Perhaps the seller of an ivory ferrule should submit the ferrule for testing to determine if it is actually elephant ivory and if it is pre ban or poached in illegally. Would that not solve the problem and clean this up? How many of the cue mfgrs here selling ivory are reporting their sales of it as required by US LAW, does any of you want to weigh in on that? If I buy your ferrule, do you not have the need to prove to me you are not selling me new poached ivory. Do you know?
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HSUS Investigation: Illegal Ivory Trade in Our Own Backyard
HSUS
An eight-month HSUS investigation has uncovered a thriving market for illegally traded elephant ivory in an unexpected place: the United States, a nation that prides itself on the protection of endangered species and vigilance in enforcing the ban on international ivory trade.
A confusing jumble of U.S. laws has allowed ivory markets to thrive in various areas: in San Francisco, in New York, on the Internet, even at craft shows in Virginia. These markets may seem innocuous to the people who still have the need to buy ivory, but they are deadly, no matter how indirectly, to the elephants who actually supply the raw material for these popular trinkets, knickknacks and pieces of jewelry.
History has proven that markets drive the illegal trade in ivory, and the illegal trade in ivory drives the poaching of elephants, including those species protected by the Endangered Species Act. Simply put, the poaching of elephants for the ivory trade continues primarily because domestic markets for ivory still flourish.
The Ivory Ban
It's no secret that elephants are facing extinction because humans value ivory. In 1989, the international trade in ivory from African elephants was banned by the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), the treaty that governs much of the international trade in plants and animals. International trade in Asian elephant ivory had already been banned in 1975. Before the 1989 ban, CITES had tried to regulate and control the ivory trade. It couldn't. By 1989, it was estimated that 90% of ivory in the so-called legal trade was from poached elephants. It was clear that a legal ivory trade was a death sentence to elephants. Individual nations passed laws to implement that ban.
The Legal Trade
In the United States, African and Asian elephants are protected by the Endangered Species Act and the Asian and African Elephant Conservation Acts. But each year the U.S. government allows the legal import of thousands of elephant ivory objects, mostly in the form of carvings, but also as jewelry, unworked pieces, piano keys, hunting trophies, and individual tusks. Legally imported ivory was valued at an average of $164.8 million per year between 1997–2001.
Why does the ivory trade flourish in the United States? One reason is that U.S. ivory trade laws are confusing and riddled with loopholes. You may import elephant ivory classified as "antique" (more than 100 years in age) if you can produce documentation proving the ivory's age.
You may import elephant ivory legally acquired before February 4, 1977. You may sell domestically any African elephant ivory legally acquired and imported before June 1989. You may import ivory from an African elephant in the form of a hunting trophy, but (as of 1990) you are not allowed then to sell the ivory. Dealers who sell ivory domestically do not have to register, nor must they report sales. Even the Office of Law Enforcement of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), the agency charged with intercepting illegally imported ivory, agrees that the law regarding hunting trophies—hundreds of which are imported each year—is unclear
A Deadly Trade: Five South African Nations Bid to Sell Ivory
Kenya Wildlife Service
Confirming the worst fears of many animal protectionists, greed has won out over good judgment in the southern African nations of Botswana, Namibia, South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. These nations recently made it clear to the international community that they value the money from the ivory trade more than they value the survival of already dwindling populations of elephants.
The the five nations have submitted proposals to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), asking to reduce international protections given to elephants within their borders and to trade internationally in stockpiled ivory. If the proposals are approved at the CITES meeting in November in Chile, elephant poaching could increase.
The five nations are requesting permission to sell off their stockpiled ivory. They want to export a total of 87 metric tons of ivory at first, representing about 11,000 dead elephants. In addition, they want to export an additional 13 metric tons annually, equaling an additional 1,500 dead elephants each year. Moreover, they want to be able to export an unlimited number of tourist souvenirs each year.
Confusing Consumers and Encouraging Poachers
Experts see no good coming from approving these proposals. "If the proposals are approved, it will make the an already bad situation worse by confusing consumers as to the legality of ivory and by feeding the demand for ivory," says Dr. Teresa Telecky, director of The HSUS's Wildlife Trade Program. "As we've already seen, an increased demand for ivory will, in turn, spur an increase in elephant poaching in African and Asian countries that are ill-equipped to fend off poachers."
Catastrophe
Any legal international trade in ivory could result in the kind of catastrophe seen before the 1989 ivory ban. Prior to 1989, all African elephant populations were listed on CITES Appendix II, which allowed a regulated trade. The ivory trade regulation scheme failed. At that time, over 90% of ivory in trade was from poached elephants. "If we've come to understand one thing, it's that international trade in ivory cannot be controlled, and that allowing any international trade, even on a one-time basis, has disastrous results for elephants," says Dr. Telecky.
To ban the trade in ivory, the Parties to CITES placed all elephants—African and Asian—on Appendix I. In 1997, CITES agreed to move the elephant populations of Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe back to Appendix II and to allow a one-time export of their stockpiles to Japan, which took place in 1999. Inspired by this turn of events, South Africa fought (and won) to have its elephants downlisted at the 2000 CITES meeting. But opposition from the majority of African countries put the lid on any further ivory trade.
As soon as the first downlisting was allowed, both poaching and illegal trade in ivory surged, though neither has yet reached pre-ban levels. Between January 1, 2000, and May 21, 2002, more than 5.9 tonnes of ivory, 2,542 tusks, and 14,648 pieces of ivory have been seized worldwide—representing more than 2,000 dead elephants. During the same period, a minimum of 965 African elephants and 39 Asian elephants have been poached and their ivory tusks removed. Furthermore, unconfirmed reports indicate that as many 200 elephants were killed in the Central African Republic in 2001.
It isn't only the elephant populations with decreased CITES protection that are targeted by poachers. Kenya's and India's elephants are listed in Appendix I, but they face threats from poaching whenever restrictions on the sale of ivory are eased. "Poachers in many countries increase activity whenever CITES ivory trade proposals are announced in order to stockpile ivory in anticipation that the international ivory trade will soon resume," Dr. Telecky says.
This means that nations that shortsightedly choose to make money off the corpses of their elephants jeopardize the success of those nations that choose to profit from live elephants. The money at stake for those nations in the latter category is considerable: In 1989, Kenya's elephants were worth an estimated $25 million in annual tourism revenue. Kenya and India, which have kept their elephants on Appendix I, report high elephant poaching levels in recent years. They have submitted a joint proposal for the CITES meeting that would return all African elephant populations to Appendix I.
A Recent Investigation
Ivory markets are flourishing. A recent investigation of South and Southeast Asian ivory markets, by researchers Esmond Martin and Dan Stiles for Save the Elephants, found more than 105,000 ivory items for sale in 521 retail shops in the 17 towns and cities in eight countries surveyed. Tourists and business travelers—including those from Europe, the United States, and Asia—are the main customers. Over 85% of the items on sale were jewelry, which is relatively cheap and easy to smuggle. Ivory products sold in Asian markets are made from the ivory of both Asian and African elephants.
What You Can Do
The proposals will be debated and voted on at the 12th meeting of CITES in Santiago, Chile from November 3–5, 2002. Until the final vote, it is possible to convince Botswana, Namibia South Africa, Zambia, and Zimbabwe to withdraw their proposals.
