origin. Using species-specific Taqman(®) probes targeting a region of the mitochondrial cytochrome b gene, we developed an assay that can be used to positively identify samples containing elephant or Woolly mammoth DNA faster and more cost-effectively than traditional sequencing methods. Furthermore, this assay provides a diagnostic result based on probe hybridization that eliminates ambiguities associated with traditional DNA sequence protocols involving low template DNA. The real-time method is highly sensitive, producing accurate and reproducible results in samples with as few as 100 copies of template DNA. This protocol can be applied to the enforcement of the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES), when positive identification of species from illegally traded products is required by conservation officers in wildlife forensic cases.

Tusk or Bone? An Example of Ivory Substitute in the Wildlife Trade

Bone carvings (and other ivory substitutes) are common in the modern-day lucrative international ivory trade. Souvenirs for unknowing travelers and market shoppers can be made of non-biological material (plastic "ivory" beads) or skillfully crafted natural objects made to resemble something other than their true origin. Many of these items are received at the U. S. National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory (NFWFL) for species identification as part of law enforcement investigations. Morphologists at the Lab often receive uniquely carved ivory items that have been imported with little or no documentation. In recent years, analysts examined several purported ivory tusks suspected to be walrus, a protected marine mammal. After examination, the Lab determined their origin as carved leg bones of cattle using principles and methods of zooarchaeology and ancient DNA analysis. The naturally long and straight ungulate metapodials had been cut, carved, filled, stained, and polished to closely resemble unmodified ivory tusks. Morphological species identification of these bones proved to be a challenge since diagnostic characters of the bones had been altered and country of origin was unknown. Genetic analysis showed that the bones originated from cattle. While bone is commonly used as a substitute for ivory, this style of artifact was not previously documented in the wildlife trade prior to our analysis. Archaeological ethnobiologists commonly encounter bone tools and other forms of material culture from prehistoric and historic contexts; in this case bone tools come from a modern context, thus the application of methods common in zooarchaeology are situated in wildlife forensics. In addition, results reported here pertain to cross-cultural ivory trade and conservation science.

Tusk or Bone? An Example of Ivory Substitute in the Wildlife Trade

Bone carvings (and other ivory substitutes) are common in the modern-day lucrative international ivory trade. Souvenirs for unknowing travelers and market shoppers can be made of non-biological material (plastic "ivory" beads) or skillfully crafted natural objects made to resemble something other than their true origin. Many of these items are received at the U. S. National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory (NFWFL) for species identification as part of law enforcement investigations. Morphologists at the Lab often receive uniquely carved ivory items that have been imported with little or no documentation. In recent years, analysts examined several purported ivory tusks suspected to be walrus, a protected marine mammal. After examination, the Lab determined their origin as carved leg bones of cattle using principles and methods of zooarchaeology and ancient DNA analysis. The naturally long and straight ungulate metapodials had been cut, carved, filled, stained, and polished to closely resemble unmodified ivory tusks. Morphological species identification of these bones proved to be a challenge since diagnostic characters of the bones had been altered and country of origin was unknown. Genetic analysis showed that the bones originated from cattle. While bone is commonly used as a substitute for ivory, this style of artifact was not previously documented in the wildlife trade prior to our analysis. Archaeological ethnobiologists commonly encounter bone tools and other forms of material culture from prehistoric and historic contexts; in this case bone tools come from a modern context, thus the application of methods common in zooarchaeology are situated in wildlife forensics. In addition, results reported here pertain to cross-cultural ivory trade and conservation science.

The International Ban on Ivory Sales and its Effects on Elephant Poaching in Africa

The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) secured an agreement in 1989 among its member states to ban the international trade in ivory. This disruption of the international ivory market was intended to reverse a sharp decline in the African elephant population, which resulted from widespread poaching for ivory in the previous decade. The continent's overall population of elephants increased after the ban, but an analysis of elephant population data from 1979 to 2007 found that some of the 37 countries in Africa with elephants continued to lose substantial numbers of them. This pattern is largely explained by the presence of unregulated domestic ivory markets in and near countries with declines in elephant populations.

Ivory and ecology—changing perspectives on elephant management and the international trade in ivory

Abstract This paper provides an analysis of the ecological ideas which underpin policies of elephant management and ivory trading in African elephant range states. Increasingly, the discussion surrounding the international trade in ivory has focussed on potential revenue that could be generated from the sale of stock-piled ivory and other products derived from elephants. However, the international trade in ivory is regulated by Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), which recognises that “international co-operation is essential for the protection of certain species of wild fauna and flora against over-exploitation through international trade”. Thus, the arguments in favour of ivory trading must refer to conservation objectives, and controversies over the ivory trade have become linked to debates over the management of elephant populations, and ecological assumptions regarding elephant habitat and the resilience or otherwise of savanna ecosystems. In this paper, we examine the ecological aspects of the arguments for a legalised international trade in ivory, and discuss how advances in ecological understanding could influence future discussion of this controversial issue.

Conflicts over Development and Environmental Values: the International Ivory Trade in Zimbabwe's Historical Context

Abstract The international debate over sustainable utilisation of animal species often reaches a fever pitch, especially when Northern and Southern governments and NGOs clash. This paper examines one such clash in its proper historical framework: the recent debate over the international ivory trade. The article outlines Zimbabwe's pro-ivory trade position, with special attention paid to Zimbabwe's attempts to transform a local culture which has been hostile to wildlife conservation. Specifically, the paper argues that the current majority government is trying to transform the formally racist Rhodesian preservationist policies into utilisationist policies so that local people can realise some material benefit from the conservation of the African elephant, even in face of fierce opposition from the Western world.

Of elephants and men: politics and nature conservation in South Africa

South Africa's policy of destabilisation of neighbouring countries was closely associated with the rise of South Africa as a leading middleman in the international ivory trade. South African‐based traders, acting in partnership or with protection from officers of the South African Military Intelligence Directorate, imported raw ivory from Angola, Mozambique and points further north and re‐exported it to markets in the Far East. This was a source of income both for the South African secret services and for individuals associated with them. The same trade routes were also used for trade in other goods, including rhino horn, drugs, gems, currency and weapons. This was not only as a means of earning money but also a technique of destabilisation in itself. The extent of South Africa's involvement in this trade, although suspected by some conservationists, was difficult to prove and did not form the target of any concerted campaign by the leading conservation groups world‐wide. In this respect, the strength of the South Africa lobby in the World‐Wide Fund for Nature seems to have played a significant role. Since the ending of South Africa's military presence in Namibia and Angola in 1989, the Military Intelligence officers, Special Forces officers and others who conducted the wars for the defence of white South Africa have been intent on the struggle inside South Africa itself. There is evidence that such counter‐insurgency specialists are now using Mozambique in particular as a base for operations inside South Africa. Moreover, they continue to have an interest in the ivory and rhino horn trades. Former officers of specialist counter‐insurgency units have also found employment as game wardens in national parks. The bold proposals currently being implemented to create large new game parks along the South African‐Mozambican border, using modern management techniques and involving local communities in their management, have important implications for politics and national security.

Recent Developments in the Commerce in Narwhal Ivory from the Canadian Arctic

Inuit in Canada kill several hundred narwhals, Monodon monoceros, in most years. Narwhals supplied various staples in the traditional subsistence economy. Today the main products are muktaaq and ivory. The large tusks of adult males are sold in a specialty souvenir market both inside Canada and in the global marketplace. The price of narwhal ivory has increased substantially over the past 25 yr, with steep increases in 1967, 1972, and the late 1970s to early 1980s. It crashed in 1983/84 due to a ban on importation by the European Economic Community (EEC), but it has recovered since then. Canadian narwhal ivory traditionally was exported to the United Kingdom, then often re-exported. The EEC ban closed the direct link with the United Kingdom. Consequently, new markets developed in Japan and Switzerland. Narwhal hunting remains an important source of food and cash income for residents of some coastal communities in the eastern Canadian Arctic and Greenland. The international ivory trade provides an incentive to procure large tusks, and this may strongly influence the nature and intensity of the hunt. Market intervention and price instability have had serious economic ramifications for Inuit communities in the past, and they are likely to affect the costs and rewards of narwhal hunting in the future as well.

Inferring Hunting Patterns on African Elephants from Tusks in the International Ivory Trade

(1) Simulation modelling was used to explore the processes responsible for recent international ivory trade patterns, and their implications. (2) The results suggest that the primary motive for killing African elephants is economic, and that the majority of populations currently supplying the ivory trade are seriously over-hunted. (3) Recently there has been a sharp increase in the number of elephants killed, probably due to a steep rise in the price of ivory, deteriorating economic conditions in Africa and greater availability of automatic weapons. (4) Recent patterns of ivory exploitation are similar to models which lead to rapid population collapse. Simulation results suggest that, if present exploitation patterns continue, the majority of elephant populations currently supplying the ivory trade will be greatly reduced within 10 years, possibly halving the total African elephant population.

Managing African Elephants for Ivory Production Through Ivory Trade Regulations

(1) Most of the African elephant populations currently supplying the international ivory trade are seriously overhunted for their tusks. One way to control elephant hunting is to impose comprehensive restrictions on trade in ivory. (2) Simulation modelling was used to explore the consequences of three strategies for regulating the ivory trade: limiting the total weight of ivory harvested, limiting the number of tusks taken, and setting a minimum acceptable tusk size. (3) Limits on the weight of ivory harvested encourage overhunting and extermination of elephants. Tusk quotas which allow small increases in elephant deaths can be offset by increased fertility, but ivory production will decline with time. Setting minimum tusk weights can provide secure protection for elephant populations, but will result in low ivory offtake per elephant. (4) Natural mortality alone produces the most ivory, due to the exponential pattern of male tusk growth. The loss of highly productive years cannot be offset by increased turnover. (5) Current African ivory harvest patterns are destructive and inefficient, and could be improved by adopting trade regulations which encourage better management.

Inferring the sex and age of African elephants from tusk measurements

The key problem in evaluating the impact of the international ivory trade on the African elephant population is the limited information available. The most reliable data come from ivory trade statistics, and much information can be gained by analysing tusks in the trade. The sex of African elephants can be inferred from tusk measurements by considering total length and circumference in combination, and their age can be estimated from tusk weight or circumference. Age estimates for females are less accurate than those for males, but when small samples are used, accuracy can be increased by using models which only consider elephants up to the age of 30 years. By combining inferences of sex and age, mortality patterns of African elephants can be inferred from tusks in the ivory trade, and these patterns can help study the impact of hunting on African elephant populations.

Further insight into the international ivory trade

n I 1981 the authors reviewed all the information then available to them on the world ivory trade to determine the number of elephants represented by Africa’s raw ivory exports. Their findings were published in Oryx in February 1982. Since then they have been able to collect and analyse more data, which has permitted a more accurate assessment of the situation up to the end of 1982. Contrary to their earlier conclusions, they expect the output in ivory to remain high throughout the coming decade.