Corbis

African elephants

The results of a new report on ivory trade in the United States were released today at the 14th meeting of the United Nations Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) occurring in The Hague, The Netherlands, from 3-15 June 2007.

The report by Dr. Esmond Martin and Daniel Stiles provides for the first time baseline information on the scale of the retail ivory trade in the United States. The information will allow future researchers to determine if the trade has increased, decreased or stayed the same.

"We surveyed thousands of retail outlets in 15 American cities," said Martin. "We found a staggering 23,741 ivory items, almost half of them in New York City." 

"Many are mislabeled as antiques, mammoth ivory or bone," confirmed Martin. The researchers also found that ivory sold in the United States was illegally imported from Japan.

An earlier HSUS investigation and the results of this new research demonstrate that neither Japan nor China have sufficient national legislation and domestic trade controls to ensure that imported ivory will not be re-exported. These are requirements for any country to be approved as a legal destination for stockpiled ivory.

Ivory Export Approved

In a June 2 meeting before the start of the CITES Conference of Parties 14 (CoP 14), the CITES Standing Committee approved the export of 60 metric tones of stockpiled ivory from Botswana, Namibia and South Africa to Japan. China was not approved as a destination but the Committee will consider giving such approval at a future meeting. The CoP 14 will consider two proposals that would allow additional sales to go forward.

"The United States must urgently address its flourishing and largely unregulated domestic ivory market that is being supplied by illegal sources of ivory and thus is contributing to elephant poaching," said Teresa Telecky, Ph.D., Director of the Wildlife Trade Program for Humane Society International. "We urge CITES not to approve additional ivory exports given the flourishing illegal ivory trade."

Findings of 2002 HSUS report

The new research confirms and expands upon the results of a 2002 report by The HSUS which first documented the nature of the United States ivory trade. The HSUS found that United States has a large market for worked ivory which is supplied, in part, by illegal import of ivory objects carved in mainland China. U.S. laws and regulations pertaining to ivory trade are confusing and riddled with loopholes that are exploited by those involved in the ivory trade. Ivory sellers offered to provide fraudulent documents to HSUS investigators indicating that elephant ivory was mammoth ivory, that new ivory was old ivory, or that recently imported ivory was imported a long time ago. Findings include:

• The United States allows the legal import of thousands of ivory objects every year.
  
• The United States  seizes hundreds, and sometimes thousands, of ivory objects upon import each year, more ivory seizures annually than any other country.
  
• The United States  has a large market for worked ivory, particularly in New York City and San Francisco; these markets are supplied, at least in part, by illegal import of ivory objects carved in mainland China.
  
• The United States  has a large market for raw ivory tusks that are then carved into a range of items such as model ships, gun and knife handles, and decorations for baskets; sport-hunted trophies from big game hunters are a significant source of supply of these raw ivory tusks.
  
• Thousands of ivory objects are offered for sale daily on eBay, the U.S.-based Internet auction company. This trade is completely unregulated, being conducted by anonymous people in unknown locations. Most people offering ivory for sale on eBay admitted, when asked, that they do not know the origin of the ivory they were offering for sale. Some eBay sellers offered to provide HSUS investigators with fraudulent documents to get around laws.
  
• U.S. laws and regulations pertaining to ivory trade are confusing and riddled with loopholes that are exploited by those involved in the international and domestic ivory trade (see notes below).
  
• Enforcement of laws is made more difficult by the fact that determining whether an ivory object is antique or not (antique ivory over 100 years old may be legally sold in the United States), or whether the ivory is Asian or African elephant (the laws regarding trade in Asian and African ivory are different), or whether the ivory is from the related but extinct mammoth (the trade in mammoth ivory is not regulated at all) is difficult if not impossible even for experts using special equipment.
  
• Ivory sellers frequently offered to provide fraudulent documents to HSUS investigators indicating that elephant ivory was mammoth ivory, that new ivory was old ivory, or that recently imported ivory was imported a long time ago.
  
• Those in the ivory business offered tips about how best to smuggle ivory into the United States including placing small ivory items in their luggage in a certain manner to avoid detection by x-ray machines, and importing ivory through U.S. ports, such as Alaska, where there are few United States Fish and Wildlife Service inspectors.
  
• The United States has not taken the necessary steps to control internal ivory trade that have been recommended by CITES:
  
• The United States  does not register or license all importers, manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers dealing in raw, semi-worked or worked ivory products;
• The United States  does not have recording or inspection procedures to enable appropriate government agencies to monitor the flow of ivory within the United States;
• The United States  does not have compulsory trade controls over raw ivory;
• The United States  does not have a comprehensive and demonstrably effective reporting and enforcement system for sale of worked ivory;
  
• There is no real disincentive to smuggling ivory into the United States. Although large-scale smugglers can be fined and imprisoned, small-scale ivory smugglers are usually only required to forfeit the ivory objects.

U.S. Laws and Regulations Regarding Ivory Trade:

• In the United States, CITES is implemented through the Endangered Species Act.
  
• CITES currently bans the international commercial trade in both Asian and African elephant ivory. However, there are exceptions to this rule:
  
• Generally, any ivory possessed prior to July 1, 1975 is "pre-Convention" and can be traded internationally for commercial purposes.
• Sport-hunted African elephant trophies can be imported but not for commercial purposes (only for personal purposes).
• It is important to note that CITES does not address domestic trade in ivory. CITES has not, for example, taken the extra step, as it has for other species such as tigers, to recommend to its Parties (countries that have signed and ratified the treaty) that they should ban domestic trade in elephant ivory. In the case of tigers, it was recognized that domestic markets fueled demand for tiger parts; the same is true for elephants.
• CITES does not address international trade in mammoth ivory.
  
• Under the ESA, the Asian elephant is listed as "endangered" and the African elephant as "threatened." This means that, in general, it is illegal to import, export or sell Asian elephant ivory on the domestic U.S. market. However, African elephant ivory legally imported to the United States prior to January 20, 1990 (when the 1989 CITES ivory trade ban became effective) may be sold on the domestic market. Furthermore, import, export and sale of ivory that is "antique" (more than 100 years old) are allowed provided that there is documentation showing the age of the ivory. Mammoth ivory is not covered by the ESA.
  
• The other law of relevance is the African Elephant Conservation Act, which banned the importation of raw and worked African elephant ivory on June 9, 1989. The ban does not include sport-hunted elephant trophies.
  
• Finally, some jurisdictions within the United States have laws that can affect the legality of the sale of ivory.