Ivory. The word itself is a hot topic, spawned from thousands of years of use as a raw material, found in goods from all over the globe.
Ivory trade was once commonplace, legal, and booming-almost every major city of trade sold wares made out of the tusks of dead animals. Not only elephants, but the teeth of whales, rhinos, and walruses were fair game in being sought after for use in items such as piano keys, bagpipes, billard balls, crockery, and buttons. As ivory stood alone, the material was valued as a wonderful piece for carving art.
Since 1989, a global ban was put into effect on the killing of any animal for the use of ivory, as across the board all tusk-bearing species were suffering in numbers due to their precious cargo.
As time has passed, the laws remain the same, but one thing has remained in a constant state of growth-demand.
People and their love for ivory keep skyrocketing, so the reserves are being combed illegally by poachers, and numbers of endangered species are continuing to decline.
One group of people far outweigh the rest in terms of want for precious tusks, and that is the Asian population.
In one case, Malaysian authorities seized hundreds of African elephant tusks worth $1.3 million that were being shipped to Cambodia.
A report from Kenya’s Amboseli National Park highlighted the dangers. There had been almost no poaching for 30 years in the park, which lies in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro until a Chinese company was awarded the contract to build a highway nearby two years ago. Amboseli has lost at least four of its “big tuskers” since then.
In Tanzania’s Selous Game Reserve alone, some 50 elephants a month are being killed and their tusks hacked off, according to the Washington-based Environmental Investigation Agency.
“In 23 years of compiling ivory seizure data … this is the worst year ever for large ivory seizures,” said Milliken, elephant and rhino expert for the wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC.
TRAFFIC said Asian crime syndicates are increasingly involved in poaching and the illegal ivory trade across Africa, a trend that coincides with growing Asian investment on the continent.
“The escalation in ivory trade and elephant and rhino killing is being driven by the Asian syndicates that are now firmly enmeshed within African societies,” Milliken said in a telephone interview from his base in Zimbabwe.
“There are more Asians than ever before in the history of the continent, and this is one of the repercussions.”
Just how bad is the demand in today’s standards, in spite of the laws against poaching?
2011 was the worst year on record for the seizure of elephant tusks, ever.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare said recent estimates suggest more than 3,000 elephants have been killed for their ivory in the past year alone.
All statistics are not yet in, and no one can say how much ivory is getting through undetected, But TRAFFIC said it is clear there’s been a “dramatic increase” this year in the number of large-scale seizures —those over 800 kilograms (1,760 pounds) in weight.
There were at least 13 large seizures this year, compared to six in 2010 with a total weight just under 1,000 kilograms (2,200 pounds).
Some of this weight comes from further corruption, where African governments have been known to stockpile confiscated tusks of older kills in order to sell them later via the black market, smuggling the booty into the Asian continent.
As stated previously, however, most of these kills are fresh, newly poached tusks, adding to the death trinkets already hoarded for a later sale.
A bit of sad news to start out the 2012 new year, but these words come with a glimmer of hope.
As a conscious buyer in today’s market, the people govern supply and demand. With the eco-friendly movement happening on a global scale, the consumer is more aware of what they are purchasing, and how they affect the world around them.
Science is providing us with alternatives to ivory that are becoming more alike in texture to the organic material.
Synthetics are replacing what was once considered an ivory-dominant market, piano keys and billiard balls specifically being two items that have undergone huge transformations in order to be manufactured without the use of ivory.
We can all make an impact, and a choice could literally mean the difference between life or death for animals that are hanging in the balance.
If you are over the age of 18 and wish to sign an internet petition to stop the ivory trade, you can go to http://www.bloodyivory.org/petition and fill out the electronic form provided.
Sources:
http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111229/ap_on_re_af/af_africa_elephants