Ivory Products Research Articles

African and Asian elephant ivory discrimination using a portable strip test

Currently, the global elephant population has significantly declined due to the poaching of elephants for their ivory, and this is the reason why elephants are listed in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES). However, Thailand allows the legal trade of ivory from registered, domesticated Asian elephants, leading to the smuggling of African elephant ivory, and passing them off as Asian elephant ivory. Therefore, this research aims to develop and validate a portable strip test to discriminate between Asian and African elephants DNA, using Recombinase Polymerase Amplification (RPA) and Lateral Flow Dipstick assay (LFD) according to international standards. The results showed that the strip test can be successfully developed with 100% accuracy (n = 105). This kit is specific to elephants, has a detection limit of 0.125 ng of DNA, and can effectively discriminate a variety of elephant ivory, including raw ivory, ivory products, and aged ivory over 25 years old, which had been damaged by fire, all with 100% accuracy (n = 117). Additionally, the developed strip test is designed to be portable and cost-effective. It does not require expensive laboratory equipment and provides a faster analysis process compared with conventional PCR-based methods. This will expedite the legal process and enforcement of laws related to elephant conservation, reducing the opportunities for illegal activities, and enabling timely prosecution under relevant wildlife conservation laws in Thailand and internationally.

Illegal Trade in Exotic Animals and Its Impacts in Slovenia-A Case Study.

Currently, the illegal wildlife trade is one of the most profitable illegal enterprises in the world. The aim of our study was to determine the situation with respect to wildlife trade in Slovenia, which is mainly a transit country, before changes to the Schengen borders came into effect. The volume of trade is significant but not extensive. The most common endangered species involved in illegal trade in Slovenia are the brown bear, the peregrine falcon, the date mussel, the lady's slipper orchid, the common snowdrop, the cyclamen, the sea turtle, the otter, and various reptile species. The smuggling of shells (date shells), ivory (ivory products), certain plants, and various hunting trophies (bears, big cats) has decreased in recent years. Nevertheless, counteracting crimes continues to be important for the conservation of some species in Slovenia, notably the lynx, and for the reduction of poaching. Improvements are needed in the detection and prevention of wildlife crime, especially in light of changes made to the Schengen borders and the consequent inclusion of new trading partners for Slovenia. The lack of people properly trained to identify, detect, and investigate wildlife crime is especially acute.

Guangzuo Ivory Carving: Intercultural Communication on the "Maritime Silk Road" During the 17 th -19 th Century

Ivory carving, jade carving, cloisonne and carved lacquer were once known as the four great masters of Chinese arts and crafts, and they are also one of the artistic symbols recording the process of human civilization. From the 17th to 19th century, Guangzuo, namely Canton style, ivory carving was one of the quintessence of Chinese crafts that was deeply welcomed by the western world and there are many monographs and articles discussed by predecessors. However, the exploration of the relationship between Guangzuo ivory carving and the intercultural communication of the Maritime Silk Road is still weak. By excavating and combing the source of raw materials, technical characteristics, source and export development process of Guangzuo ivory carving, this paper discussed the relationship between overseas market expansion of Guangzuo ivory carving and intercultural communication on the Maritime Silk Road, and puts forward the following understandings: (1) Since the Tang and Song Dynasties, especially from the 17th to the mid-19th century, ivory materials were mainly obtained through the Maritime Silk Road trade with the South China Sea as the starting point. (2) The typical ivory carvings exported in the 17th-19th century included ivory balls, baskets, fans, jewel cases, sewing boxes, card cases, letter holders, and brooches etc. In spite of the category, the quantity of ivory products is far less than the other export goods. But the Guangzuo ivory carvings were still one of the important export commodities at that time for its high material value, craft skills, unique characteristics in artistry, appreciation and cultural compatibility. (3) The exquisite skills, styles and decorative patterns of Guangzuo ivory carving not only inherited Chinese traditional crafts, but also absorbed overseas skills, and were strongly influenced by European consumer culture at the meantime. The Guangzuo ivory carvings exported to the western world are actually the ODM(original design manufacturer) products made by local craftsmen in reference to the needs of overseas customers, which are representing the wisdom of Chinese skilled craftsmen and the integration of multicultural exchanges. (4) The success of the Guangzuo ivory carving foreign trade during the 17th to the 19th century showed that the intercultural communication and mutual learning are important factors, even the key factors, for expanding the international market, which may provide a typical paradigm for other precious jade and stone products exporting to foreign countries or expanding the international market today.

Trend, Challenges and Opportunities of Illegal Wildlife Trafficking and Trade Activities within and through Ethiopia

Having improved knowledge on global, regional and/or national trends in illegal wildlife trade is required to develop effective combating strategies. In this paper, nine years (2011–2019) data on illegal wildlife trade and trafficking (iwt) seizure records were used to explore trends in iwt activities in Ethiopia and to identify countries involved most in the iwt. Trends of iwt activities were assessed in two indicators: as relative transaction index (ti), and as relative weight index (for ivory [wi]) or as relative number of items for ivory and other wildlife products [ni]. To account for potential yearly variations in seizure rates, proxy variables to law enforcement efforts and effectiveness were used and predictive models that produced bias-adjusted estimates of relative trends in iwt activities were built. To explore the underlying reasons for the trend observed, relevant national officers were also interviewed to assess how well has been wildlife law enforcement working in combatting iwt in the country. Linear or polynomial regressions, where appropriate, were fitted to the seizure data to establish trends in transaction index over the nine years. A total of 842 incidences of iwt seizure instance reports, involving 18 animal species, were recorded in the country during the nine years period. However, the highest seizure (94%) rate was ivory and ivory products. Our results generally showed declining trends in both ti and wi or ni. The observed trend was also supported by the experts’ opinions and likely reflects the positive impacts of the country’s implementation of its wildlife laws. Other interesting findings of this study were that China represented the single most important destination country and Chinese nationalities were the most traffickers. In conclusion, the results provide detailed evidence to inform national and international decision making on key species implicated in the illegal trade. Similar periodic assessment of the situation of iwt within the country is needed to evaluate effectiveness of the country’s past and present measures and to revise its future combatting policies and strategies.

Mapping the Illegal International Ivory Trading Network to Identify Key Hubs and Smuggling Routes : Illegal International Ivory Trading Network from 1975 to 2017.

Biodiversity loss is on the list of the most challenging issues the world sustainability faces. This study aims to examine the global illegal ivory trades, identify key hub countries and map the key smuggling routes in the worldwide illegal ivory trading network. A social network analysis (SNA) and a set of network indicators are used to investigate CITES's (Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora) ivory trading data from 1975 to 2017. Several important conclusions are derived: (1) The social network of global ivory trading is closely connected, with an average path length of 2.643 and an average clustering coefficient of 0.463. An average of 45,410.384kg of ivory products was trafficked from each of the 182 countries to an average of another 8.17 countries. The dynamic networks of global ivory trading show the pattern of high connectivity and high aggregation. (2) The USA, the UK, Zimbabwe, South Africa, China, Japan, Sudan, Belgium and Hong Kong are the most important hubs in the worldwide ivory trade according to degrees and centralities in the SNA. (3) According to trading weight density, three significant ivory trafficking routes are illustrated: 1. African countries (Sudan, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Somalia and Uganda) to Hong Kong; 2. Belgium to Hong Kong and Japan; 3. Mutual transactions between Japan and Hong Kong. The analytical framework in this study can also be useful for studying other illegal trading activities, like other animal trades, with respect to biodiversity conversation, and could serve as a reference for other network-based sustainability challenges, such as human migration, biological invasion, and waste smuggling and dumping.

Discrimination of highly degraded, aged Asian and African elephant ivory using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE)

Elephant populations have greatly reduced mainly due to illegal poaching for their ivory. The trade in elephant products is protected by national laws and CITES agreements to prevent them from further decline. For instance, in Thailand, it is illegal to trade ivory from African elephants; however, the law allows possession of ivory from Asian elephants if permission has been obtained from the authorities. As such, means of enforcement of legislation are needed to classify the legal status of seized ivory products. Many DNA-based techniques have been previously reported for this purpose, although all have a limit of detection not suitable for extremely degraded samples. We report an assay based on nested PCR followed by DGGE to confirm the legal or illegal status of seized ivory samples where it is assumed that the DNA will be highly degraded. The assay was tested on aged ivory from which the assay was tested for reproducibility, specificity, and, importantly, sensitivity. Blind testing showed 100% identification accuracy. Correct assignment in all 304 samples tested was achieved including confirmation of the legal status of 227 highly degraded, aged ivories, thus underlining the high sensitivity of the assay. The research output will be beneficial to analyze ivory casework samples in wildlife forensic laboratories.

Effect of the CITES trade ban on preferences for ivory in Japan

This paper characterizes the ivory demand in Japan, formerly, the largest consumer country of ivory, by imports of worked ivory since 1970. During the entire period, the preference parameters, each of which represents the elasticity of the marginal rate of substitution, suggest that a change occurred in 1989, when the African elephant was listed in the CITES Appendix I. We conduct hypothesis tests on the differences in consumer preferences for observation periods before and after 1989. We show that Veblen effects caused the increasing shift of the demand in the first period, meaning that ivory products were more preferred as their price increased. They were purchased even though the price continued to rise before the trade ban intervened. The Veblen effects disappeared in the second period when the demand became homogeneous of degree zero. Due to public awareness of illegal trade and endangered elephants, the quantity of the demand for worked ivory quickly declined. The price has fluctuated unpredictably since the 2000s, and a small amount of worked ivory is imported at a high price because of the unavailability of ivory products. Prohibition could influence the social preference for wildlife products from which domestic demand is formed.

ТОВАРОЗНАВЧА ОЦІНКА АНТИКВАРНОЇ МАЛОЇ ТА МІНІАТЮРНОЇ ПЛАСТИКИ З КІСТКИ ТА ДЕРЕВА

Мета. Дослідження основних засад щодо проведення товарознавчої оцінкиантикварної малої та мініатюрної пластики з кістки та дерева, а також здійсненняпрогнозування їх ліквідаційної вартості.Методика. Для товарознавчої оцінки антикварної малої та мініатюрної пластикиз кістки та дерева було використано стандартні методи регресійного аналізу.Результати. Описано повний перелік процедур та розрахунків, що необхідні длявиконання товарознавчої оцінки антикварних виробів із слонової кістки та цінних сортівдерева, а також для здійснення прогнозування їх ліквідаційної вартості.Продемонстровано значення результатів аналізу поточного стану ринку спорідненихпредметів для створення колекції еталонів й подальшого її використання для виконанняоперацій порівняння. Подано приклад розрахунків прогнозованої вартості з використаннямзапропонованої авторами математичної моделі, що є цілком придатної для практичноговикористання в завданнях прогнозування вартості високохудожніх виробів з слоновоїкістки та цінних сортів дерева на міжнародному ринку. Під час проведення товарознавчоїоцінки антикварної малої та мініатюрної пластики з кістки та дерева запропоновановикористовувати питомі показники вартості, визначені як відношення вартостіпредмета до його діагонального брутто розміру. Процедура оцінки якості тапрогнозування вартості не враховує емоційного ефекту, який твір мистецтва справляє напотенційного покупця, але вона враховує його фінансові можливості.Наукова новизна. Запропоновано поділ вартісних показників малої та мініатюрноїпластики з кістки та дерева на товарознавчі групи та запровадження питомих показниківвартості, визначених як відношення вартості предмета до його діагонального брутторозміру.Практична значимість. Розроблено порядок розрахунку питомого показникапоточної вартості малої та мініатюрної пластики з кістки та дерева: відношеннязадекларованої вартості до діагонального брутто-розміру предмета, що дозволяє враховувати розміри виробів в процедурах оцінки, адже вони є показовими відноснозагальної оцінки технічної складності роботи зі створення предмету.
 Purpose. Investigation of the main principles for commodity evaluation of antique smalland miniature plastics from bone and wood, as well as forecasting of their liquidation value.Methodology. Standard methods of regression analysis were used for the commodityevaluation of antique small and miniature bone and wood plastics.Results. A complete list of procedures and calculations necessary for carrying outcommodity evaluation of antique ivory products and valuable wood articles, as well as forforecasting of their liquidation value, is described. It is demonstrated the significance of theanalysis results of the market related items current state for the creation of a collection ofstandard models and its further use for performing of comparative operations. An example ofcalculations of the forecast value is presented using the mathematical model proposed by theauthors, which is quite suitable for practical use for the cost forecasting of high-art ivory andvaluable wood products on the international market.Scientific novelty. It is proposed the division of cost indicators of small and miniaturebone and wood plastics into commodity groups and the introduction of specific values of value,determined as the ratio of the value of the object to its diagonal gross size.Practical value. The procedure for the specific indicator of the current cost of small andminiature bone and wood plastics calculation: the ratio of the declared value to the diagonalgross-size of the object, which allows to take into account the products size in the evaluationprocedures, as they are indicative of the overall assessment of the technical complexity of thework on the creation of the subject.

Ecological labeling and wildlife conservation: Citizens’ perceptions of the elephant ivory-labeling system in China

Eco-labeling of products such as ivory contributes to conservation of wildlife species and is most effective when potential consumers of such products are made aware of the threats to wildlife and protections associated with the labels. This paper investigates factors affecting citizens’ perceptions of China’s eco-labeling system for elephant ivory, which was established in 2004, using unique datasets collected in 2015 and 2017. The results indicate that citizens in China have little understanding of the ivory-labeling system. <10% of the participants were aware of the three accreditation subsystems for ivory products regulating manufacturers, retailers, and the products and only about 20% were familiar with one subsystem. The results of Bayesian logit models show that citizens’ demographic and other characteristics are significantly correlated with their knowledge of the labeling system for elephant ivory, and the effects varied for the 2015 and 2017 samples. The one consistent influence was income level, which had similar significant and positive impacts in all of the models. The temporal coefficients reflecting changes in awareness between 2015 and 2017 were not significant, indicating that knowledge of the ivory-labeling system did not increase overall during that period. Our results indicate that significantly greater outreach is needed for China’s ivory-labeling system so citizens can consistently play a role in ridding the market of illegal ivory products and regulating noncommercial ivory trading. Special attention should be given to groups of citizens who have relatively little education, income, and awareness of wildlife conservation efforts.

Use of Machine Learning to Detect Wildlife Product Promotion and Sales on Twitter.

Social media is an important channel for communication, information dissemination, and social interaction, but also provides opportunities to illicitly sell goods online, including the trade of wildlife products. In this study, we use the Twitter public application programming interface (API) to access Twitter messages in order to detect and classify suspicious wildlife trafficking and sale using an unsupervised machine learning topic model combined with keyword filtering and manual annotation. We choose two prohibited wildlife animals and related products: elephant ivory and pangolin, and collected tweets containing keywords and known code words related to these species. In total, we collected 138,357 tweets filtered for these keywords over a 14-day period and were able to identify 53 tweets from 38 unique users that we suspect promoted the sale of Ivory products, though no pangolin related promoted post were detected in this study. Study results show that machine learning combined with supplement analysis approaches such as those utilized in this study have the potential to detect illegal content without the use of an existing training data set. If developed further, these approaches can help technology companies, conservation groups, and law enforcement officials to expedite the process of identifying illegal online sales and stem supply for the billion-dollar criminal industry of online wildlife trafficking.

Compliance with ivory trade regulations in the United Kingdom among traders.

Global demand for elephant ivory is contributing to illegal poaching and significant decline of African elephant (Loxondonta africana) populations. To help mitigate decline, countries with legal domestic ivory markets were recommended by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora to close domestic markets for commercial trade. However, implementing stricter regulations on wildlife trade does not necessarily mean compliance with rules will follow. Using an online questionnaire, we examined the relationship between self-reported compliance with ivory trade regulations among 115 ivory traders in the United Kingdom and 4 dimensions (control, deterrence, legitimacy, and social norms) hypothesized to influence compliance with conservation regulations. Although most traders supported regulations, a large number did not always check that they comply with them when trading objects containing ivory. The main factors influencing compliance with ivory trade regulations were traders' ability to comply and their perceptions of the regulations and punishments to deter illegal trade. These findings demonstrate the utility of conservation criminology to improve wildlife trade regulations and identify opportunities to reduce illegal ivory entering the market in the United Kingdom. Compliance could be improved by clearer regulations that facilitate easier detection of illegal ivory products and stronger prosecution of violations.

Ivory trade: Policy and law change

Against a backdrop of consistent NGO pressure, countered by an unrelenting and increasingly transnational organised crime-framed poaching effort, the Secretary of State for the Environment Food and Rural Affairs moved to enact legislation which will significantly curtail what remains of the market for ivory products in the UK. The Ivory Bill, at the time of writing going through its parliamentary stages, will sidestep the majority of the current exemptions, premised on the antiquity of a worked item, to the usual prohibition on the trade of raw or worked ivory which owes its existence to the Convention on the International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora 1973 (CITES) and the Treaty’s domestic implementing measures. The accelerated illegal killing of charismatic species such as elephants has prompted legal responses at international and local levels in both range and destination-market states. Laws targeting both the supply and demand sides of the trade have been undermined by the trade in antique ivory: a shadow, parallel market of imitation antiques has existed for some time to launder poached ivory through the exemptions to the CITES system. This short article will introduce the mechanics of the Ivory Bill, set in the context of the drivers which have prompted it, and will evaluate its potential contribution to curtailing this destructive trade.

Transnational norms and governing illegal wildlife trade in China and Japan: elephant ivory and related products under CITES

This article seeks to determine why the illegal wildlife trade is still flourishing in China despite the country’s adoption of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES). It focuses on the 1989 international trade ban on African elephant ivory. Taking a normative social constructivist approach, the article illuminates the motivations for, and processes and consequences of, accommodating novel norms in domestic situations. In addition, China is compared with Japan to ensure both methodological rigour and wide empirical coverage. It is argued that, although species protection has been adopted as a legitimate transnational norm, it has not been sufficiently socialized into Chinese (or Japanese) society. Rather, related local issues and social, cultural and economic factors play crucial roles in driving ivory demand and trade. Thus, despite the adoption of a relevant regulatory framework, illegal wildlife trade has become a serious problem in today’s highly commercialized Chinese (and Japanese) society. This problem can be solved only by conforming to international conservation norms and implementing stringent regulations and effective governance.

Crushing Burdens of Material Culture

The illegal trade in endangered species stands as one of the great shames of our age. Alongside human trafficking and the drug trade, these practices operate in the shadows of civil society, permissioned by the affluent as a supply chain practice that profiteers on loss and human suffering. The guest editors of this issue approached our journal two years ago with the vision for focusing on the persistent trade in elephant ivory and how museums can be part of a productive dialogue that can ensure the survival of elephants. We were pleased to see this effort use material culture and history as a call to action for the entire sector. It's now been twenty-one years since I was a curator for the Lilah Callen Holden Elephant Museum, a micro-museum at the Oregon Zoo dedicated to the history of elephants. That zoo was renowned as the home of the first surviving elephant birth in a zoo in 1962. Now, as editor of this journal, I'm once again reading about the global debate surrounding the international ban on elephant ivory and museum management of the assets that represent our material culture. Today, the Oregon Zoo has closed the Holden museum, but during its revival in the mid-1990s, we mounted an exhibition to celebrate the lore of elephant entanglement in human culture, and to examine the plight of the species as its habitats were being destroyed and lives taken to support an illegal but flourishing trade in ivory. While our mission was noble, the community passion about elephants led to a collection most notable for the volume of elephant eared tea cosies and US election ephemera accessioned into the collection to appease donors before a collections policy was developed. We were also the recipients of an enormous collection in confiscated ivory given to us in trust by the US Fish and Wildlife Service and US Customs for use in our education programs. The government had entrusted our museum to dissuade the public from buying ivory products while traveling abroad. The ivory trinkets we held represented a range of commodities, from cheap souvenirs to elaborately carved full tusks depicting life in the African sub-continent where elephants are found. As a curator, however, it was clear that none of this stuff was museum worthy. Its provenance was suspect, most of the craftsmanship lacked distinction. The vast majority smacked of a rough assembly line production of souvenirs that could have likely been better manufactured in cast resin. We had become guardians of more tchotchkes than could be used for any educational purpose and likely would have been discarded by any interior designer given the chance to fix up someone's curio cabinet. These were not art; they were cheap mass-produced impulse items. They did not speak to the story of society through our material culture other than demonstrating how affluent cultures seek to redeem their guilt by representing cultural history as savage and primitive. Elephant ivory trinkets crushed as part of a public program to draw attention to the illegal ivory trade, June 19, 2015. Photo Julie Larsen Maher courtesy WCS. [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com] We hope this issue will advance the professional dialogue around how we display the products from art history. These articles and reviews give context to ivory not only as an object grounded in the disciplines of art, history, and scientific research, but also on a continuum that directly links these objects through cultural, historical, archival, and conservation perspectives to the moral challenges we face as a planet witnessing the sixth great extinction. Museums have an obligation to reconsider the role ivory plays in their collections and exhibits in the face of this global issue. The ivory crisis provides an unprecedented opportunity for museums; few materials have been so universal in their scope and relevance. In many museums, the collection includes ivory products that have historical, artistic, and educational significance that museums might wish to protect. The story of the object, whether ornamented with elephant ivory or fully made from the material, puts museums in a position to activate dialogue about our moral responsibility to safeguard future global biodiversity. Museums have an obligation to reconsider the role ivory plays in their collections and exhibits in the face of this global issue. We hope this issue of Curator provides scholars with an essential grounding in contemporary approaches and look forward to how others will build on this scholarly work.

‘Do you know where I can buy ivory?’: The illegal sale of worked ivory products in Hong Kong

Set against the theoretical framework of situational crime prevention theory, this paper analyses the illegal sale of worked ivory products in Hong Kong, which is the city with the highest number of worked ivory products for retail sale in the world. Based on qualitative interviews and open sources, this paper shows that legalising the sale of products made from mammoth tusk and pre-1989 ivory, the low risk of detection, high rewards, justifications made by offenders, and unique situational conditions have collectively (and indirectly) created opportunities for traders to sell worked ivory items illegally in Hong Kong. This paper concludes by offering a discussion on why the illegal sale of ivory products cannot be prevented with situational crime prevention preventive strategies in the long run.

Distinguishing real from fake ivory products by elemental analyses: A Bayesian hybrid classification method

As laws tighten to limit commercial ivory trading and protect threatened species like whales and elephants, increased sales of fake ivory products have become widespread. This study describes a method, handheld X-ray fluorescence (XRF) as a noninvasive technique for elemental analysis, to differentiate quickly between ivory (Asian and African elephant, mammoth) from non-ivory (bones, teeth, antler, horn, wood, synthetic resin, rock) materials. An equation consisting of 20 elements and light elements from a stepwise discriminant analysis was used to classify samples, followed by Bayesian binary regression to determine the probability of a sample being ‘ivory’, with complementary log log analysis to identify the best fit model for this purpose. This Bayesian hybrid classification model was 93% accurate with 92% precision in discriminating ivory from non-ivory materials. The method was then validated by scanning an additional ivory and non-ivory samples, correctly identifying bone as not ivory with >95% accuracy, except elephant bone, which was 72%. It was less accurate for wood and rock (25–85%); however, a preliminary screening to determine if samples are not Ca-dominant could eliminate inorganic materials. In conclusion, elemental analyses by XRF can be used to identify several forms of fake ivory samples, which could have forensic application.

Mini-SNaPshot multiplex assays authenticate elephant ivory and simultaneously identify the species origin

Illegal trading of ivory is mainly responsible for the dramatic decline in elephant populations. Thailand is one of the largest laundering hotspots for African ivory, as the domestic Asian elephant ivory can be legally traded. So, to help combat ivory poaching and smuggling, an efficient method is needed to identify the elephant species from its ivory and ivory products. In this study, a mini-SNaPshot® multiplex assay was developed and fully validated for the identification of confiscated ivory and low DNA template ivory products. Elephantid- and elephant species-specific mitochondrial single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified from 207 mammalian and 1705 elephant/mammoth cytochrome b sequence alignments. Seven informative SNPs were used for assay development. The assay unambiguously and accurately identified authentic elephant ivory and its species of origin on the basis of peak size and color observed in the haplotype profile. The assay was highly efficient for analysis of confiscated ivory and low-template ivory products with a 99.29% success rate (N=140). It was highly reproducible, exhibited no cross-reaction with eight other mammalian DNA; and had 100% identification accuracy. In addition, nested and direct PCR amplification were also compatible with the developed assay. This efficient assay should benefit wildlife forensic laboratories and aid in the prosecution of elephant-related crimes.

Can We Sustainably Harvest Ivory?

Despite the 1989 ivory trade ban, elephants continue to be killed to harvest their tusks for ivory. Since 2008, this poaching has increased to unprecedented levels driven by consumer demand for ivory products. CITES is now considering the development of a legal ivory trade [1, 2]. The proposal relies on three assumptions: (1) harvest regulation will cease all illegal activities, (2) defined sustainable quotas can be enforced, and (3) we can define meaningful sustainable quotas that come close to the current demand. We know that regulation of harvest does not stop illegal takes. Despite whaling regulation after World War II, illegal whaling continued for decades [3]. The introduction of wolf culls in the US actually increased poaching activities [4], and one-off ivory sales in 1999 and 2008 did nothing to halt elephant poaching. Governance issues over the ivory supply chains, including stockpiling, make enforcing quotas challenging, if not impossible [5, 6]. We have not yet adequately assessed what could be a sustainable ivory yield. To do so, we develop a compartmental model composed of a two-sex age-structured demographic model and an ivory production and harvest model. We applied several offtake and quota strategies to define how much ivory could be sustainably harvested. We found that the sustainability space is very small. Only 100 to 150kg of ivory could be removed from a reference population of 1,360 elephants, levels well below the current demand. Our study shows that lifting the ivory ban will not address the current poaching challenge. We should instead focus on reducing consumer demand.

A novel real time PCR assay using melt curve analysis for ivory identification

Demand for ivory and expansion of human settlements have resulted in a rapid decline in the number of elephants. Enforcement of local and international laws and regulations requires identification of the species from which any ivory, or ivory products, originated. Further geographical assignment of the dead elephant from which the ivory was taken can assist in forensic investigations. In this study, a real-time PCR assay using melt curve analysis was developed and fully validated for forensic use. The presence or absence of three Elephantidae-specific and elephant species-specific melting peaks was used to identify the elephant species. Using 141 blood and ivory samples from the three extant elephant species, the assay demonstrated very high reproducibility and accuracy. The limit of detection was as low as 0.031ng of input DNA for conventional amplification and 0.002ng for nested amplification. Both DNA concentrations are typically encountered in forensic casework, especially for degraded samples. No cross-reactivity was observed for non-target species. Evaluation of direct amplification and nested amplification demonstrated the assay's flexibility and capability of analyzing low-template DNA samples and aged samples. Additionally, blind trial testing showed the assay's suitability application in real casework. In conclusion, wildlife forensic laboratories could use this novel, quick, and low-cost assay to help combat the continuing poaching crises leading to the collapse of elephant numbers in the wild.

Species Determination: The Role and Use of the Cytochrome b Gene.

The illegal trade in ivory and rhino horn has led to a catastrophic decline in elephant and rhino populations worldwide. These iconic high profile species are one part of the illegal trade in wildlife products that threatens these species and the ecological balance in the habitats in which they live. Identification of the species present is required to determine that the trade is illegal and contrary to national legislation. This chapter details a robust DNA technique using part of the cytochrome b gene on the mitochondrial genome that will work on poor quality samples such as powdered horn or ivory products including statues and carvings. An appropriate DNA extraction technique is required to obtain at least 1 ng of DNA from which the amplification of part of the cytochrome b gene using universal primers is performed. This produces a fragment of 486 bp in size which can be sequenced using standard technologies. The resulting sequences are then aligned to voucher specimens or sequences on reliable databases. Analyses of the data should lead to confident species identification.