In 1989 Kenya’s government planned and executed the world’s first ever ivory burn, desperate to do something about the poaching of its elephants due to the soaring cost, and therefore value to poachers, of ivory. This helped pass a ban on the international trade of ivory, which returned in the 2000s after a few African countries said their elephant populations had sufficiently recovered. Trade to Japan and China resumed.
Proponents [of keeping ivory] continue to argue that flooding the market with legally sourced ivory or rhino horn would curtail poaching pressure on animals while providing funds for conservation, but with the one-off ivory sales, ivory demand surged, and poaching intensified. In 2008, for example, Kenya lost 116 elephants, whereas in 2009, following the 2008 ivory sale, that number more than doubled, to 267.
Kenya Sets Ablaze 105 Tons of Ivory, National Geographic (April 2016)
Elephants have been in crisis ever since. Though some say poaching and ivory smuggling is on the decline, there is still a robust trade. Arrests have been made constantly all over the world as traffickers continue to sell illegal ivory, including, just in the past few weeks, two men in Zimbabwe, one man in the Central African Republic, and even a woman selling on eBay in the UK.
The US instituted a ban on ivory imports in 2016 but still allows trade of “antique” ivory within the country. Antique ivory and tusks from trophy hunting are allowed on a limited basis. The ban was enacted after the US FWS uncovered huge ivory smuggling schemes involving US businesses.
A limited ban may show the US is taking the ivory trade–both legal and illegal–more seriously, it’s still a weak signal. The behavior the US was reacting to was already illegal in nature. Criminals will continue to break the law as long as there is demand for the product.
By allowing some types of ivory to be imported, kept, and traded, the US sends a signal that ivory has value. And as long as something has value, there will be people who are willing to do anything to get it or profit from it.
As it pertains to the trade in Europe, radiocarbon testing has shown that three quarters of so-called “antique” ivory is actually much newer. Not only that, but one fifth of the tested ivory came from elephants that were alive when the global ban on ivory was enacted. The “legal” trade is nothing more than a disguised illegal trade.
Kenya held another burn in 2016, destroying a record 105 tons of ivory. “There’s a passing of judgment from some that we’re doing the wrong thing, because Kenya is a poor country, and we could use the $150 million-odd dollars that they claim the ivory is worth to develop our nation,” President Kenyatta said in the National Geographic article. “But I would rather wait for the judgment of future generations, who I am sure will appreciate the decision we have taken today.”
“There are also practical reasons for destroying ivory. Keeping that material is expensive—requiring storage space and staff to guard it—and risky, since ivory has a tendency to find its way back into the black market through theft or corruption among those meant to watch over it.”
How You Can Help
Earth League International, who published the report on radiocarbon testing, advocates for three actions to curtail the trade of ivory:
- Shut down all antique ivory loopholes
- End all ivory imports and exports
- End all trade in raw tusks
This is a heavy lift and out of the realm of possibility for most of us to accomplish on our own. All we can do is call on our leaders to support these changes. Personally, we can also take concrete steps to ensure we don’t contribute to the demand for ivory:
- Don’t buy ivory or anything containing trace amounts of ivory. The material is purely decorative and is only valuable because humans have assigned it value. It won’t make you better at chess or playing the piano.
- Surrender your ivory to the National Wildlife Property Repository. Give thought to why they are sentimental to you and what message it sends for you to keep them. Reduce the demand by turning them over so their existence in the market doesn’t drive up demand.
- Support groups that try to make a difference in this area, like Earth League International, one of our Five-Star Advocates.
The only way to stop the ivory trade, and thus the poaching that facilitates it, is to make ivory worthless.
Elephant Advocate 