Abstract
Despite the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) 1989 ban on trading ivory internationally, poaching for ivory has intensified in both Africa and Asia. Populations of African elephant (Loxodonta spp.) and Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) have declined drastically. In response to the rapid decline, the USA and some other CITES countries have banned commercial ivory trading in ivory. The country with the highest ivory consumption, the People’s Republic of China, recently shut down its legal ivory trade at the end of 2017. Nepal has turned the tide of elephant poaching, with no loss of elephants in the last 4 years. This remarkable success has been achieved by imposing a total ban on trade in ivory, supported by strict national legislation that includes significant fines and incarceration for poachers, traders and officials. Elsewhere, elephant poaching continues to increase despite the numerous disincentives already in place. Thus, we propose a global ban on trade in ivory as the only realistic solution to the current unsustainable rate of loss of elephants. The ban should be extended to trade in all products from endangered wildlife.
References
Acharya KP, Paudel PK, Neupane PR, Köhl M (2016) Human-wildlife conflicts in Nepal: patterns of human fatalities and injuries caused by large mammals. PLoS ONE 11(9):e0161717
Actman J (2016) Woolly mammoth ivory is legal, and that’s a problem for elephants. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/08/wildlife-woolly-mammoth-ivory-trade-legal-china-african-elephant-poaching/
Ahluwalia H (2015) Human-elephant conflict killed 391 people in 2014–15. http://www.livemint.com/Politics/z0CH6EBMWWgZf95EanYOkI/Humanelephant-conflict-killed-391-people-in-201415.html
Aryal A, Acharya KP, Shrestha UB, Dhakal M, Raubenhiemer D, Wright W (2017) Global lessons from successful rhinoceros conservation in Nepal. Conserv. Biol. https://doi.org/10.1111/cobi.12894/full
Bennett EL (2015) Legal ivory trade in a corrupt world and its impact on African elephant populations. Conserv Biol 29(1):54–60
Biggs D (2016) Elephant poaching: track the impact of Kenya’s ivory burn. Nature 534(7606):179
Biggs D, Cooney R, Roe D, Dublin HT, Allan JR, Challender DWS, Skinner D (2017) Developing a theory of change for a community-based response to illegal wildlife trade. Conserv Biol 31(1):5–12
Bond J (2015) Making sense of human–elephant conflict in Laikipia County, Kenya. Soc Nat Res 28(3):312–327
Breuer T, Maisels F, Fishlock V (2016) The consequences of poaching and anthropogenic change for forest elephants. Conserv Biol 30(5):1019–1026
Buddhachat K, Brown JL, Thitaram C, Klinhom S, Nganvongpanit K (2017) Distinguishing real from fake ivory products by elemental analyses: a Bayesian hybrid classification method. Forensic Sci Int 272:142–149
Cerling TE, Barnette JE, Chesson LA, Douglas-Hamilton I, Gobush KS, Uno KT, Wasser SK, Xu X (2016) Radiocarbon dating of seized ivory confirms rapid decline in African elephant populations and provides insight into illegal trade. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 113(47):13330–13335
Challender DSW, MacMillan DC (2014) Poaching is more than an enforcement problem. Conserv Lett 7(5):484–494. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12082
Chase MJ, Schlossberg S, Griffin CR, Bouché PJC, Djene SW, Elkan PW, Ferreira S, Grossman F, Kohi EM, Landen K, Omondi P, Peltier A, Jeanetta Selier SA, Sutcliffe R (2016) Continent-wide survey reveals massive decline in African savannah elephants. PeerJ. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2354
Chen F (2015) Poachers and snobs: demand for rarity and the effects of antipoaching policies. Conserv Lett 9(1):65–69. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12181
Choudhury A, Lahiri Choudhury DK, Desai A, Duckworth JW, Easa PS, Johnsingh AJT, Fernando P, Hedges S, Gunawardena M, Kurt F, Karanth U, Lister A, Menon V, Riddle H, Rübel A, Wikramanayake E, IUCN SSC Asian Elephant Specialist Group (2008). Elephas maximus. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2008: e.T7140A12828813
Collins A, Cox C, Pamment N (2017) Culture, conservation and crime: regulating ivory markets for antiques and crafts. Ecol Econ 135:186–194
Connor N (2017) Booming trade in mammoth ivory fuels fears over elephants. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/05/02/booming-trade-mammoth-ivory-fuels-fears-elephants/
Cooney R, Roe D, Dublin H, Phelps J, Wilkie D, Keane A, Travers H, Skinner D, Challender DWS, Allan JR, Biggs D (2016) From poachers to protectors: engaging local communities in solutions to illegal wildlife trade. Conserv Lett. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12294
Cressey D (2013) Nations fight back on ivory. Nature 503(7477):452
Cruise A (2017) Good news for elephants: China’s legal ivory trade is ‘dying’ as prices fall. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/mar/30/chinas-legal-ivory-trade-is-dying-as-prices-fall
Dasgupta S (2017) Nepal burns more than 4000 confiscated wildlife parts. https://news.mongabay.com/2017/05/nepal-burns-more-than-4000-confiscated-wildlife-parts/
De Flamingh A (2013) Genetic structure of the savannah elephant population (Loxodonta africana (Blumenbach 1797)) in the Kavango-Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, Doctoral Dissertation, University of Pretoria
Duffy R (2014) Waging a war to save biodiversity: The rise of militarized conservation. Int Aff 90(4):819–834
Duffy R (2016) War by conservation. Geoforum 69:238–248
Gao Y, Clark SG (2014) Elephant ivory trade in China: trends and drivers. Biol Conserv 180:23–30
García-Díaz P, Ross JV, Woolnough AP, Cassey P (2016) the illegal wildlife trade is a likely source of alien species. Conserv Lett. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12301
Gettleman J (2016) Closing China’s ivory market: will it save elephants? https://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/31/world/africa/africa-ivory-china.html?_r=0
Global Forest Watch (2017) Global land cover interactive map. http://www.globalforestwatch.org/
Goldenberg S (2016) US adopts near total ban on commercial ivory trade. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/02/us-adopts-near-total-ban-on-commercial-ivory-trade
Grundy T (2017) Chinese buyers fuelling ivory surge in Laos, conservation group says. https://www.hongkongfp.com/2017/09/29/chinese-buyers-fuelling-ivory-surge-laos-conservation-group-says/
Harrison JR, Roberts DL, Hernandez-Castro J (2016) Assessing the extent and nature of wildlife trade on the dark web. Conserv Biol 30(4):900–904
Harvey R (2016) Risks and fallacies associated with promoting a legalized trade in ivory. Politikon 43(2):215–229
Hoare R (2015) Lessons from 20 years of human–elephant conflict mitigation in Africa. Hum Dimens Wildl 20(4):289–295
Hsiang S, Sekar N (2016) Does legalization reduce black market activity? Evidence from global ivory experiment and elephant poaching data. National Bureau of Economic Research Working Paper No. 22314. https://doi.org/10.3386/w22314
Huang S, Weng Q (2014) China’s ivory market: the elephant in the room. Science 343(6171):611
Ihwagi FW, Wang T, Wittemyer G, Skidmore AK, Toxopeus AG, Ngene S, King J, Worden J, Omondi P, Douglas-Hamilton I (2015) Using poaching levels and elephant distribution to assess the conservation efficacy of private, communal and government land in northern Kenya. PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0139079
iWorry (2017) One elephant is killed every 15 minutes for its ivory. The David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. http://iworry.org/
Jackson T (2013) Ivory apocalypse. Africa Geographic, April 2013
Kideghesho JR (2016) The Elephant poaching crisis in tanzania: a need to reverse the trend and the way forward. Trop Conserv Sci 9(1):369–388
Kikuchi D (2016) Japan gets reprieve in international effort to clamp down on ivory trade. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2016/10/03/national/cites-calls-nations-end-legal-ivory-trade-bid-end-poaching/#.WSon5v6wdD8
Kline K (2017) 520 elephants have new, safer homes thanks to a record relocation effort. https://500elephants.org/about/
Lee E-J, Lee Y-H, Moon S-H, Kim N-Y, Kim S-H, Yang M-S, Choi D-H, Han M-S (2013) The identification of elephant ivory evidence of illegal trade with mitochondrial cytochrome b gene and hypervariable D-loop region. J Forensic Leg Med 20(3):174–178
Lewis D (2017) China has banned the ivory trade. http://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/china-has-banned-ivory-trade-180961614/
Lopes AA (2015) Organized crimes against nature: Elephants in Southern Africa. Nat Res Model 28(1):86–107
Lotter W, Clarke K (2014) Community involvement and joint operations aid effective anti-poaching in Tanzania. Parks 20(1):19–28
Lusseau D, Lee PC (2016) Can we sustainably harvest ivory? Curr Biol 26(21):2951–2956
Macmillan D (2015) Why banning the mammoth ivory trade would be a huge mistake. The conservation. http://theconversation.com/why-banning-the-mammoth-ivory-trade-would-be-a-huge-mistake-46632
Maisels F, Strindberg S, Blake S, Wittemyer G, Hart J et al (2013) Devastating decline of forest elephants in Central Africa. PLoS ONE 8(3):e59469. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0059469
Martin E (2006) Are we winning the case for ivory substitutes in China? Pachyderm 40:89–101
Martin E, Martin C, Vigne L (2013) The decline in carving African and Asian elephant tusks in Nepal and the decrease in ivory items for retail sale in Kathmandu. Pachyderm 54:52–58
Mathiesen K (2016) Elephants on the path to extinction—the facts. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/aug/12/elephants-on-the-path-to-extinction-the-facts
Moodley Y, Russo IRM, Dalton DL, Kotzé A, Muya S, Haubensak P, Dicks K (2017) Extinctions, genetic erosion and conservation options for the black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis). Sci Rep 7:41417
Naidoo R, Fisher B, Manica A, Balmford A (2016) Estimating economic losses to tourism in Africa from the illegal killing of elephants. Nat Commun. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13379
Pant G, Dhakal M, Pradhan NMB, Leverington F, Hockings M (2016) Nature and extent of human–elephant Elephas maximus conflict in central Nepal. Oryx 50(4):724–731
Peh KSH (2013) Seize diplomats smuggling ivory. Nature 500(7462):276
Poulsen JR, Koerner SE, Moore S, Medjibe VP, Blake S, Clark CJ, Akou ME, Fay M, Meier A, Okouyi J, Rosin C, White LJT (2017) Poaching empties critical Central African wilderness of forest elephants. Curr Biol 27(4):R134–R135
Pradhan NBM, Christy Williams A, Dhakal M (2011) Current status of Asian Elephants in Nepal. Gajah 35:87–92
Rashidi P, Wang T, Skidmore A, Mehdipoor H, Darvishzadeh R, Ngene S, Vrieling A, Toxopeus AG (2016) Elephant poaching risk assessed using spatial and non-spatial Bayesian models. Ecol Model 338:60–68
Reuter P, O’Regan D (2017) Smuggling wildlife in the Americas: scale, methods, and links to other organised crimes. Global Crime 18(2):77–99
Robson AS, Trimble MJ, Purdon A, Young-Overton KD, Pimm SL, Van Aarde RJ (2017) Savanna elephant numbers are only a quarter of their expected values. PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0175942
Sas-Rolfes M, Moyle B, Stiles D (2014) The complex policy issue of elephant ivory stockpile management. Pachyderm 55:62–77
Selier S-AJ, Slotow R, Di Minin E (2016) The influence of socioeconomic factors on the densities of high-value cross-border species, the African elephant. PeerJ. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2581
Shurkin J (2016) Ivory From long-dead mammoths might slow elephant poaching. https://www.insidescience.org/news/ivory-long-dead-mammoths-might-slow-elephant-poaching
Sims ME, Baker BW, Hoesch RM (2011) Tusk or bone? An example of Ivory substitute in the wildlife trade. Ethnobiol Lett. https://doi.org/10.14237/ebl.2.2011.27
TRAFFIC (2016) China to ban domestic ivory trade by end of 2017 in huge boost for Africa’s elephants. http://www.traffic.org/home/2016/12/31/china-to-ban-domestic-ivory-trade-by-end-of-2017-in-huge-boo.html?printerFriendly=true
Underwood FM, Burn RW, Milliken T (2013) Dissecting the illegal ivory trade: an analysis of ivory seizures data. PLoS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0076539
United Nations (2015) World population prospect. https://esa.un.org/unpd/wpp/Publications/Files/World_Population_2015_Wallchart.pdf
Wasser SK, Brown L, Mailand C, Mondol S, Clark W, Laurie C, Weir BS (2015) Genetic assignment of large seizures of elephant ivory reveals Africa’s major poaching hotspots. Science 349(6243):84–87
White N (2014) The “White gold of Jihad”: violence, legitimisation and contestation in anti-poaching strategies. J Political Ecol 21(1):452–474
Wittemyer G, Northrup JM, Blanc J, Douglas-Hamilton I, Ormundi P, Burnham KP (2014) Illegal killing for ivory drives global decline in African elephants. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 111:13117–13121
Yu Y, Wetzler A, Yang X, Tang R, Zhang L (2016) Significant and timely ivory trade restrictions in both china and the United States are critical to save elephants. Conserv Lett. https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12279
Yumnam B, Jhala YV, Qureshi Q, Maldonado JE, Gopal R, Saini S, Fleischer RC (2014) Prioritizing tiger conservation through landscape genetics and habitat linkages. PLoS ONE 9(11):e111207
Zhang L (2015) China must act decisively to eradicate the ivory trade. Nature 527(7577):135
Zhou Z-M (2014) China: synthetic ivory fails to stop illegal trade. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/50704
Acknowledgements
We would like to dedicate this paper to Wayne Lotter and all the other men and women who have given their lives to serve and protect elephants and other wildlife around the world. We would like to thank to KNCF, Japan for their financial support to work in elephant in Nepal.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by David Hawksworth.
This article belongs to the Topical Collection: Biodiversity exploitation and use.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Aryal, A., Morley, C.G. & McLean, I.G. Conserving elephants depend on a total ban of ivory trade globally. Biodivers Conserv 27, 2767–2775 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-018-1534-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10531-018-1534-x