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| Mother and calf.© U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service |
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by Natalie Ragan
On July 15, the Standing Committee of the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) approved China as a buyer of African elephant ivory from a “one-off” sale. This means that China is eligible to bid on stockpiles of 108 tons of ivory held by Botswana, Namibia, South Africa and Zimbabwe. The ivory was collected from elephants who died of natural causes or were killed in culls. While the money raised from the sale will go toward conservation projects, an import of new ivory into China could have serious consequences.
A Motive for Slaughter
In 1989, CITES agreed to a ban on international trade of African elephant ivory after determining that wild populations of elephants were being decimated by poaching for their tusks. Ivory is used for jewelry, ornamental carving and art objects. Due to the demand for ivory, the population of African elephants plummeted from approximately 1.2 million to about 600,000 between 1979 and 1989. Entire elephant families were gunned down by poachers, their ivory funneled into the legal and regulated trade. Despite the continued threats to elephants from illegal ivory trade, CITES has agreed twice to allow some southern African countries to sell ivory to certain buying countries.
The Standing Committee approved China based its judgment that China had put sufficient measures in place to regulate ivory sales and crack down on the illegal domestic trade. But the export, which could happen within months, could fuel the illegal ivory trade.
Japanese Precedent
China joins another approved buyer in its plans to import ivory: Japan. In 1999, an experimental one-off sale was granted to Japan, when CITES allowed the export of 49 metric tons of ivory from Botswana, Namibia and Zimbabwe to Japan, in a single shipment. In the following years, the amount of illegal ivory seized worldwide increased markedly. Nevertheless, Japan was given permission again to import ivory in 2007 and will be bidding against China on the new ivory stocks from Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, and Zimbabwe. According to CITES, both China and Japan have promised to closely monitor their domestic markets to ensure that ivory imports will not fuel illegal trade.
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Next victims?© Teresa Telecky/HSI |
A Slippery Slope
Even with close monitoring, sales of legal ivory could stimulate demand and make it easier for illegal ivory to be laundered into the legal market. From October 2004 to April 2007, more than 41 metric tons of elephant ivory were seized worldwide, an amount that roughly translates into 20,000 elephants poached annually to supply illegal ivory markets. China is the number one destination for illegal ivory. With illegal ivory trade and elephant poaching still booming, it is irresponsible of the CITES Standing Committee to allow this export to take place.
This one-off sale decision also sends the wrong signal to breeders of endangered species in China. According to Dr. Peter Li of the University of Houston, this decision could encourage China’s tiger farms to continue their breeding operations and stockpiling tiger carcasses in hopes that some day they will be allowed to export them. Currently, China’s two biggest tiger farms hold some 300 tiger bodies in their freezers. “They hope that the Chinese government will lift the trade ban on tigers so that they can sell the dead tigers to pharmaceutical companies,” commented Dr. Li. “This CITES decision is no doubt an encouraging development to the tiger breeders in China.”
The ivory trade must end permanently and without exception in order to put these troubling issues to rest.
