Ivory should only ever be seen on a wild animal. But the bloody ivory trade had endured for centuries; ivory was prized for its beauty and strength. Ivory has been used to create tools, sacred objects, art, musical instruments, carved ornaments, and decorative items regarded as luxury items.
But in the last 100 years, things have changed – Massively! The rise in demand for ivory as a sign of wealth and power in the Far East, combined with the availability of high-velocity rifles with pinpoint accuracy from miles away, has made killing elephants easier than ever.
We can only imagine the pain and suffering of the victims, but we know Elephants are highly intelligent, sentient creatures that feel loss and mourn their dead. The brutal killings cause the same grief to Elephant groups as we feel when a gunman gets loose in a school; thankfully, for us, mass shootings are still comparatively rare, but for the Elephants in parts of Africa, they are a weekly and often daily occurrence.
The suffering and devastation of Elephant family herds is one reason to stop the bloody ivory trade. Still, with the sustained high numbers of Elephants being killed, there is a real threat that the magnificent African elephant could become extinct within a generation.
Elephant populations have plummeted by an estimated 90%—take a moment to think about that—we have already killed 9 out of every 10 Elephants in Africa! The world was once brimming with magnificent elephants, but today, there are fewer than 500,000 left, and that number is dropping daily!
In 1989, to end the demand for ivory, CITES enacted an international ban on the sale of ivory. Still, some African countries were allowed to continue with a domestic ivory trade, subject to restrictions—loopholes for the financiers to exploit.
The ivory ban drove the trade underground with the high continued demand for tusks in many countries, including the United States, which has created a booming black market trade. The current estimate is that more than 1000 elephants are being killed every day – that’s around 33,000 each year.
Ivory is a pervasive problem, with the global trade estimated to be worth $23 billion annually. Due to the high demand for ivory, poachers have no issue continuing to kill elephants for their tusks, which they can sell for up to $3300 per pound.
The trade has become a breeding ground for corruption and criminal activity, with law enforcement agencies around the world working diligently but failing to stem the flow of the distribution of ivory
With the obscene amounts of money to be made, poachers use the latest technology to locate elephant herds and now use helicopters for a fast raid on the pack, shooting all the animals in one bloody massacre before a ground team in 4x4s, chainsaw the tusks from the still warm Elephants and tas quick as they arrived, these mercenary killers are gone.
Killing elephants for their tusks is inherently cruel, but the fight to prevent poaching has led to poachers employing increasingly brutal methods to avoid detection.
With the obscene amounts of money to be made, poachers use the latest technology to locate elephant herds and now use helicopters for a fast raid on the pack, shooting all the animals in one bloody massacre before a ground team in 4x4s, chainsaw the tusks from the still warm Elephants and tas quick as they arrived, these mercenary killers are gone.
Conversely, as Ranger patrols have increased and better technology allowed them to respond to the sound of distant gunfire – the poaching gangs quickly turned to silent killing methods like spears and arrows with poisoned tips that silently but slowly kill the elephants. Worse still, as these methods effectively incapacitate the elephants, poachers cut their tusks out while they are still alive, leaving the elephants to die a prolonged and excruciatingly painful death.
The tragic reality of the illegal poaching of elephants is often rooted in a complex web of factors. The illicit demand for ivory and other wildlife products drives criminal groups to exploit poorer nations, siphoning off their resources with no regard for rules or laws.
Corruption allows these criminals to flaunt legal regulations and thrive, while poverty encourages desperate people to take up poacher activities as a way to make money and feed their families.
Global intervention is needed to protect and save the world’s majestic creatures from extinction.
Do you remember me highlighting the Loophole in the CITES ban on Ivory in 1989?
Where some African countries were allowed to trade within their borders
Europe followed the CITES directive but permitted domestic trade as long as the ivory in question was acquired before 1947 or imported from Africa before 1990 or before 1970. Other countries have adopted similar regulations to allow existing ivory sales while discouraging poaching.
Of course, the Poachers have found ways around these laws by disguising new ivory to appear old. Sometimes, this is as simple as discolouring it with black tea. Shockingly, the ivory experts have been tricked into believing that tea-stained new ivory was pre-1947, or as the cynic in me, perhaps they just wanted to keep the trade alive as without Ivory, what would they do? This is more than turning an occasionally blind eye, though; one study revealed that 68% of samples they acquired for testing were after 1947, but even worse, the so-called experts got the age of the pieces wrong a staggering 86% of the time.
Problem 2 of the CITES 1989 ban on the sales of ivory required that all countries keep documented stockpiles of ivory, both to track trade and to remove it from the market.
Of course, with all the ivory in one place, robberies were frequent and often successful, so some countries, including the USA, have responded by crushing or burning their ivory caches permanently in an attempt to end the ivory trade. There is much debate about the success of destroying the stockpiled ivory as it appears to have driven the price of new ivory even higher on the Black markets.
The counter-argument is that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased the demand for Ivory. The price of ivory has been on the rise after declining as the travel restrictions reduced the supply of ivory.
As a result, prices increased due to the disparity between supply and demand—a classic market situation, but these are individual animal tusks and not commodities—and we have lost all compassion for our fellow beings.
There is also the Gold factor because ivory is valuable. Some see it as a sound investment akin to purchasing gold. As such, there is evidence that ivory was sold at higher prices to provide financial stability during the global economic crisis.
The outcome is inevitable as the price of ivory increases. Poachers are more incentivised to continue killing elephants as the profits are much higher than before. The greed and stupidity of humans genuinely have no limits!
Global online sales platforms such as Amazon and eBay are full of ivory products despite the sale of ivory being banned. Just try searching for ‘Bovine Bone’ and see what comes up.
In a study conducted by Dr Caroline Cox at the University of Portsmouth, they found that of 632 items listed as bovine bone on eBay – over 500 were ivory.
Another issue with the CITES requirement to store stockpiles of ivory is the cost of keeping the ivory safely stored, which has burdened some poorer countries. Some countries like Zimbabwe and Namibia want to sell their stockpiles and use the money raised for conservation. Today, both Zimbabwe and Namibia sell hunting licenses, including licenses to hunt the elephants they claim to raise the money to fund the protection of the ivory stockpiles they hold – a genuinely horrific 360-degree tailspin between wildlife and capitalism. I fear that with the greed and desire for money, the latter will win, leading to the inevitable extinction of Elephants in the wild.
What a tragic legacy for our generation to leave for our children and grandchildren.
Wildlife Matters believes one major factor being under-reported is the evolutionary changes occurring within Elephant populations in specific areas, such as in the Gorongosa National Park in Mozambique, where war led to 90% of the elephants being killed for their ivory.
Female elephants in the Gorongoas National Park carry a gene that causes them to be born without tusks. Since tuskless elephants were more likely to survive, those genes were passed on faster than before the war.
Today, 50% of female elephants in this region are born without tusks.
While initially, this may be good news, a little further investigation reveals that this gene mutation is lethal in males. Within the Gorongoas National Park herds affected by these genetic changes, two-thirds of all elephant calves are now female, significantly impacting the species’ survival.
We must also consider that tuskless elephants have adapted their diets and now eat mainly grass instead of a broad plant diet, including legumes and woody plants.
Elephants are a keystone species, so this dietary change has a massive impact on the local ecosystems. It impacts many species that rely on the elephant’s natural behaviour to remove scrub and create paths, dig water holes, and turn the soil with their tusks—without tusks, elephants do none of these things, and biodiversity declines as species die out.
Wildlife Matters also believes the human cost of protecting elephants is dangerously underreported. The poachers are ruthless killers, and it is not only elephants they kill. Between 2006 and 2021, over 1500 people, mainly Wildlife Rangers, have been killed protecting endangered species, including elephants. The brave rangers who work to protect elephants from poachers risk their lives as they carry out their duties. They frequently face corruption in local governments and poachers who are insurgents or members of organised crime groups and militias. Of course, rangers must contend with dangers from the natural environment, too, like wildfires, floods, and sometimes even attacks from the animals they work to protect.
Let’s take a moment to remember the 1500 brave people who died trying to protect the wildlife they loved.
Some glimmer of hope
New regulations were adopted by the European Union, including the UK, in December 2021 to combat the domestic ivory trade. The EU now prohibits all raw ivory trade except for repairing existing objects made from antique ivory, such as musical instruments. Moreover, to be eligible for legal sale, worked ivory must have been crafted before 1947 or, in the case of musical instruments, 1975. These items must also be certified by their country of origin.
In 2017, China, the largest market for ivory, took a significant step in combating poaching by banning the domestic sale of ivory. This legislation, combined with successful public messaging campaigns, has helped decrease the demand for ivory in China. According to Chinese state media, the price of raw ivory dropped by 65% within the first year of the ban.
Japan, which was once a significant market for ivory, has ceased all ivory imports. As a result, the country is no longer a destination for new ivory.
Wildlife Matters believes that leaving Elephants as pawns in a global game of black market trade and legal conservation is neglecting our responsibilities as humans to protect wild animals and our habitats and environments for the greater good of every one of us and the planet we call home.
We don’t believe CITES has the will or the desire to end the ivory trade. They are a trade-based organisation, after all. The so-called bans have driven the business into the hands of black market criminals who have no compassion for people or wildlife. They only worship at the altar of capitalism.
Wildlife Matters believes an innovative and new way of tackling this issue is now required. We believe in using the latest satellite technology to track Elephant herds and individuals across their home ranges. These would be supported by military bases tracking elephants and movements within the area of the packs as they roam. Elephants follow traditional paths and move seasonally. The only variations are when human development and expansion remove their tracks, and the Elephants then come through new developments to follow their ancient paths, and then property and crops can be damaged.
The world’s governments deploy military personnel, high-tech planes, and helicopters for fast response, supported by ground-based teams. This would mean Poachers would be unlikely to kill Elephants and would likely be caught, tried, and imprisoned. The ivory supply would decline, driving the price for the remaining ivory higher to a point where the demand would tail off.
This would be backed by a worldwide educational campaign designed to show the real suffering of Elephants and the reality of how elephants are killed and their tusks removed to make ivory items.
Although expensive, these measures would help save the elephants that remain in the wild, educate people about why buying ivory is wrong and is not a sustainable product, and remove the third black market trade.
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Stopping Demand for Elephant Ivory WWF
The Global Ivory Trade TRAFFIC.org
The History of the Ivory Trade National Geographic Society
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